Product Description

Global climate change?

We can stop it.

Addiction to oil?We can replace it.

Technological innovation?

We can create it.

But we can't wait twenty, thirty, or fifty years.

Bill Richardson launched his campaign for the presidency to remind the American people--and their representatives in Washington--that we know how to get things done. We need to end our dependence on oil, and we need to do it yesterday.

This isn't something that's going to happen only in Washington, or Detroit, or even Hollywood or Tokyo. It's going to take all of us, a united United States. We have the opportunity, perhaps for only a few years, to make dramatic but beneficial changes in the way we run America.

As Leading by Example makes clear, if we succeed, with strong presidential leadership and the support of the American people, we will restore America's role in the world--a source of moral leadership, a source of astonishing technology, and a source of optimism to be admired.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #901118 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470186374
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Coinciding with Governor Richardson's campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for president, his proposals for reducing our dependence on foreign oil is substantial, despite their transparent vote-getting tenor. Drawing on his 15 years in the U.S. Congress, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and as energy secretary in the Clinton administration, as well as his New Mexico governorship, Richardson provides useful insights into the resistance of powerful entities such as the automobile industry, coal industry and, of course, the oil industry to alternative energy sources. Writing in a folksy style, with personal anecdotes that leaven his wonkishness, Richardson is not shy about trumpeting the breadth and depth of his experience; at times he's almost insufferable, but his battles with those who care more about quick profit than about clean air, clean water and energy-related national security suggest he has earned the right to say, I told you so. Richardson is critical of Republicans, including George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, yet manages to lift portions of the book above partisan politics. Knowing that Congress will often be inhibited by powerful special interests, Richardson would use the bully pulpit of the White House to initiate change, hoping, for example, that calling for automakers to produce plug-in electric cars will drive private markets to do right by the environment. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"In his writing, he clearly demonstrates his knowledge of and familiarity with energy politics." (The Boston Globe, January 6, 2008)

"In a book that is easy to read for people not well versed with energy issues, his laid-back yet direct personality shines through the book..." (MSNBC.com, November 16, 2007)

Coinciding with Governor Richardson's campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for president, his proposals for reducing our dependence on foreign oil is substantial, despite their transparent vote-getting tenor. Drawing on his 15 years in the U.S. Congress, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and as energy secretary in the Clinton administration, as well as his New Mexico governorship, Richardson provides useful insights into the resistance of powerful entities such as the automobile industry, coal industry and, of course, the oil industry to alternative energy sources. Writing in a folksy style, with personal anecdotes that leaven his wonkishness, Richardson is not shy about trumpeting the breadth and depth of his experience; at times he's almost insufferable, but his battles with those who care more about quick profit than about clean air, clean water and energy-related national security suggest he has earned the right to say, "I told you so." Richardson is critical of Republicans, including George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, yet manages to lift portions of the book above partisan politics. Knowing that Congress will often be inhibited by powerful special interests, Richardson would use the bully pulpit of the White House to initiate change, hoping, for example, that calling for automakers to produce plug-in electric cars will drive private markets to do right by the environment. (Nov.) (Publishers Weekly, September 3, 2007)

From the Inside Flap

America is just one crisis away from an energy emergency that will completely disrupt daily life, sharply increase energy prices, and perhaps even lead to a military intervention in world energy markets. Yet, as households and businesses suffer the impacts of our nation's worsening oil addiction, and as the world's atmosphere clogs with carbon pollution, there is just one bold, integrated, comprehensive energy program on the table. This is it.

In Leading by Example, Governor Richardson offers a positive, practical vision of the future that will eliminate our nation's crippling dependence on foreign oil, while rapidly cutting our climate-changing emissions. The program relies on new technologies and domestic energy sources, from renewables to efficiency and plug-in cars, that will grow the American economy while protecting our national security and restoring an oil-free foreign policy. Bill Richardson sees a thriving nation, invigorated by new opportunities, free from the constant threat of interrupted oil supplies, and finding innovative solutions for slowing and reversing global climate change. America will once again lead the world toward peace and prosperity. But to achieve these changes, America must move quickly.

Calling on every man, woman, and child in the United States to take part in an ambitious nationwide campaign to achieve energy independence in the very near future, Richardson lays out the details of a plan designed to:

• Cut oil dependence 50 percent by 2020, including an 80 percent reduction in oil imports

• Reduce carbon emissions 20 to 30 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050

• Quickly bring new automotive technologies to market

• Develop, manufacture, and export energy-saving technologies

• Decrease the need for American forces to defend world oil supplies

• Meet energy demand much more efficiently across the economy

• Develop, manufacture, and export energy-saving technologies

• Restore America's leadership role in the world, from energy to climate to world peace and security

Governor Richardson knows that the American people are ready for change, eager to play their part, and impatient for leadership that addresses the energy-environment-security nexus as a whole. In Leading by Example, he sets the standard for a fully developed, well-considered energy plan—one that demands committed presidential leadership and deserves the support of the American people.

Customer Reviews

The Horizon Beyond An Inconvenient Truth
Can you believe this? Bill Richardson has written a truly exciting book. This is the book we've been waiting for - the one that takes us from the stage of awareness that Al Gore produced two years ago to the society that takes control of destiny and begins to live in global wealth, health and security.

Richardson begins by describing the existing current lag in leadership. America needs to reposition its image in the spirit that it has long held. Sacrifice and inspiration are essential to that image. With the image and presence of a compassionate America, nations will succeed in lifting themselves from tyranny, depression, illness and tragedy. We cannot afford to confuse our image as a people - that image that produces inspiration through compassion - with one that will overrun other nations to satisfy an addiction for oil.

Richardson will use the power of the markets to drive America to destiny. In the words of Richardson: "The power of markets is immense. That is one of the great lessons - besides democracy and human rights - that the United States has taught the world over the past two centuries. The market has the power not only to create individual prosperity and growth, as conceived by the great first-ever modern economist, Adam Smith, but also to achieve big things for society as a whole. If we manage the carbon markets sensibly, with strict limits, smart incentives, and practical oversight - as we manage the monetary supply via the Federal Reserve - we can see a market-based economy that actually works toward REDUCING pollution."

Along with markets, the government must play a role - one that will provide sophisticated, integrated, and compassionate policies. The goal of government is to keep the dynamic of a proper functioning market going. Government assists with competition and choice while representing all of the true interests of the citizens. Richardson describes strategies of jawboning, holding to principles, standing to commitments, and using the bully pulpit. Federal government will do well to learn from states and cities. A set of federal Climate Challenge block grants that reward innovation would be part of Richardson's program. Other goals adopted in New Mexico include energy efficiency, green building, renewable energy, green transportation, renewable fuels, incentives, and overarching climate change action.

Richardson has been described as the Democratic Libertarian. Much of what Richardson describes is a reformation and restoration of capitalist principles for a new century. Says Richardson, "All goods cost something to make, and it matters what gets calculated in the cost, whether it's raw materials, human rights, defending oil transportation routes, or damage to the environment that needs to be cleaned up. Until all those things are factored in, you don't really have the true cost." That makes sense to me. True Libertarian values are grounded in wise capitalist principles. However, until we've become free from cynicism, that is, until we've become perceptive enough to account for all values in the face of other prices, we cannot make honest dealings that are consistent with the true spirit of our capitalist enterprises. It's no wonder that Lee Iacocca likes this guy. Iacocca knows leadership, and Richardson brings it.

The impetus for change
NM Governor Bill Richardson, having been US Secretary of Energy, Congressman, and UN Ambassador, shows in this excellent read that he has not only the experience to be credible on this critical issue, but also that he is ready to bring the change we so desperately need in our energy and environmental policy. His narrative, carefully thought through but easy to follow, has an inspiring quality. Governor Richardson is not an ideologue; he is a pragmatic idealist. My favorite President, Teddy Roosevelt, once said, "Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground," and Richardson has certainly done that.

We must do as much as we can as quickly as we can without devastating our economy (without a strong economy, it's hard to get anything else done, including energy initiatives), and it's clear to me that Bill Richardson knows how to do it and is committed to making it happen.

A plan full of hope
I work for the publisher and read this book last year when it came out. Richardson puts forth a strong, yet plausible plan for reducing America's dependency on oil, instead developing new energy sources which we can then export to the rest of the world as well.

Richardson has a great deal of foreign policy experience, and would have been a fine choice for Secretary of State. But I am glad to have him at Commerce, too. His vision, as articulated in this book, will transform the American energy industry and the American economy in the next ten years, and inspire the rest of the world to follow. He compares it to the space race. I'd like to have that kind of strength and pride in America again.