Amory is the co-founder and Chief Scientist for the Rocky Mountain Institute. I’ve been following this excellent American ever since I spotted him on The Science Channel’s Eco-Tech, talking about how our cars only use .03% (that’s three hundredths of one percent) of the fuel to move the car’s driver. The rest is lost to moving the heavy vehicle itself and to the inefficiencies of the internal combustion engine. Watch this fascinating segment above.

Evidently, I was very late in jumping on the Lovins bandwagon. He has been the authoritative voice on U.S. energy policy since 1976, as I learned from this recent clip (below) from the Charlie Rose show (July 15, 2008) The interview runs about 28 minutes and every minute is informative and exhilarating. Hope has that effect on me.

These days, it is exceedingly difficult to find reasons to be proud to be an American. I’m sure to get a lot of blowback from my “conservative” readers (Hi Dad! Hi Grandpa!) for saying that, but it is my truth and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. Hell, ask Michelle Obama. (note: I think it was very brave of her to say what she said about her American pride. The truth shall set us free.)

My point, which I will now finally illuminate, is that Amory Lovins is a great reason to be both proud to be an American and incredibly frustrated with where we are today in America. He’s been saying the same things for the last 30+ years and his ideas have been unable to gain appreciable traction until…wait for it…starting…now. I don’t imagine he would ever enter the political sphere as a candidate, but his vision and wisdom are both vital to the future of the United States. Can you say Secretary of Energy? Dream a little dream and it may come true. What a wonderful world that could be, eh? Watch these videos and then study up on what the RMI is up to, won’t you?

Tags: Amory, Amory Lovins, Charlie Rose, Charting A Course For The Future, CPB, eco, eco-tech, ecotech, energy, energy policy, green, green profitability, Lovins, national security, PBS, renewable energy, RMI, rmi.org, Rocky Mountain Institute, solar, solar energy, US energy policy, US foreign policy, wind, wind energy