Environmental Design + Construction readers should be concerned that the massive energy bill the president signed this month in Albuquerque, N.M., hands over billions in subsidies to oil companies but does nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

The Energy Bill represents a failure of leadership by the administration and leadership in Congress. Our nation urgently needs a crash program to move America toward energy independence, while capturing the green markets of the future. In the absence of federal leadership, states and cities are taking on this issue, and for now our hopes for progress rest there.

The Apollo Alliance has a 10-step national agenda to create energy independence by the year 2015. The alliance represents a coalition of national security, labor, environmental, civil rights and business leaders who are fighting for energy independence from foreign energy sources.

Governors from across the country last month urged President Bush to lead a national project to achieve energy independence within a decade in an open letter to the White House. The letter was released by the Apollo Alliance moments after House and Senate negotiators began their energy bill conference.

Governors Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill.; Jim Doyle, D-Wis.; Christine Gregoire, D-Wash.; Ted Kulongoski, D-Ore.; Janet Napolitano, D-Ariz.; Bill Richardson, D-N.M.; and Brian Schweitzer, D-Mont., noted that energy efficiency policies have already been implemented in their states and urged President Bush to extend them to the federal level.

Toby Chaudhuri

Communications Director

Campaign for America's Future

Washington, D.C.

(The Apollo Alliance is a project of a coalition of groups, led in part by the research arm of the Campaign for America's Future.)