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.

Pickens' Wind Plan Loses Support as Oil Prices Fall

T. Boone Pickens and tree-hugging environmentalists make quite an odd couple. The man who says he has lost his fortune three times over is betting on wind power as the next big thing in energy. But the constituency most likely to support his efforts -- liberal-leaning Democrats -- often distrust his former career and politics.

Pickens is, after all, an 80-year-old former oilman, who the Washington Post's Dana Milbank says lost over $2 billion dollars last year after betting oil prices would continue to rise when they actually sunk to new lows. In the past, he was a supporter of the infamous Swift Boat attack against Sen. John Kerry and voted for Sen. John McCain in the last presidential election. When HBO's Bill Maher pointedly asked Pickens last week how he could justify his new-found support for clean energy when he previously supported candidates with a background in oil and coal, he brushed off the question by saying he wasn't a politician and said he did not support McCain's candidacy except as Maher said, "in the voting booth."

The "Pickens Plan" has taken its lumps of late, including the easily defeated Proposition 10 in California, which touted clean energy and tax credits for the purchase of hybrid vehicles. Detractors pointed out that Pickens had more than skin in the fight and may have financially benefited by its passage. The lack of investors and public policies in favor of his plan also hurt his efforts. Last fall, the Wall Street Journal reported that at least 50 percent of Pickens' investors had dropped out because of falling oil prices and the realization that the economy was entering a severe downturn. With oil prices currently in the low-to-mid $40-per-barrel range, it is no wonder the perpetually positive Pickens is bullish on oil prices rising. Reuters reported last week that Pickens predicts the price tag for a barrel of crude to rise to $75 by the end of the year.

Last October, Google CEO Eric Schmidt visited the Commonwealth Club also touting alternative methods of reducing the cost of oil on America's treasury. Read the post here and watch the speech here.

Therein lies the twin ironies of the Pickens Plan, where the acceptance and transition to clean energies such as wind and natural gas are predicated on oil men with an eye on oil futures along with the support of Americans most likely to consume less "Texas Tea."

You'll have an opportunity to find out for yourself what this enigmatic and controversial businessman believes. T. Boone Pickens will discuss his plan to build the world's largest wind farm and how America can begin to limit its addiction to foreign oil next Wednesday, March 25 at the Commonwealth Club. Click here for more information.

Experts: After Spill, Local Bureaucracy is Still Lagging Behind Clean Up

Though the ill-fated cargo ship Cosco Busan trudged through the San Francisco Bay one dense, foggy morning a year ago today, the consequences of the oil spill still reverberate not only ecologically, but at all levels of government.

Despite a bevy of bills signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a far greater amount of awareness about the issue, critics complain that the region is still not sufficiently prepared to deal with another large-scale spill.

California Assemblyman Jared Huffman along with an environmental activist and local emergency manager, speaking today at the Commonwealth Club found that problems still exist in the areas of response.

Huffman, who represents Marin County, which suffered oil damage to the coastline at Bolinas Lagoon, wonders whether private contractors are the best choice for clean up. “Is it a good idea to rely on folks who wold make more money if the spill is allowed to worsen?” said Huffman.

He also questions whether the proximity of such responders, nearly all unfamiliar with the terrain and surf of the Bay Area are best equipped to handle situations.

Some out-of-state responders needed to be rescued from the ocean by volunteer fire fighters, he said.

“They have adopted at the Federal level this system of private contractors." said Huffman. "I think we ought to be questioning the effectiveness and the efficacy of relying on contractors who may be very good at what they do but are not located nearby when you need them."

Also problematic to the panel is the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 that, in effect, gives ship owners the first right to cleaning any spill.

"It is the culture of the oil spill response community to make best use of primary resources -- contractors that specialize in oil spill response. They have elaborate mechanisms and pieces of equipment as well as highly trained personnel that specialize in how to get heavy black stuff off the water into the boat," said Chris Godley, manager of emergency response in Marin. "That said, though, there are other resources that may be useful for such a response that are available from local and even state governments that were initially declined.”

These include the use of aviation, communication systems and local volunteers.

Godley noted the throng of volunteers itching to help clean Bay Area beaches was unprecedented in the United States. Most places where oil spills occur are in areas away from large metropolitan area as opposed to the leak in the greater Bay Area.

“Someone literally poured oil on your doormat, you’re going to want to go out and take care of it,” said Godley.

Sejal Choksi, the director of programs at Baykeeper, a local group striving to preserve the bay waters, believes the key to preventing a large scale disaster is too work quickly after the initial accident.

(For more, read Choksi's article in the opinion section of the San Francisco Chronicle.)

One problem facing the bay's unique geography is that technology does not yet exist to clean up some local coastlines. According to Choksi, the current in Bolinas Lagoon is too swift to operate safely; Angel Island is too rocky; and both Richardson Bay and the mudflats near Emeryville are too shallow to protect.

In the big picture, though, the speakers said that everyday pollution is a more manageable and growing problem than shipping containers floating in and out the bay.

"Oil spills are not the biggest threat to the bay," said Choksi. "They are a tremendous threat to the bay, but our everyday activities do pose more pollution problems for the bay’s health and water quality.”

Though he said that local officials were not ready to respond to the oil spill in the bay a year ago, Godley thinks some of the measures taken since then would have lessened the damage to the ecosystem. “Things may have been different had the provision now in place as a result of the Cosco Busan been in place at the time of the event.”

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