Six more Democratic governors—Rod Blagojevich (IL), Jim Doyle (WI), Christine Gregoire (WA), Ted Kulongoski (OR), Janet Napolitano (AZ), and Brian Schweitzer (MT)—have joined with three Democratic governors who were already on board—Jennifer Granholm (MI), Ed Rendel (PA), and Bill Richardson (NM)—in embracing the technoprogressive Apollo Alliance’s excellent goal of achieving sustainable American energy independence within a decade’s time. [Nation]
As The Nation’s Editor, Katrina vanden Heuvel points out in her blog, the Apollo Alliance
calls for a national investment of $300 billion over the course of ten years to build the basic production and distribution infrastructure needed for a cleaner energy economy. Less than the estimated costs of the Iraq war (after just two years), the investment would pay for itself many times over. Direct economic benefits would include annual energy savings and improvements in our trade balance of about $200 billion; the creation of some 3 million permanent new jobs; and an added $1 trillion in GDP over ten years.
Given the enormous opportunities for energy savings in cities and renewable energy production in rural areas, Apollo would distribute savings and jobs to two distressed parts of our population. It would also give a kick to US manufacturing, giving companies a good reason to invest in the surging world market for clean energy products and technology. It makes both environmental and economic sense....
Apollo has already gained the endorsement of virtually the entire labor movement (including both warring factions at the AFL-CIO), most major environmental groups, a slew of civil rights and community organizations (both urban and rural), and a growing number of business leaders. Now, with more governors coming on board, it may be reaching a critical mass in tipping state legislation, if not yet federal, toward a clean energy future.
I’ve long been a fan of Apollo, and am thrilled to see some good news on the technoprogressive front.
Technoprogressivism is what happens when progressives take up new tools and new knowledge and work together through collaboration, social struggle, and legitimate democratic, deliberative, and accountable processes to direct and regulate these tools to serve human needs, human rights, and human emancipation.
Progress is social struggle, not spontaneous order. Every tool, like every truth, is a shape-shifter. We will use the Master’s Tools to dismantle the Master’s House. For when we take up his tools for our own they are no longer the Master’s tools. They are new tools for a New House. They are new pens for new poems.
Dale Carrico Ph.D. was a fellow of the IEET from 2004 to 2008 and is a lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California at Berkeley.
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