Clean Energy Nation: Freeing America from the Tyranny of Fossil Fuels

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

CONGRESSMAN JERRY MCNERNEY

I

n the November 2006 election, the people of California’s 11th congressio-

nal district (which includes parts of the Silicon Valley and San Joaquin

Valley regions) elected Jerry McNerney to represent them in Washington,

D.C. Reelected in 2008 and 2010, he is a member of the House Committe on

Science, Space, and Technology; the Subcommittee on Energy and the

Environment; and the Subcommittee on Investigation and Oversight.

McNerney was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and attended the Uni-

versity of New Mexico, where he studied engineering and mathematics, earn-

ing a Ph.D. in 1981. He served several years as a contractor to Sandia National

Laboratories on Kirtland Air Force Base, working on wind energy and national

security programs. In 1985, he accepted a senior engineering position with U.S.

Windpower, Kenetech. In 1994, he began working as an energy consultant for

Pacific Gas & Electric, FloWind, the Electric Power Research Institute, and

other utility companies. During his career in wind energy, McNerney’s work

contributed to saving the equivalent of approximately 30 million barrels of oil,

or 8.3 million tons of carbon dioxide—the main greenhouse gas—as well as

other harmful pollutants.

McNerney and his wife of thirty-one years, Mary, make their home in

Pleasanton, California. He is an avid reader, has written three unpublished

novels along with numerous essays, and has also published several technical

papers pertaining to wind energy.

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MARTIN CHEEK

M

artin Cheek has worked as a newspaper reporter and magazine writer

for over two decades. He served as the European bureau chief for

Edittech International, a news service that focuses on developments

in science and the high-tech industry. At Edittech, he wrote more than 1,000

articles for magazines and newspapers in North America, Asia, Europe,

and Australia. He has worked as a writer and an editor at South Bay Accent

Magazine, Triumph Magazine, and Defense Science Magazine. He also regu-

larly wrote articles for San Jose Magazine, profiling Silicon Valley’s leading

businesspeople. Several of his articles for this magazine won Peninsula Press

Club journalism awards.

Cheek was born in Hollister, California; attended Palma High School in

Salinas; and graduated in 1990 with a journalism degree from San José State

University. He is the author of the first and second editions of Moon Handbooks:

Silicon Valley, a travel guide to “the high-tech capital of the world.” He is also

the “City Expert” for the San José/Silicon Valley section of the travel-focused

Home&Abroad.com website. His regular column, called “The Big Picture,” is

published in the Morgan Hill Times, the Gilroy Dispatch, and the Hollister Free

Lance. It often discusses alternative energy issues in the Silicon Valley region.

He makes his home in Morgan Hill, California, where he is active in

various nonprofit groups, such as the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library,

the San Pedro Ponds Trail Volunteers, the Poppy Jasper Short Film Festival,

and Leadership Morgan Hill. He also serves on the Morgan Hill Parks and

Recreation Commission.