Happy Bastille Day!

On Thursday I summed up some of the speakers that I thought were particularly interesting in their policy insights. A glaring omission, however, was my failure to mention any of the politicians – you know, actual policymakers – who spoke. First off, we had a teleconference with North Dakota’s Congressional caucus: Representative Earl Pomeroy and Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad. They spoke briefly of the failure of the Lieberman-Warner legislation. Sen. Dorgan called it a ‘dress rehearsal’ for next year, and Sen. Conrad used the phrase ‘spring training.’ All were optimistic that in the next year, something substantial on the energy legislation front would be done, regardless of the outcome of the presidential election. Sen. Dorgan, however, also spoke freely of his own decision to vote against cloture on L-W. He identified the fact that the bill had been closed off to amendments as fundamentally weakening the potential for that legislation from the very beginning.

The consensus among the Congressional delegation – perhaps not surprising for representatives in a state that produces coal – is that whether we use coal moving forward is not really a question; rather we should be looking at how we will use coal. While this is a somewhat close-minded and premature conclusion, it does reflect political realities at least in the short term. Though I would also add, it is short term thinking that has got us into this mess in the first place.

Later in the day, the North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner gave his perspective, followed by the state senator I quoted in my last post. Governor John Hoeven echoed their remarks, the theme of which was: North Dakota is very well situated as the energy revolution moves forward. The state has the greatest wind potential in the United States, large swaths of land that is prime for carbon sequestration, and all sorts of perennial grasses that could be converted into biofuel.

Perhaps the most interesting political perspective of the day, however, came from Her Majesty’s Consul Annabelle Malins (the British have the sweetest titles!). Even the motivation for her coming to North Dakota speaks volumes. The British government, discouraged and frustrated by Washington’s inertia, has started working with state governments and the various regional accords in order to encourage and support positive climate legislation in the United States. (And they came to this stance even before the administration decided to punt regulation of CO2 to the next president.) The UK, she said in her charming accent, sees climate change as a top priority both domestically and internationally. Moreover, all of their needs – satisfying energy needs, reducing warming, improving energy security, creating good jobs – point in the same direction. And they have already managed to reduce their emissions to below 1990 levels, all while growing their economy 45% during that same period. Sounds good to me.

Unabashed Anglophilia aside, it seems that there is quite a lot to be learned from the Brits and North Dakotans. A strange pairing to be sure, but now is the time to move beyond the conventional. How appropriate, on the 219th anniversary of the storming of Le Bastille, to talk about the potential for cooperation and expansion in the clean energy movement. Vive la revolution!