As giant economies like China and India heat up competition for oil, and global warming intensifies, our state, nation, and the world will inevitably move to alternative energy futures (Catalogue ’01, Cape Wind). Philanthropy will play strategically significant scientific, technological, and educational roles at the grassroots level, and VEP is an example. Launched in 2002 with private and U.S. Department of Energy funds to create 12 highly visible solar projects for public-education purposes, VEP conducts workshops for businesses and homeowners, sponsors energy education in schools including an annual solar car race, and offers tours of a low-energy office building, a biodiesel project and a municipal wind turbine. A lecture last March on “The End of Oil” was attended by 350, and subsequently the six Vineyard towns approved a VEP-sponsored Energy Resolution calling for increased energy efficiency based on renewable sources. Six part-time staff are supported through grants from USDOE and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, but private donations do most of the rest. Consider what you can do to facilitate and accelerate this world-historic shift to new (and old!) technologies; here is an excellent opportunity to get involved.