From Hillary Clinton’s most recent fundraising e-mail:

Yesterday, in my latest HillCast, I described a plan for an Apollo-like effort to make clean, alternative energy the energy of America. This plan would create a strategic energy fund to invest in developing and deploying clean and alternative energy — home grown energy.

Where have I heard that before? Ah, yes. Gov. Richardson used the phrase in his response to the State of the Union, used it on Larry King Live nearly a year ago, and has used the phrase (or “man-on-the-moon effort,” its equivalent) many times since.

It’s certainly a positive development that Sen. Clinton has recognized what we’ve known for a while: that Richardson’s ideas are the best in the race.

Courtesy of the Billings Gazette, a write-up of the Gov’s visit to Montana. Man, this event sounds like it was a great time. The energy and excitement out in Montana are hard to match. It really shows you where the future of the party is:

“The Western Governors Association has pledged to produce 20,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2015.”

Governors from both parties have pledged this, he said, and it will be energy from many sources: solar, wind, biomass, ethanol and others.

The leadership for this has to come from the West, he said, promoting fuel efficiency, green buildings and clean coal synfuels.

“I want us (New Mexico) to be the Saudi Arabia of wind, solar and biomass,” he said. Richardson is not averse to providing tax credits for those who use solar power for buildings and homes.

Clean energy, tax cuts, and independence. Brought to you courtesy of Western Democrats. Anyone against any of those things?

I posted an item yesterday featuring Richardson’s first response to the energy components of the State of the Union. It seems that the Governor has had more time to look over the facts and check out what Bush has really been doing–and the former Energy Secretary isn’t happy with what he sees.

“Lofty goals but a weak plan of action,” Richardson, a Democrat who is now New Mexico’s governor, said in a telephone interview with Reuters about Bush’s comments in his Tuesday State of the Union address.

“Look at the stats,” Richardson said. “The Bush administration has been asleep at the switch. We have gone from 54 percent dependence on foreign oil to 65 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration” (EIA), the analytical and statistics arm of the Department of Energy.

Vague promises to do research at the DOE are not going to solve America’s oil crisis. We need an Apollo program–and a President who understands energy.

In the State of the Union last night, President Bush called for (in a rhetorical sense) breaking America’s addiction on foreign oil, and (in a specific sense) calling for a 22% increase in Energy Dept research. Although we’re obviously Democrats here, we’re not reflexive Bush-bashers either, and Bush should get some credit for taking the time to point out this problem.

But we need to do more than point it out and call for a vague increase in research. Oil dependence is a national security crisis, an environmental disaster, and an economic disease. Boosting research is great–but not nearly enough, says Gov. Richardson:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, speaking on CNN, said that other than calling for a 22 percent increase in Energy Department research, Bush was short on specifics.

“We need an Apollo-type program,” said Richardson, referring to the effort that put an American on the moon.

(I know, that’s a terrible, terrible joke.)

The Washington Post has a great article about Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper tooling around on a Vespa and other ways that national leaders are setting energy examples and implementing smart local energy policies. The piece also has a short and sweet summary of Bill Richardson’s recent energy policy in New Mexico:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a U.S. energy secretary in the Clinton administration, is emphasizing his experience in the field as he contemplates a race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. In addition to the tax rebate for hybrid buyers, Richardson has floated a bond issue to pay for energy efficiency in public buildings, launched a new mass-transit system serving Albuquerque and its suburbs, and funded a program to pay one month’s heating bill each winter for needy families.

If you’re looking for Bill talking points, it doesn’t get much easier than adding this information to his stint as Energy Secretary and his international negotiations. The bottom line is this: the Gov. has a track record on issues as big as international development of nuclear energy, and as small as local community solutions to energy costs and conservation. Very nice.