Powering Forward: What Everyone Should Know About America’s Energy Revolution

A historic energy revolution is underway in the United States. Wind, sunlight, and other sustainable resources are now the fastest growing sources of energy in the U.S. and worldwide. American families are installing power plants on their roofs and entire communities are switching to 100 percent renewable energy. The urgent need to prevent climate change is causing people around the planet to question their reliance on carbon-intensive oil, coal, and natural gas. Author Bill Ritter, Jr., the 41st governor of Colorado and one of America’s key thought leaders on this topic, discusses the forces behind the energy revolution, the new ways we must think about energy, and the future of fossil and renewable fuels. It is an essential read for any who wants to understand one of history’s biggest challenges to peace, prosperity, and security in the United States. Written in partnership with the Center for a New Energy Economy.

Click here to watch Bill Ritter’s video interview about his book.

Click here to listen to the energy podcast discussion with Bill Ritter and CNEE’s Senior Policy Advisors.

Click here to order book from Amazon for $17.95 (paperback)

You can order online and have the option to have the book mailed directly to you or pick up at your local bookstore.  Click here.

Praise for Bill Ritter’s book Powering Forward:

Click here to read Adam Koniuszewski’s solutions for a sustainable future full book review.  “Bill Ritter Jr. knows a thing or two about the energy revolution and the sun that is setting on the fossil fuel industry. As Governor of Colorado, he turned the State into a leader in clean energy and then launched the Center for the New Energy Economy (CNEE) to help other states accelerate their transition to a clean-energy future.”

“Powering Forward is the best, most thorough and sensible analysis of the energy-climate policy issues I’ve seen in recent years.”– David Orr, Counselor to the President, Oberlin College

“Every elected official in the United States should read this book.  It is the owner’s manual to a new American century and clean energy economy.” – Robert C. Sisson, Executive Director, ConservAmerica

“Governor Ritter shows how success will require rethinking not only our energy policies but also our politics.”   — Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute

“This book should become a standard text in high school and college political sciences classes across our nation.”– Gary Hart, United States Senator, Colorado (Ret.)

“With his passionate commitment to revolutionary energy changes, Governor Ritter shows us the way forward…”– Former US Senator Mark Udall

“Bill Ritter tells us how to root the emerging renewable energy economy in ethics, vision, truth-telling and compassion.”– Hunter Lovins, founder/president of Natural Capitalism Solutions

“This book takes us to the ground level and gives us a much-needed guide to a real and exciting clean energy future.”– Maggie fox, former CEO of the Climate Reality Project and former Deputy Executive Director of the Sierra Club

“Ritter writes persuasively that while Congress seems paralyzed, the United States can and should lead the world, and he calls for a redistribution of political power back to the voters to ensure that this happens…Ritter tells it like it is, showing what the challenges are, where we have failed, and why.”– Kirkus Reviews

Book Overview:

A historic energy revolution is underway in the United States. Wind, sunlight, and other sustainable resources are now the fastest growing sources of energy in the U.S. and worldwide. The energy revolution is essential to addressing global climate change, the most serious challenge in our history. But vested interests in the carbon economy are fighting back and some Americans still do not accept that climate change is real.

Author Bill Ritter Jr., the 41st governor of Colorado and one of America’s key leaders in the clean energy revolution, writes that “a global crisis is looming on the horizon and the United States not only can but must take the lead in addressing it.” He describes how we must begin to think like revolutionaries, why some Americans remain skeptical about climate change, and how to achieve a more moral capitalism.

Here are some of the other topics Ritter addresses in this extraordinary book:

• The American people deserve a clear vision of what life would be like in a world powered by clean and renewable energy.  Ritter summons our nation’s leaders to provide that vision through bold innovation and transformative thinking.
• The issues of energy transformation and environmental policy have become deeply politicized.  Ritter calls upon us to change the conversation, by leaving our “echo chambers” behind and going in search of common ground.
• Like every evolution in the economy and technology, the ongoing transition to a clean energy economy will be disruptive. But the need for this transition to happen within decades, not centuries, will make it like no other energy transition in the history of the industrial world. Markets and governmental policy must work together to ease the disruption.
• Part of the transition must be to acknowledge the enormous contribution that fossil fuels have made to our quality of life, to our economic well being, and to our national security. The energy revolution must be just and fair to those whose lives and communities are disrupted.