Jan. 29
Ho-hum. Anyone expecting to be dazzled by plucky, courageous green
initiatives during President Bush´s final State of the Union address
probably needs to stop singing all those verses of "Kumbaya."
Yes, he devoted about four of his 53 minutes Monday night to glossing over
environmental concerns, but it was all a rehash of past proposals with few
specifics. Scaling back on oil and promoting energy security and efficiency,
nuclear power, renewables, carbon sequestration, advanced batteries and a $2
billion international clean technology fund to share U.S.-produced,
cutting-edge power supplies with developing nations such as India and China
all made the cut.
Still, no matter what the question, pioneering high-tech is his answer. And
though he called for pursuing an international protocol to potentially slow,
then halt, the flow of heat trapping gases -- he emphasized that no major
economy should get a "free ride" and he most certainly did not encourage
Congress to pursue the cap-and-trade emissions path it is pursuing. Of
course, plenty of legislators vented about that last slight. (More on that
later.)
Clearly, however, at least one organization skipped the pomp and
circumstance of a somewhat sonorous Jan. 28, and fast-forwarded ahead to the
next inauguration. Calling global climate change "the leadership issue of
our time," the high-powered scientists, policy experts and entrepreneurs
forming the Presidential Climate Action Project unveiled a roadmap to guide
the 44th president. Its three-pronged approach covers energy policy,
international engagement and national security.
More than 150 scientists, environmentalists and policymakers are supporting
this effort created by the University of Colorado-Denver´s School of Public
Affairs. Ray Anderson, founder and chairman of Interface Inc., heads the
advisory committee.
"We must accept that while climate science is complex, our options are
simple," PCAP wrote in its five-page State of the Climate released Jan. 24.
"We have three. We can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep the impacts
of climate change from growing far worse. We can adapt to the changes
already underway. Or we can suffer."
To avoid catastrophic heat waves, droughts, fires, disease, coastal
inundation and species extinction, endorsers recommend switching to
low-carbon fuels, cutting emissions 90 percent by 2050, slicing subsidies to
the oil, gas and coal industries and manufacturing cars that go at least 50
miles on a gallon of gas.
"The PCAP will not be prescriptive," the group explains. "Rather, it will
consist of a menu of action options. This will allow the president to create
an action plan à while meeting recommended targets for greenhouse has
emission reductions."
"It is our hope and expectation that when the next president reports on the
state of the union, we will hear that our nation is firmly on the path to
climate stability, to a new economy that has learned to prosper within the
limits of the Earth´s natural systems, to energy independence and security
and to renewed respect for the United States around the world," the report
concludes.
PCAP´s endorsers are a veritable who´s who among climate movers and shakers.
They include Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres; Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Wangari Maathai; former Sen. Timothy Wirth, now president of the United
Nations Foundation; Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research and co-author of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
report; Christine Ervin, former president of the U.S. Green Building Council
and Energy Department assistant secretary; and the mayors of Denver,
Atlanta, Portland, Ore. and 27 other cities.
Now, back to those miffed legislators.
Despite Bush´s failure to acknowledge or join what she called a growing
bipartisan coalition, Sen., Barbara Boxer vowed to forge ahead with the
Lieberman Warner Climate Security Act, which her Environment and Public
Works Committee approved in early December.
"This was a golden opportunity for President Bush to embrace meaningful
solutions to the global warming crisis," the California Democrat said.
"Instead, he offered the American people empty rhetoric and failed to take
the bold action needed to avert dangerous climate change."
Rep. John Dingell, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said he was
disappointed Bush made no overtures toward Congress on global warming. But
the Michigan Democrat pledged to continue crafting legislation to reduce
emissions 60 to 80 percent by 2050.
Dingell gouged even deeper when weighing in on the president´s entire
address.
"On one hand, I am sorry to see that this president ran out of new ideas
before he ran out of time," he said. "However, considering the success of
some of his initiatives on foreign policy and our economy ù perhaps the less
damage the better."
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