(most recent books first)
To order: find a local independent bookstore at Booksense or order/pre-order online. Alternatively, if you run your mouse over a book cover, you can see Amazon.com's selling price and order or pre-order it that way. Then CalCars will get a small referral fee for your Amazon order -- at no additional cost to you. If you want to buy anything at Amazon, start by clicking on any book link and CalCars also receives a referral fee.
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Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Hardcover) Jeffrey Sachs The Penguin Press ISBN-10: 1594201277 400 pages March 18, 2008 $27.95 (List Hardcover) |
The latest book by the prominent economist and director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, who focuses on the intersection of global economic development and environmental sustainability — especially in the relationship of rich and poor nations. He's become a major proponent of plug-in hybrids and a critic of the unintended consequences of biofuels. See our brief excerpt in the CalCars-News archives (May 2008) and "How to End the Global Food Shortage" in Time Magazine, April 2008. |
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Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming
Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn W. W. Norton 256 pages ISBN-10: 0393066908 March, 2008 $24.95 (List Hardcover) |
Environmental Defense Fund President Krupp and EFF staffer Horn report on many promising innovations and solutions to global warming. On pages 216-223, in the race to develop and use low-carbon energy are trailblazers including Tesla, Think, Chevy Volt, Zap-X, along with brief discussions of battery technologies and the potential of vehicle to grid. See our brief review from the CalCars-News archives (May 2008). |
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Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition (Paperback) Lester R. Brown W. W. Norton, 3 Edition ISBN-10: 0393330877 384 pages January 16, 2008 $16.95 (List Paperback) |
Earth Policy Institute president pairs wind power with PHEVs. See our review at our December 10, 2007 posting in CalCars news. |
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Freedom From Oil: How the Next President Can End the United States' Oil
Addiction David Sandalow McGraw Hill ISBN-10: 0071489061 272 pages October 1, 2007 $26.95 (List Hardcover) |
David Sandalow is an Energy and Environment Scholar at the
Brookings Institution. He has served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans,
Environment & Science; Senior Director for Environmental Affairs, National Security
Council; and Associate Director for the Global Environment, White House Council on
Environmental Quality. "What could be better than this complete and practical roadmap for the next President on plug-in hybrids and everything else we need to achieve Freedom from Oil?" (Oct 07 posting) |
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Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy Rep. Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks Island Press ISBN-10: 1597261750 336 Pages October 1, 2007 $25.95 (List Hardcover) |
Congressman Jay Inslee represents the First District of the
State of Washington, in the Seattle area. He is a recognized leader in Congress on energy
issues and is the prime sponsor of the New Apollo Energy Act and is a member of the House
Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Bracken Hendricks is a senior
fellow with the Center for American Progress and former executive director of the Apollo
Alliance, an organization of environmental organizations, businesses, and labor
organizations. "Apollo's Fire's real life stories and optimistic strategies can unify our nation through innovation and public investment to reach prosperity in a sustainable world." (Oct 07 posting) |
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Winning Our Energy Independence S. David Freeman Gibbs Smith ISBN-10: 1423601564 240 pages October 1, 2007 $19.95 (List Paperback) |
S. David Freeman, the energy guru known as the "Green Cowboy,"
shows how we have the renewable energy we need to wean ourselves from
the Three Poisons: foreign oil, dirty coal and dangerous nuclear
power. He calls for replacing today's cars with plug-in hybrid
vehicles. Helped create US Environmental Protection Agency, former
board chair of Tennesse Valley Authority Board, head of NY Power
Authority, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. "David Freeman's Winning our Energy Indepence brings four decades of experience to a fearless direct call to abandon the "three poisons of coal, nuclear and oil," and an inspiring vision of how to replace them with renewable energy sources powering plug-in cars." (Oct 07 posting) |
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ZOOM: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future Vijay Vaitheeswaran and Iain Carson Twelve ISBN-10: 044658004X October 1, 2007 $27.99 (List Hardcover) |
Vijay Vaitheeswaran, an MIT-trained engineer and global energy
and environment correspondent for The Economist, wrote a comprehensive article on
PHEVs for the magazine in June of 2006. For our initial coverage of the story and its
significance — including excerpts and a downloadable pdf — see our June 12th newsletter. "ZOOM's very readable narrative takes the reader from an analysis of why the petroleum age is ending to a picture of all the entrepreneurs, environmentalists and engineers who are bringing future cars to market now -- spurred in part by an unprecedented grassroots movement for plug-in hybrids." (Oct 07 posting) |
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hybrid and Alternative Fuel Vehicles (Complete Idiot's Guide
to) Jack R. Nerad Alpha ISBN-10: 1592576354 224 Pages August 7, 2007 $14.95 (List Paperback) |
This comprehensive introduction to the whole range of alternative-fuel vehicles includes two pages and a scattering of other mentions of PHEVs. |
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The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment
Opportunity Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder Collins ISBN-10: 006089623X 320 pages June 12, 2007 $26.95 (List Hardcover) |
Clean Edge writers say PHEVs may be "The Next Big Thing;" CalCars included in Ten To Watch. For more of our thoughts, see our June 17, 2007 posting in CalCars news. |
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Future Energy: How the New Oil Industry Will Change People, Politics and
Portfolios Bill Paul Wiley ISBN-10: 047009642X 240 pages February 9, 2007 $24.95 (List Hardcover) |
Former Wall Street Journal reporter includes CalCars among 100 Companies to Watch. For more of our thoughts, see our February 2, 2007 posting in CalCars news. |
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Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and
What We Should Do Joseph Romm William Morrow ISBN-10: 0061172138 304 pages January 8, 2008 $13.95 (List Paperback) |
Founder of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, calls PHEVs the Car of the Future. For more of our thoughts, see our December 30, 2006 posting in CalCars news. |
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Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America Sherry Boschert New Society Publishers ISBN-10: 0865715718 240 pages December 1, 2006 $16.95 (List Paperback) |
The first book on PHEVs tells the story of the people and the technology. Full review at our October 30, 2007 posting in CalCars news. (Available in bookstores/online—or directly from author Sherry Boschert or from Plug In America.) |
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War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free
World Frank J. Gaffney Jr. Naval Institute Press 320 pages ISBN-10: 1591143012 November 24, 2005 $27.95 (List Hardcover) |
The founder of the Center for Security Policy promotes PHEVs to improve energy security. For our review, see our December 8, 2005 posting in CalCars news. |
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We also recommend the following books (and explain their connection to CalCars and PHEVs): |
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Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus Houghton Mifflin ISBN-10: 0618658254 256 pages October 4, 2007 $25.00 (List Hardcover) |
By the founders of American Environics and The Breakthrough Institute, this book draws on themes invoked by such thought leaders as architect/designer William McDonough, journalist Thomas Friedman and venture capitalist John Doerr about inspiring human creativity and finding hope in human aspirations and nature's abundance -- and points us to a strategic vision for the next decades. -- see our Oct.23 posting in CalCars-News. |
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Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things William McDonough and Michael Braungart North Point Press 193 pages ISBN-10: 0865475873 April, 2002 $27.50 (List Paperback) |
Architect/designer McDonough and chemist Braungart rethink the idea of product lifecycles. (CalCars worked with McDonough to try to get Ford into PHEVs in 2006.) |
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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Michael Pollan Penguin 464 pages ISBN-10: 0143038583 August, 2007 $16.00 (List Paperback) |
In addition to being entertaining and eye-opening about food, the first major section of the book looks at the broad role of corn and how industrial agriculture has ruined the farm economy. (The book ably outlines the negative consequences of corn ethanol.) |
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Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and
Security Amory Lovins, et al. Rocky Mountain Institute 309 pages ISBN-10: 1881071103 September 2004 $40.00 (List Paperback) |
Rocky Mountain Institute's roadmap to a zero-petroleum economy. Many details on transportation, though the book was written when PHEVs were barely on RMI's radar. (Amory Lovins' previous book, Natural Capitalism, with its chapter on Hypercars, inspired the creation of CalCars.) |
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Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century Alex Steffen "Harry N. Abrams, Inc." 320 pages ISBN-10: 0810930951 November, 2006 $37.50 (List Hardcover) |
A broad guide from Worldchanging.com. (Worldchangning.com hosts GreenCarCongress's The Week in Sustainable Mobility.) |
