My Vision for Our Decade

Although I don't know where yet, in the fall I will head off to law school to learn about resolving environmental disputes. I see the Senate and U.N. eventually passing climate legislation that's good but not great, and it will be up to the youth to make it so. Faced with new restrictions, business and industry will have two choices: to become our allies, working together toward compromises that can benefit the interests of everyone involved, or continue to be our enemies in an increasingly costly battle over regulation. In the midst of all this I see myself working to bring everyone to the table, business leaders, environmentalists, and government agents alike. Through this work we can create communities that provide their own energy, grow their own food, and take care of their own waste - communities that care about themselves and their future.

Virginia Tech: Move Beyond Coal

This week, Apple joined a host of other companies, including Exelon, the nation's largest utility, in resigning from the US Chamber of Commerce because of the group's opposition to climate legislation. Other companies to resign include PNM Holdings and PG&E, two large utilities, and Nike decided to step down from the Board of Directors. The Chamber's calls for a new Scopes Monkey trial on climate change, as well as their intensive lobbying efforts against the climate bill now before the Senate, prompted the string of resignations.

What we're seeing here is a clash of paradigms between those who want the world to stay the way it was, and those who are accepting the new reality of the situation we face. As John Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon, put it, “The carbon-based free lunch is over”. Fossil fuel energy is on its way out, and it's up to Virginia Tech to decide whether they will keep up with the times or become completely irrelevant. And this has to start right here on campus, with our very own coal-fired power plant.

The good folks at Exelon aren't the only ones who realize this change is coming. China has recently announced plans to cap and reduce their carbon intensity (that is, tons of CO₂ per dollar GDP). Because of this and other recent efforts by the Chinese government, China is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing markets for renewable energy. Or, to look at it from another perspective, consider Applied Materials, a US-based microchip manufacturing company that also makes machines that manufacture solar panels. Currently they have 14 factories making these machines, and not a single one of them is in the US. The green energy economy is quickly expanding, but it seems the US is being left behind.

Coal is dirty business. From the mining and extraction to the burning and disposal of its waste, there is no aspect of using coal for energy that does not harm the environment. In addition, the impacts of climate change are becoming readily apparent, and with CO₂ levels soaring above scientists' worse-case scenarios, things are looking grim. The time for action is now.

Virginia Tech’s Beyond Coal student group is working hard to be a leader in the green energy movement through supporting the Obama Administration’s efforts to reduce climate change through legislation and by raising awareness of the irreversible damages of coal burning. On September 16th, a group of students marched from the coal plant to Burruss Hall to present a report on the dangers of using coal as a power source and the urgency of the need for change. As a university, we have the resources to be leaders in the research, development, and implementation of clean energy alternatives, so why not take that step, close down the coal plant and make a true commitment as a University to sustainability?

We have a choice, we have a voice, and we have the responsibility to preserve our planet. The time is now for us to come together and progress Beyond Coal.

The Other Side Of The Coin

Yesterday, John Podesta, CEO of the Center for American Progress, wrote about how we're arguing about the wrong things in the climate debate. It doesn't matter whether we go with a carbon tax or cap and trade, or how we allocate permits. These are merely tools. What we need to focus on is what the solution looks like: renewable energy.

By heavily investing in renewable energy and funding incentive programs (like net metering), we can reinvigorate our economy and breathe some life back into the crippled middle class. But what happens if we don't?

China has pledge $440 to $660 billion dollars over the next ten years to renewable energy. South Korea is ready to invest billions more to gain a competitive edge. Germany is already the biggest player on the market. If we don't make a seriously large investment in renewable energy soon, we could lose our chance to become a major contender in the industry. We'll continue to import our energy, from China instead of Saudi Arabia, and the economy will continue to suffer as more jobs are lost and tax revenue shrinks. Indeed, this could be the turning point for an American manufacturing industry already in decline: will we salvage it, and rebuild our country with a clean energy economy, or are we content to let the decline continue and let fossil fuel execs profit until there's nothing left?

I'll end with a quote from the only TV show I seriously consider worth watching, The Wire. "You know what the problem is? In this country, we used to make stuff. Now we all have our hands in the next guy's pocket."

Part II Begins: First Climate Bill Hearing in Senate

That's right, folks: after just passing in the House by a slim margin on Friday, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) will be discussed in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works this Tuesday, July 7. While I won't be able to attend myself, I encourage everyone who can to go to this hearing. It's at 10 a.m. in the Dirksen Senate building, room 406.

The witness list for the hearing is pretty typical, although there are two interesting additions: John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, and Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi. Fetterman's career as mayor began four years before his election, when he moved to Braddock while working for AmeriCorps. He has been a significant force for development in the area, providing low-rent housing, youth educational opportunities, and community art exhibitions, helping revitalize the town in the face of a declining population and a global recession. He is also a proponent of developing green energy as a means to revitalize the region's economy.

Haley Barbour, the newly appointed chair of the Republican Governors Association in the wake of the Sanford scandal, is certainly not one you would expect to support climate legislation. But despite his dubious record, there are indications that he will bring a reasoned perspective to the debate, unlike that of many extreme conservative pundits. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Governor Barbour promoted New Urbanist principles to the communities faced with the task of reconstruction, saying "the goal is to build the coast back like it can be, rather than simply like it was".

The other witnesses include Steven Chu, secretary of the Department of Energy; Lisa Jackson, administrator of the EPA; Tom Vilsack, secretary of the Department of Agriculture; and representatives from Dow Chemical Company and the Natural Resources Defense Council. For more information, go here.