Just off the highway to Annapolis, Maryland, is an exit for farm country near the Chesapeake Bay. Long winding roads finally lead to an unmarked, paved driveway; and at the end of it, a white, Cape Cod-style farmhouse circled by hay fields. The doorbell is answered by Jim Woolsey, former director of the CIA and veteran security expert who has worked on both sides of the political aisle, with appointments in the Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations; and most recently, on the presidential campaign of Republican John McCain.
Known for tough foreign policy stances that included calls for the early ouster of Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf war, Woolsey has since taken up a new mission: to shift US energy appetites away from coal and oil towards alternative energy sources.
“Take a look up to your left,” says Woolsey. Above us, a slanted roof is covered with solar panels that glint in the 95F heat. “We put solar panels on the roof wherever we can ... When people ask me, ‘how is it that a hawk like you is a tree-hugger?’ I tell them that hawks have to have a place to nest.”