Musings on Mark Warners' Energy Ideology

Undoubtedly, one of Governor Warner's strength's is that he understands the implicit nature of technological progress and the improvements it can bring to the lives of everyday American citizens. He sums up all that I like about his candidacy and energy platform here in his DNC keynote:

You know, America has never been afraid of the future, and we shouldn't start now. If we choose the right path, every one of these challenges is also an opportunity. Look at energy. If we actually got ourselves off foreign oil, we can make our country safer. We'll start to solve global warming. And with the right policies, within 24 months, we'll be building 100 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrid vehicles right here - with American technology and with American workers.

I just wanted to share a mildly amusing exchange between T. Boone Pickens and Tom Brokaw at the DNC. First, T. Boone Pickens gave his argument on energy policy.  Brokaw followed up by bringing up Boone Pickens's funding on the swift boat ads against Kerry.

Plutonium Page and I are sitting front row center (until they run us off) preparing for the appearance of T. Boone Pickens.  I know we've had a lot of discussion about whether Pickens should be here at all, and believe me, if I get the chance, I'm going to ask the toughest questions I can level.

But I'll tell you one thing. Over the last three days, we've had some amazing panels in the Big Tent featuring climate change, environment, and energy experts from the Wilderness Society, Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, and a dozen other organizations. You know what the attendance for those events was like? Believe me when I say I didn't have to worry about finding a seat.

But for Pickens, this room is packed. What does that say about Pickens, and what does it say about the bloggers here for environmental and energy issues?

As we're waiting for Pickens to appear, feed us some questions.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: And Pickens is here. John Podesta, the President and Chief Executive Officer of American Progress, flanking Pickens on one side. Sierra Club president Carl Pope on the other side.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: Podesta talking about global warming (which makes it even more important that someone get Pickens a question on why he's maxed out to Inhofe) and the general support for changing the energy infrastructure.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: T. Boone now speaking. Giving the Hallmark sorty of his life. Reports that he's given away $700 million dollars in the last five years, and will give his estate to charity, so no one should think he's doing this to make more money.

Update [2008-8-27 14:32:38 by Devilstower]: Carl Pope: if our political system was even vaguely functional, anything that John Podesta, T. Boone Pickens, and Carl Pope agree on would have happened long ago.

Update [2008-8-27 14:41:26 by Plutonium Page]::  Here's a photo.  T. Boone is on the left, Carl Pope is at the right.  Click to enlarge.

Update [2008-8-27 14:51:54 by Plutonium Page]: My laptop battery is running very low, so I've got to shut down for now.  We'll try to follow up later with a post on the Q & A session.

Update [2008-8-27 15:7:47 by Devilstower]: And T. Boone heads for the door without taking a single question. Which makes the whole presentation worth about as much as day old spit.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) is what we call "South Korea". The peninsula divided by an artificial border by the international powers in 1953 (Russia and the US). North Korea is a wreck. South Korea seems to be thriving. The actual situation in the ROK is actually far more complex but that is not the focus of this essay, energy is.

The ROK (hereafter simply "Korea") is vasstly expanding it's extremely well run nuclear industry. It is doing this, as the last excerpt below shows, to reduce the amount of money spent on fossil fuel purchases, of which Korea has none, and has to import it all: coal, oil, gas.

The Korea Times ran the following article here: Here are some excerpts:

The New York Times had an article today about how some wind farms are bumping up against the limitations of our Grid system. This is no surprise, because we don't have an electricity superhighway in this country. It's time for one.

Very brief diary to encourage reading of today's New York Times article re: wind turbines produce surges of electricity that overpower the outdated grid. Excerpt after the jump.

We were out the door and headed for Iowa two weeks ago when my phone rang. "Hey, how’d you like to meet T. Boone Pickens in person?" I got the details of where, when, and it fit our schedule with only a little change so we went running off to the August 15th presentation in Le Mars, Iowa.

   Ahead of the actual presentation a dozen movers/shakers from the region got to speak with Mr. Pickens one on one and my girlfriend and I were two of that dozen, Steve Gruhn from Freedom Fertilizer who got us the invite was also there, and Rob Hubler, Democratic candidate for Iowa district 5.

   I’ve sat on this for eleven days because we got a chance to go together as a group and have a chat with the Pickens people earlier this week, and the "we" turned out to be some very big guns from DailyKos ... and other places.

A cowboy has ridden out, gathering a posse, to slay the demon of imported oil.  Texas Oilman T Boone Pickens is investing over $50 million in promoting The Pickens' Plan with advertising, a tremendous website, public affairs, and public presentation after presentation. This includes speaking tomorrow at The Big Tent.  

There are serious issues surrounding Pickens' politics that foster questioning not just of T Boone's designs but also thesensibility of inviting T Boone into a new media spaceand whether Pickens will face serious questioning when there.

(Cross posted to The Drexel Dems blog. Something for those of us without Convention Fever!)

One of the aspects of this election that hasn't really penetrated most of the mainstream media narrative is John McCain's complete lack of leadership or coherent position on energy, particularly with regard to renewables and energy independence.  Recently, Tom Friedman noticed that McCain had missed a number of key votes on energy, but it's even worse than Friedman wrote.  As I noted many times before, John McCain didn't even have an energy policy during the Republican primary.  His rhetoric is completely unmatched by his plans and his record.  His lack of a coherent energy plan has been discussed here and elsewhere before, however, so now I'm going to explain in moderate detail McCain's dismal senate record on energy policy.

Xcel Energy is retiring two coal-fired plants in Colorado and adding 850 megawatts of wind power and a 200-megawatt solar concentrating power plant -- one of the world's largest -- instead.

It’s the company’s first stab at utility-scale solar. Even better: It’s the first time a utility in America has volunteered to shut down a coal plant (let alone two) to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

I grew up in Houston, Texas. Maybe that made me more susceptible than most to the romanticized idea of being a Texas oil man. At the age of 18, the same summer I graduated high school, I went to work for a family friend selling oil field supplies to oil companies in West Texas and Mexico. It was a dream job for me. I met some very wealthy men and heard stories about growing up dirt poor and making a fortune by pulling oil from otherwise worthless ground. Every year I went to the famed Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), where they would erect an offshore drilling rig in the parking lot of the Astrodome. The oil rig was just the start though, because oil companies offered helicopter rides onto the rig. Spending time with these men meant eating $80 steaks, wearing $300 Stetson cowboy hats, and in the case of the oil men from Mexico, riding in Suburbans retrofitted with bullet proof glass. In those formative years I jumped at the opportunity to sit with the Bush family at the ballpark to watch the Houston Astros, although I don’t think we ever exchanged a word other than hello.

This afternoon, thanks to an old college friend, I got an invitation to meet and speak with Soon-To-Be Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) at a local organic farm, to talk about food and agriculture issues. Now, I'm interested in food and everything, but it's not exactly my area of expertise.  So, not wanting to get caught flatfooted, I thought I had better get caught up on these issues quick. Who would you turn to for help on food issues? Me too! OrangeClouds115, so charmingly introduced to us just yesterday, was kind enough to take several long hours after a long day at work to brief me on all the hot food and agriculture issues of the day, and to email back and forth all weekend, so that I could show up today, armed with a printout of of the Netroots Nation platform & a head full of our shared vision of what sustainable agriculture could do to build our communities and make our children healthier.  I'm pleased to say that Udall has that same clear vision in his head.

[cross-posted from EENRblog.com]

The Democratic National Convention is in Denver this week.

Energy is a big issue this week at the DNC Convention.

The same folks who financed the Swiftboaters for "Truth" in 2004 are financing hateful and lying ads against Obama.

Interestingly, there is a link between these three statements, and that link is the answer to this question:  Who is appearing at the Big Tent (the place for progressive bloggers and new media journalists) in Denver on Wednesday?

There are two potential futures for Coal River Mountain, WV and the people of the Coal River Valley. Their struggle will set an important precedent for energy production in America, and is giving hope to those of us in Appalachia starring down the barrel of mountaintop removal.

Industrial Wind Power (potential) OR Mountaintop Removal (permit area)

They're here to report on serious issues, pull tough answers out of reluctant politicians, and do the kind of analysis you're not finding in the mainstream press. Oh, and we're also here to talk to Daryl Hannah.

Daryl has long been an advocate of alternative fuels. She recently sold off her first biodiesel-fueled El Camino and picked up another one. She runs the vehicle on waste vegetable oil from a pair of local restaurants. The tale of Daryl's vegetarian car and examples of her wide-ranging creativity can be found at her blog where she writes, plays her own sound person, and even draws the hand animated graphics. You'll get a glimpse of her insight (and humor) when she appears on the Daily Show this week.

And why did I get to interview Daryl Hannah? Because I'm one of the bloggers here focusing on energy and the environment. It had nothing to do with the Blade Runner poster I've had on the wall since 1982.

Please note that I am not usually this shade of furious pink.

This text below the fold was posted in May 2007 and is worth reposting today given the new context of tense relations with Russia and worries/suspicion/empty talk about "energy weapons", and for the benefit of  the next administration, given that it can now be hoped to include "foreign policy experience." Maybe there will be some listening to facts rather than purely ideology-driven bluster?

The original post is built as a discussion of an Economist article about Russian gas (A bear at the throat) published in April 2007. Back then, as I wrote, "it took legitimate (if often poorly informed) worries about Russia's sometimes blustering behavior on the energy markets to peddle the usual insane crap that market liberalisation is the only solution to promote energy security." Today, the focus seems to be more on the geopolitical threat the Russia represents, but the conclusion amongst the Villagers is still, of course, about the incompetence and failure of continental Europe - this time not to liberalize, but rather to 'stand up' to Russia's bullying.

I have added today some comments (in italics and between brackets).

The GOP is losing seats in the Senate...so who is going to be the minority ranking members?

At Netroots Nation, six dedicated people joined to discuss Energizing America:  Setting an Agenda for Progress.  On this panel were three core members of the Energize America team and three Energy Smart candidates who are part of the effort to change the composition of Congress toward one more knowledgeable and concerned about creating a sensible energy future.

Part of the discussion was how to provide a rallying point for the freshmen (and women) class of 2009, to join together for passage a set of legislative initiatives to help spark an Energy Smart renaissance across the United States.

This effort is developing.  

But, this development is missing something.

YOU!

Join me, after the fold, for a discussion of concepts and ideas as to moving forward together.