Clean Energy LLC: solving global warming is possible--and profitable.

• Author: Branson, Richard
• Position: Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy - Book review

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Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy by Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks Island Press, 387 pp.

The debate over global warming has changed. Not so long ago, the point of contention was the science. Some feared that adding billions of tons of pollution to the atmosphere was to flirt with environmental disaster, while others advised that it was no problem at all, and maybe even good for the earth. In the face of mounting scientific evidence, however, that latter group has dwindled to a tiny (if still vocal) fringe.

Now that we have largely accepted that the problem of global warming exists, our governments argue about what, if anything, can be done about it. Here we have a classic fight among the dour pessimists and the exuberant optimists.

The pessimists contend that building an energy economy that can tame global warming is impossible for all sorts of reasons: cost, technology, big government, and jobs. For them, a world without polluting fossil fuels would be a cold and dark place. No doubt they are right that global warming is difficult to solve, but they are surely wrong to adopt a do-nothing approach.

The optimists, on the other hand, believe the problem is indeed solvable. If you want to hear from the optimists, pick up a copy of Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy, written by Jay Inslee, a committed congressman from Washington State, and Bracken Hendricks, an experienced advocate for energy reform. With enough sunshine to fire a field of solar panels, these two show us why we should not listen to the naysayers.

Count me among the optimists.

My passion in life comes from setting huge, apparently unachievable challenges and then doing whatever it takes to surmount them. When my company, Virgin, was told that it could not create a profitable transatlantic airline from scratch, I was motivated to get our service up and running in just six months--and we haven't looked back since.

This is how the authors of Apollo's Fire see the issue of global warming--that it is challenging us to create a better future. And they named their book after the ultimate Mission Impossible: President Kennedy's challenge, in 1961, to put a man on the moon in just nine years, and before the Russians.

The book is smart, but it is no dull policy treatise. It is for the business leader, the investor, and the citizen. It is the eye-opening story of how we can revolutionize the ways we produce and consume...