It’s Getting Hot In Here

The surprising progressiveness of Iowa (surprising at least to me, used to thinking of Iowa as one of those flyover states) was part of the discussion during the March 30 Let’s Talk: Iowa conference call.  James Rice, a member of Senator Chuck Grassley’s staff (R), and Eldon Boes, who works for Senator Tom Harkin (D), spoke together on the call about the priority of a climate bill in the Senate now that the health care bill has passed, what type of carbon control policy the Senators support, and their opinion on EPA regulation of greenhouse gases. Continue reading ‘Let’s Talk: Iowa’

Of all states to be concerned about the effects of climate change, I would think that Florida would be first on the list.  A state with a mean elevation of only 100 feet and subject to regular hits by hurricanes and other storms, Florida stands to lose a significant amount of landmass as sea levels begin to rise and storm surges increase.  Perhaps this is why Senator Bill Nelson received a 100% rating from the League of Conservation Voters in their rating of the 111th session.

Stratton Kirton, a staffer from Senator Bill Nelson’s office, talked to students and faculty from across Florida on March 25th about how Senator Nelson’s support for environmental issues plays into his support for the economic development of Florida – and his sticking points in policy decisions.

Echoing the sentiments of many of the staffers that we have been speaking with during the Let’s Talk series, Kirton said that Senator Nelson will support a climate change bill as long as it is carefully constructed and designed with concern for consumers in mind. This includes what I think needs to be a major shift in framing of the issue.  The focus is always how environmental regulation will harm the economy and a carbon cap-and-trade will negatively affect our competitiveness in the global economy, especially if our trading partners (namely China) fail to enact similar legislation.  The focus needs to shift away from this idea to how legislation will spur the new growth economy.  The Michigan Senators hammered this home when we talked with them back in February and so have the other staffers, but that discussion is not happening in the press or among the common people.  The Senate and environmental groups need to emphasize that climate change is going to present us with a huge challenge – but one that will also provide us with new jobs, make us more secure, and more energy independent.

Continue reading ‘Let’s Talk: Florida’

On Friday, March 12th, students and faculty from across New Mexico had the opportunity to speak with Jonathan Black, a staffer from the office of Senator Jeff Bingaman, and Andrew Wallace, staffer for Senator Tom Udall, about clean energy, nuclear power in New Mexico, and the legislative process in passing an energy or cap-and-trade bill.  This conference call was a continuation of the series sponsored by the Bard Center for Environmental Policy.

Senator Tom Udall (D-New Mexico)     Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico)

Students at University of New Mexico, who hosted the call, were especially concerned about why the development of alternative energy in New Mexico has not occurred at a faster rate – especially since New Mexico is a prime location for development of utility-scale solar electric or solar thermal plants.  Wallace pointed out that there are plenty of federal and state incentives in place – the stumbling block is transmission, especially for a utility scale plant.  Any transmission lines built will have to cross thousands of miles of land to connect to the grid in the West – and it’s important to build the grid in the right way with minimal disruption to the land through which it will pass.  Wallace also cited a bit of a chicken and the egg problem with solar and other alternative energies — people don’t want to invest in solar until the price per unit comes down, but the price per unit won’t come down until people start investing in order to drive the market towards innovation and investment. Continue reading ‘Let’s Talk: New Mexico’

Through an event arranged by the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, college students from Alaska and across the United States had the opportunity to speak with McKie Campbell, Republican Staff Director for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, about environmental issues in Alaska – and what Senator Murkowski is doing in Washington DC to address climate change, the opening of the Northwest Passage, and ocean acidification.

Naturally, one of the hot topics of conversation was Senator Murkowski’s bill to block the EPA from regulating carbon dioxide as a criteria air pollutant.  Senator Murkowski has drawn fire for these views, since this is seen to be the last hope for achieving meaningful GHG reductions if no bill passes this year.  The chances of a bill passing this year are looking smaller and smaller – the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill has failed to materialize, despite their op-ed pledging a bipartisan bill.  According to Campbell, while Kerry this morning seemed optimistic about the state of the legislation, Senate Majority Leader Reid today stated that if a climate bill is not brought before the Senate within the two weeks, climate change is not going to be addressed this year.  This puts huge pressure on Kerry – it is increasingly clear that another year without action will have huge economic and environmental consequences.

Mr. Campbell defended Senator Murkowski’s anti-regulatory actions.  Her action against EPA regulation of carbon dioxide is not because she feels it is not contributing to global warming–rather, that the language of the Clean Air Act is not sufficient to regulate GHGs as it is now written.  Continue reading ‘Let’s Talk: Alaska’

Jobs, jobs, jobs – that was the message during today’s “Let’s Talk: Michigan” event with Chris Adamo, from Senator Stabenow’s office, and Alice Yates, from Senator Levin’s office.  Both legislative aides agreed that the climate bill is not just about climate – it’s also about jobs and energy.  They also agreed that forward movement on climate legislation will benefit Michigan, the nation, and the world.  At its heart, said Adamo, climate legislation is an economic bill, one that will jumpstart investment and jobs in renewables, cleantech industries, and biofuels.

The discussion needs to shift, Adamo continued, to climate legislation as national security from an oil perspective to a technology perspective.  There’s widespread worry in the American public about our dependency on foreign oil – but we don’t want to turn this into a reliance on foreign manufacturers for solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies when we have the capacity and expertise to develop and innovate in these areas within our own nation.

Unsurprisingly, both Adamo and Yates feel that Michigan is primed to take over the role of clean energy manufacturer.  According to Yates, green jobs have recently grown at a rate of 9.1% overall and 10.7% in Michigan. Yates pointed out that Michigan offers a tremendous physical, intellectual, and working infrastructure for clean tech industries to invest in. Continue reading ‘Let’s Talk Michigan’