The public relations campaign, which scared many legislators into voting pro-environment, is now part of the League of Conservation Voters. “Denis is prophetic in knowing what it takes to win,” says Gene Karpinksi, LCV’s president.

Job Hopping

Until he landed at Bullitt in 1992, Hayes job-hopped every few years. From 1973-75, he led the new Illinois State Energy Office.

After, SERI, he even worked as an adjunct professor of engineering until he got his law degree from Stanford in 1985.
From 1985-89, Hayes tried to set up a solar practice at a law firm in California. “It was terrible timing,” he says. “The U.S. solar industry was having a near-death experience.”

Hayes views his tenure at Bullitt as settling down, not settling: “Bullitt has been a wonderful job. I have been playing in a very small pond, trying to build sustainable models in one small corner of one continent, while the whole world is careening off the precipice.”

His supporters say they wish he were swimming in a bigger pond—perhaps as Energy Secretary. “I would love to be Secretary of Energy,” says Hayes, “but by the time the American political landscape is ready for me, I will be too old to be a major player.”

“Nationally, the ‘Forces for Good’ now just play defense,” he adds. “That’s very important, but defense is not my strength. I don’t want just to delay the Apocalypse; I want to avoid it.”

Hayes has had a broad impact, thanks to Earth Day, Bullitt Center and “Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93-Million Cows on America’s Health, Economy, Politics, Culture and Environment,” which he co-authored with his wife, Gail Boyer Hayes, and Norton published in March. Still, a part of him wishes he had done more.

Earth Day’s fiftieth anniversary, which Hayes envisions as a month-long event, might provide another opportunity, he says, adding, “I certainly hope to nudge Earth Day 2020 strongly toward solar.”