Hillary Clinton's Commonwealth Club Remarks Continue to Spur Debate

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (right) discusses U.S. environmental and foreign policy with Commonwealth Club Vice President and Climate One Director Greg Dalton. Photo by Sonya Abrams.

When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared before a giant crowd at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in October, she discussed a wide range of issues. Mexico's drug war, technology, expansion of diplomacy, Afghanistan, a crude oil pipeline.

It is that last item, the pipeline, that is causing lasting controversy. As Politico.com – a Washington, D.C.-based political web site – reports today, critics such as Republican Sen. Mike Johanns (Neb.) have gone after the secretary for saying the Obama administration was inclined to approve a pipeline that would bring crude oil from Alberto into the United States.

Politico reports:

“The State Department and the Obama administration are in a real jam,” Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) told Politico. “They want to look very environmental, and I just think they’re just struggling on what to do with this thing.”

Johanns and other critics of the pipeline lambasted Clinton for comments she made in October suggesting the department was “inclined” to greenlight the pipeline even as thousands of comments were still being reviewed as part of an ongoing environmental assessment.

... Johanns has contended that Clinton’s remarks will inevitably lead to lawsuits citing that the department had come to a premature conclusion if it grants the pipeline. “For her to come out and say we’re inclined to grant it when the public comments had not been fully reviewed certainly is going to lay the groundwork for someone to claim that the process was arbitrary and capricious,” he said.

... Clinton has since emphasized — as recently as in a letter last week to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) — that the department has not finished its review of the plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline through five states — entering Montana, through South Dakota and Nebraska before meeting up with an existing pipeline in Kansas. It then continues in Oklahoma and into Texas.

“In order for the State Department to make a sound decision, it is important that we conduct our review in a thorough and transparent manner, taking into consideration all relevant factors, including both environmental and economic impacts,” Clinton wrote.

The Politico article does not quote Clinton's original comments at length. However, here is the original comment the secretary of state made in her on-stage conversation with Climate One Director and Commonwealth Club Vice President Greg Dalton:

DALTON: Another international issue that you signed in on last year was the Alberta Clipper, a pipeline from Alberta that brings tar sands, oil sands directly into Wisconsin to the U.S. Midwest. This is some of the dirtiest fuel in the world. How can the U.S. be saying climate change is a priority when we're mainlining some of the dirtiest fuel that exists?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, there hasn't been a final decision made. It is –

DALTON: Are you willing to reconsider it?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Probably not. And we — but we haven't finished all of the analysis. So as I say, we've not yet signed off on it. But we are inclined to do so and we are for several reasons — going back to one of your original questions — we're either going to be dependent on dirty oil from the Gulf or dirty oil from Canada. And until we can get our act together as a country and figure out that clean, renewable energy is in both our economic interests and the interests of our planet — I mean, I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone how deeply disappointed the president and I are about our inability to get the kind of legislation through the Senate that the United States was seeking.

Now, that hasn't stopped what we're doing. We have moved a lot on the regulatory front through the EPA here at home and we have been working with a number of countries on adaptation and mitigation measures. But obviously, it was one of the highest priorities of the administration for us to enshrine in legislation President Obama's commitment to reducing our emissions. So we do have a lot that still must be done. And it is a hard balancing act. It's a very hard balancing act. But it is also, for me, energy security requires that I look at all of the factors that we have to consider while we try to expedite as much as we can America's move toward clean, renewable energy. And the double disappointment is that despite China's resistance to transparency and how difficult it was for President Obama and I to drive even the Copenhagen Agreement that we finally got by crashing a meeting of China and India and Brazil and South Africa, which –

DALTON: I would have liked to have seen that one.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yeah, that was — [audience applause] — well, so we got the Copenhagen Agreement and China did sign up for it. But at the same time, they're making enormous investments in clean energy technology. And if we permit that to happen, shame on us. And it is something that United States should be the leader in. It is one of the ways to stimulate and grow our economy and create good jobs. So that's just a small window into the dilemma that we're confronted with.

You can read an excerpt of her entire program in the digital edition of the current issue of The Commonwealth magazine.

States Step out in Cancun

Greg Dalton, Club vice president and director of its Climate One program, is in Cancun this week for the climate conference taking place there. He blogs:

With international negotiations stuck in the sand and the political climate in Washington DC hostile to the reality of "global weirding," much of the discussion at the Cancun climate conference is about what states and cities can do to keep moving forward. Seen in that light, the United States looks firm around the edges and is starting to appear flabby in the middle.

California has been a bright spot at these conferences for the past several years and it's aura is shining even stronger these days following the results of this fall's election. Lauren Faber, Assistant Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, crowed that more people (nearly 6 million) cast ballots to sustain the state's core clean energy policy (AB 32) than voted for or against any other candidate or issue around the United States.

Read his entire blog post

If You Missed Hillary Clinton Tonight at The Commonwealth Club ...

Then you missed a great program. Secretary of State Clinton addressed a sold-out audience of 1,400 people in downtown San Francisco this evening, talking about everything from Mexico's drug war to environmental needs; but the underpinning of her speech and conversation with Climate One Director Greg Dalton was the need for the United States to be engaged with the world's problems and to approach challenges intelligently, using all of the tools in the country's toolkit.

Stay tuned to this blog, as well as The Commonwealth Club's radio, podcast, television and online video networks. We'll be uploading audio, video, and still photos from this event in the near future.

Photo by Sonya Abrams.

Shai Agassi: A Better Model?

Shai Agassi (left in video) talks with Greg Dalton, Climate One director and vice president of The Commonwealth Club, about making electric cars a reality.

Today Copenhagen, Tomorrow ...?

The Commonwealth Club has been bringing together thought leaders from around the world for more than a century -- it'll be 107 years this February -- but it has now expanded its reach. For the first time ever, The Club held an event outside of the United States this past Tuesday when it presented a high-level program in Copenhagen, Denmark, featuring California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (pictured, center), Himin Solar Founder and CEO Huang Ming (photo left), Nobel laureate and IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri. The event was moderated by Climate One Founder and Commonwealth Club Vice President Greg Dalton (photo right).

KQED Radio broadcast the event as a special program the following night. If you missed that broadcast, it will also be aired on KRCB FM on Dec. 17, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. Excerpts will air on KRCB TV in January. The program will also be podcast. 

For more on The Club's visit to Copenhagen, see our photo reports.

Climate One's Greg Dalton to Discuss Copenhagen on CBS5 on Dec. 20

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the high-stakes issues being negotiated at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this Sunday, December 20. Greg Dalton, Commonwealth Club vice president and founder of its Climate One initiative, will appear on the CBS5 morning news with Phil Matier between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.

Bay Area residents who don't get up that early on the weekends: Set your DVR!

For some visuals of the Copenhagen summit, see our report.

Video of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Big Speech at The Commonwealth Club

Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to Climate One at The Commonwealth Club. The occasion was the third anniversary of the signing of AB32, California's historic climate law.

The governor covered a great deal of ground in his discussions about green public policy in his speech and in his Q&A with Climate One director Greg Dalton. True, his comments about making sure his children didn't waste hot water in the shower got a lot of attention -- but even that served to illustrate his views that environmental policy touches all parts of our lives. Might not make his kids happy, but that's for him to worry about.

Watch the video to see it all.

Balancing Carbon Reduction and Economic Growth

The poorest people of the world will undoubtedly be affected the most by climate change and the current global economic crisis, according to Kathy Sierra, the vice president for sustainable development at the World Bank. Ironically, climate change will have a disproportionate impact on the poor in developing countries, who even though they have done the least to cause it, are the least prepared to deal with it and will suffer the soonest and perhaps the most from it, she told The Commonwealth Club’s Climate One audience this past Tuesday.

In conversation with The Club’s Climate One Director Greg Dalton and Awais Khan, the director of KPMG’s Clean Tech Venture Capital Practice, Sierra outlined the new dual mandate of the World Bank: help the world’s poor and simultaneously confront global climate change issues. In short, she said, successful global carbon reduction and economic growth, inextricably linked, will require “finance, technology, partnerships and a new way of thinking about development.”
When Dalton asked how the current financial crisis is affecting the work of the World Bank, Sierra responded, “It is harder now, because there is less capital out there.”

Sierra responded to queries about the bank’s mission and it major accomplishments by explaining how the bank seeks to get “knowledge out there, bring together different financial flows, and create partnerships.” She said the World Bank is strongly urging developing nations -- including India, China, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa -- to consider the changes that need to be made to reduce their carbon footprint and create better energy efficiency. She cited Mexico as an example of where climate change is being tackled aggressively. With a loan from the World Bank, Mexico is transforming urban transport, working on its rapid-bus mass transport system to get cars off the road and implement a lower emissions bus system. She noted that if they are successful there, other Latin American countries will surely take their lead and consider that those solutions might work for them as well.

Sierra lauded the efforts of Turkey as a leader in sustainable energy development. She said that Turkey is very interested in meeting European standards and that the World Bank is working closely with it to introduce smart grids and other energy-saving advancements.

Khan added that the private sector supplements World Bank efforts by looking at attractive technologies and commercializing them. He described some of the most promising energy-saving technologies currently being funded by Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists: the electric car in China, waste management technologies, and plastics recycling. “However,” he added, “the World Bank is more active than we think in Silicon Valley.” He emphasized how closely the bank must work with the governments of countries to implement change of any kind. When asked what corporations can do to help lower negative environmental emissions, Khan responded, “they can do a lot.” He used Nike as an example of a company that has pulled back from regions of the world where energy standards are lower.

With its new climate-change agenda, Sierra said the World Bank is taking more risks. She said that many developing countries, as well, are now more likely to take risks because they want diversified energy portfolios.

Knowledge, partnerships and financial packages are crucial to orchestrating the critical changes the World Bank believes need to take place. “Part of our collective job is to get the cleanest technologies in place,” Sierra said. “Our mission at the World Bank is not just to help countries do no harm, but to help them get on the right path and move toward cleaner energy solutions. It’s already happening in wind and geothermal. ... The big challenge now is how to scale it up. It’s very expensive, time-consuming -- and complicated -- but do-able. ... Carbon credits and microfinancing, this is where the world is going.”

With 1.6 billion people in developing countries living without access to electricity, Sierra said that those countries’ leaders are more motivated than ever to provide their citizens with electricity. Moving to cleaner energy will be attractive to them, especially if there is financing and technology available. Helping these countries to get on this low-carbon growth path is key to sustainable development and poverty reduction and, therefore, key to the mission of the World Bank.

--Commonwealth Club Media and Public Relations Department

Chevron and Sierra Club: Peace at Last?

In a highly anticipated face-to-face between the heads of Chevron and the Sierra Club last night at The Commonwealth Club's Climate One program, the sold-out audience got a surprise preview of what the future holds in store for these two working together.

Chevron and Sierra Club: Unusual Partners for the Common Good

It's one of the most talked-about (or blogged-about) energy and environmental events in the country: A face-to-face discussion between between the heads of Chevron and the Sierra Club.

As sweeping energy legislation winds through Congress, the chiefs of Chevron and The Sierra Club will sit down – for the first time ever -- to address their visions for powering America’s future. Chevron CEO Dave O’Reilly and Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope both agree that new fuels and efficiency will play an important role in meeting growing global energy demand. Yet they have different views on the role of fossil fuels and the pace – and cost -- of a transition to a low-carbon economy. The event will be held tonight Wedneday, June 10, 6:30 p.m. with a 5:30 check-in time at the Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason Street, in San Francisco. (Limited seating is still available; order tickets.)

"As President Obama has shown us, sometimes unusual partners have to come together to find common ground,” commented Pope. “Our energy issues are more critical than ever, and we're eager to hash out our differences and debate the best way to pursue a clean energy future."

“America’s prosperity was built on a foundation of finding common ground for the common good,” O’Reilly said. “And today we must seek common ground in securing America’s energy future. I look forward to a conversation that focuses on how America will meet its long-term energy needs while addressing environmental concerns.”

Greg Dalton, the founder of The Commonwealth Club’s Climate One program and the organizer of the program, “This debate comes at a critical juncture. Washington is considering rewriting the rules on energy and environment and the stakes are high for both of these heavyweights.”

Additional information on the speakers: O’Reilly was elected chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation on January 1, 2000. The Dublin, Ireland, native was previously vice president of Chevron Corporation and chief operating officer at Chevron Chemical Company. Upon his graduation from Ireland’s University College, he began his career at Chevron as a process engineer.

Pope became executive director of the Sierra Club in 1992. He co-authored the book Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress. He has worked with the Sierra Club for more than 30 years and has served as a board member for the National Clean Air Coalition, California Common Cause, and Public Interest Economics Inc. In January 2009, Pope announced his plans to step down once a successor is hired.

The discussion will be moderated by Alan Murray, a regular contributor to CNBC and online executive editor of The Wall Street Journal.

--Commonwealth Club Media and Public Relations Department

Schwarzenegger Makes a Big Splash at The Commonwealth Club

"The Commonwealth Club brings me luck," joked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger when he spoke at The Club last week. He used his appearance (his second in 12 months) to kick off an energetic campaign to fight for a handful of ballot initiatives that he says will help California stave off another brutal budget fight like the one we just endured; he said that the initiatives, if approved by voters in a special May 19 election, will make the state take money from the boom years to help smooth out the bust years.

If the governor wanted to attract attention with his speech and the audience question-and-answer session (see photo below of Schwarzenegger being asked questions by Commonwealth Club VP Greg Dalton), he succeeded wildly. Press coverage of the event, beginning with a live broadcast over KQED radio in the Bay Area, was extensive, and we've collected just a sampling of it here.

1. The Christian Science Monitor: California's Voters Get Next Say in Budget Battles

2. The Los Angeles Times: Schwarzenegger Begins Campaign for Ballot Measures

3. Bloomberg: California Teachers Plan Rally as 26,000 Warned of Job Cuts

4. The Guardian (UK): Schwarzenegger Urges California Voters to pass Budget Reform Measures

5. CBS 5 (San Francisco): Poll: May Election Nears, Few Focus on Props

6. LAist: Battle Over May 19th Election Props Begins Heated Race

7. San Diego Union-Tribune: State Budget Springs a Leak

8. KQED Capital Notes: "It's the System," Says Guv



(Photos by Amanda Leung)

Dawn of the Energy Climate Era

While the negotiations going on this week in Poland often seem plodding and diffuse, when one considers the magnitude of exactly what is happening, they are an exciting moment in history.

After World War II, the victors created a set of institutions (United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund) and treaties (United Nations Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights) that collectively defined the world order for the ensuing 60 years.

As Fareed Zakaria said (audio) in his talk earlier this year at The Commonwealth Club, those institutions are ill-equipped to deal with the challenge of climate change. And, as the carbon muscles of India and China illustrate, the industrialized West will not get to dictate terms this time around.

Next year, developed and developing countries will negotiate a new treaty on climate change that will impact every person, industry and organization in ways that we are just starting to comprehend. That treaty will rank up there with the pillars of the post-war era and its implementation will be accompanied by the creation of new international structures that don't even exist now. In 20 years they will be household names. Thomas Friedman is calling this new chapter the Energy-Climate Era.

The centerpiece agreement of this carbon-conscious era could be built on several architectures, says Rob Stavins, co-director of the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements.

1) It could be centralized under one mega-treaty with a set of targets and timetables for each signatory country to reduce carbon in the atmosphere;
2) It could consist of harmonized national policies, which could include a portfolio of various treaties or a system of national taxes.

Whichever emerges, it is going to be a very busy year in 2009. While the Obama administration re-engages the international negotiations, there will be a flurry of activity in Congress on domestic legislation to create some kind of cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. Lorrie Schmidt, a Congressional staffer , says, “Congress and the executive [branch] will go in parallel; neither will get too far ahead of the other.” With good reason. During the Kyoto talks in the 1990s, the Clinton administration negotiated a deal without sufficiently including Congress. The treaty was dead on arrival at the U.S. Senate.

This time around, Congress will be much more involved, as demonstrated by the bi-partisan staffers here representing chairs of key committees such as House Energy and Commerce (Waxman), Senate Environment and Public Works (Boxer), and Foreign Relations (Kerry).

Can the United States approve a cap-and-trade law before the international treaty negotiations next December in Copenhagen? That will be a stretch, to say the least, given the complexity of measuring, trading and verifying an entirely new market and political opposition in some states. One possibility is for the U.S. Congress to approve a set of principles next fall that empower the U.S. negotiating team to cut a deal that can get through the Senate.

However they do it, they need to get it right. A lot is at stake. As Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says. “This is our defining moment.”

Post from Poznan

The first thing I noticed upon arrival in Poznan, Poland, for the United Nations Climate Summit was the acrid smell of coal in the air. Coal, among the dirtiest of fossil fuels, accounts for 95 percent of Poland's electricity and the hazy skies here evoke sooty images from a Dickens novel. This heavily industrialized part of central Europe is so polluted it is called the Black Triangle.

One of Europe's largest coal mines is just a few miles down the road, and there is a smokestack right across the street from the sprawling Soviet-era conference center. That's a fitting reminder for the 11,000 people who are gathered to discuss pathways to a low carbon global economy.

If the dreary setting, and the massive magnitude of the climate challenge, were not enough, the UN conference opened as the global economic crisis continues to deepen. "The bottom line is we are not going to be in the position we were two years ago" to provide technology and financial resources to tackle climate change, U.S. Senator John Kerry said in the United States before the conference opened here December 1st. Kerry is head of the US Congressional delegation arriving here next week and chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, which will consider the treaty expected to emerge at the next annual summit in Copenhagen next December.

Despite the dark horizons and modest expectations of this year's gathering, there are bright spots. A briefing by the World Resources Institute, a Washington think tank, noted that much of China's $586 billion economic stimulus package is geared toward improving energy infrastructure and efficiency. China realizes that juicing the economy can be done while making smart investments in a new generation of energy infrastructure and efficiency. Other countries are seeing the same double play and the amount of capital being pumped into alternative energies and sustainable economic development is now many times greater than it ever has been.

Still, much more needs to be done. There is a broad international consensus on that. How much more? Some energy advocates and NASA's climate pioneer James Hansen say the end goal should be an atmosphereic carbon concentration of 350 parts per million. Others say 450 ppm is the number that will avoid catastrophic disruptions in our climate and way of life.

Many companies and politicians don't want to commit to a specific target. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a London-based association of corporate titans such as Dupont, IBM, and mining giant Rio Tinto, dodges the sensitive question of a hard figure. But it does say significant cuts are necessary. "The current economic crisis reinforces business interests in a clear, comprehensive framework" for cutting carbon emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, council member George Weyerhaeuser, Jr., told the conference.

What will the new global climate deal be? That won't be known until next December, but if it has any hope of solving the climate crisis it must dramatically cut emissions from coal plants such as the ones that power (and choke) this town. Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, says he supports fighting climate change, like just about every politician these days. And like nearly every politician, he thinks his constituents should get a special break, arguing Poland should be exempt from European Union plans to curb carbon emissions. Multiply that attitude by 160 participating countries and one begins to gauge the enormity of what must happen. Fast.

Greg Dalton, Commonwealth Club vice president and head of its ClimateOne program, is attending climate talks in Poznan, Poland.

Complete Video: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Climate Change, Finance Crisis

Above, courtesy of our video partners at Fora.tv, is the complete video of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's sold-out speech to The Commonwealth Club. He spoke on the anniversary of AB32, the state's landmark global-warming legislation, and in a wide-ranging Q&A with Club Vice President Greg Dalton he discusses the global financial crisis, dealing with Detroit, his expectations for the next president, and much more.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Offshore Drilling

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Tells Club Credit Crisis Can't Stop Climate Change Initiatives

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told a Commonwealth Club audience this afternoon that budget battles and financial crises should not be used as excuses to back away from the leadership position the state has taken to reduce greenhouse gases.

Touching on some of the hot-button issues of the day, he also promised to uphold his pledge to resist oil drilling off the coast of California. Part of the solution, he said, would be better, more fuel-efficient cars from Detroit. Schwarzenegger said Detroit complains about his moves to get a federal exemption that would allow California (as in years past) to set its own fuel economy standards; he recommended that the rest of the country adopt California's higher standards and that Detroit stop complaining and begin innovating and rolling out alternative energy cars.

Speaking on the second anniversary of AB32, California's landmark Global Warming Solutions Act, the Republican governor told a packed audience of more than 500 people that the state has benefited greatly -- and will continue to do so -- from investment in green technologies. He praised the bipartisan state leaders who created the bill, and he said his administration will continue to focus on areas ranging from cleaning up its shipping ports to building the hydrogen highway.

In a wide-ranging audience question-and-answer period moderated by Club Vice President Greg Dalton, Schwarzenegger responded to the ongoing talks in Washington, D.C., aimed at crafting a large-scale government intervention into the markets to try to calm worldwide credit and investment markets. The governor offered his support for government intervention in cases where the markets have failed, but he urged that the government "not try to pick the winners" when it invests money or tries to direct economic development.

Keep visiting this Commonwealth Club blog for more reports from the governor's speech, press reaction, and photos and videos.