Energy Victory: In this compelling argument for a new direction in US energy policy, world-renowned engineer and best-selling author Robert Zubrin lays out a bold plan for breaking the economic stranglehold that the OPEC oil cartel has on our country and the world. Zubrin presents persuasive evidence that our decades-long relationship with OPEC has resulted in the looting of our economy, the corruption of our political system, and now the funding and protection of terrorist regimes and movements that are committed to our destruction. Debunking the false solutions and myths that have deterred us from taking necessary action, Zubrin exposes the fakery that has allowed many politicians— including current US president George W. Bush—to posture that they are acting to resolve this problem while actually doing nothing significant toward that goal. Zubrin’s plan is straightforward and practical. He argues that if Congress passed a law requiring that all new cars sold in the USA be flex-fueled—that is, able to run on any combination of gasoline or alcohol fuels—this one action would destroy the monopoly that the oil cartel has maintained on the globe’s transportation fuel supply, opening it up to competition from alcohol fuels produced by farmers worldwide. According to Zubrin’s estimates, within three years of enactment, such a regulation would put 50 million cars on the road in the USA capable of running on high-alcohol fuels, and at least an equal number overseas.

Energy Victory shows how we could be using fuel dollars that are now being sent to countries with ties to terrorism to help farmers here and abroad, boosting our own economy and funding world development. Furthermore, by switching to alcohol fuels, which pollute less than gasoline and are made from plants that draw carbon dioxide from the air, this plan will facilitate the worldwide economic growth required to eliminate global poverty without the fear of greenhouse warming. Energy Victory offers an exciting vision for a dynamic, new energy policy, which will go a long way toward safeguarding homeland security in the future and provide solutions for global warming and Third World development.

“To win the war on terror, we need to remove the yoke of our oil dependence and cut the flow of petrodollars to regimes that spread radical Islam. Energy Victory is a bold, yet realistic plan to do just that. It is a vitally important book about the most critical issue we face today.”
- Dr. Gal Luft, Executive Director, Institute for the
Analysis of Global Security.

In July 1989, on the 20th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, President Bush called for America to renew its pioneering push into space with the establishment of a permanent Lunar base and a series of human missions to Mars. While many have said that such an endeavor would be excessively costly and take many decades, a small team at Martin Marietta drew up a daring plan that could sharply cut costs and send a group of American astronauts to the Red Planet within ten years. The plan, known as "Mars Direct," has attracted international attention and broad controversy, including coverage in such publications as Newsweek, Fortune, The Economist, Air and Space Smithsonian, the New York Times, the London Times, the Boston Globe and Izvestia. It has also been covered by the Discovery Channel, PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, National Public Radio, and the BBC. Its principal author, Robert Zubrin, has presented it to such fora as the International Astronautical Federation congress in Germany, and the blue ribbon "Synthesis Group" headed by former Apollo astronaut General Thomas Stafford, as well as to various government officials, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich and NASA Administrator Dan Goldin.

Dr. Robert Zubrin (Indian Hills, CO) is president of Pioneer Astronautics and also president of the Mars Society. For many years he worked as a senior engineer for Lockheed Martin. He is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction books Energy Victory (see below), The Case for Mars, Entering Space, Mars on Earth; the science fiction novels The Holy Land and First Landing; and articles in Scientific American, The New Atlantis, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Mechanical Engineering, and The American Enterprise. He has appeared on major media including CNN, CSPAN, BBC, Discovery Channel, NBC, ABC, and NPR. Prior to his work in astronautics, Dr. Zubrin was employed in areas of thermonuclear fusion research, nuclear engineering, radiation protection, and as a high school science teacher.