Shays-Pomerance Green Town Hall Meeting

Darien League of Women Voters Press Release February 2008 By Joan V. Davis

LWV Town-Hall Program:
“How Can We Turn Washington Green”

On Friday, February 1, the Darien League of Women Voters hosted an education forum on “How Can We Turn Washington ‘Green?” The speakers were Rafe Pomerance, President of the organization “Clean Air –Cool Planet,” and Congressman Chris Shays. Moderating the event was Enid Oresman, former President of the Connecticut LWV. About 65 people gathered for coffee in the Town Hall Auditorium before the presentation began at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. Pomerance, who grew up in Greenwich, was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and Development from 1993 to 1999 during which time he helped negotiate the Kyoto protocols. He has more than 30 years of experience in environmental activism. He divided his presentation into three sections; the science of global warming, the policies needed to counteract the problem, and the politics involved in developing an effective policy. He emphasized that there were “Human Hands on the Earth’s thermostat.” Our increased use in the past 30 years of fossil fuels such as Black Carbon, Methane and aerosols have produced a greenhouse effect of CO2 being trapped in the atmosphere which has caused the earth’s temperature to rise dramatically. While the United States is one of the biggest users of fossil fuels the problem is a global one with China and India increasing their consumption of energy from fossil fuels.

Mr. Pomerance showed slides depicting the dramatic increase in average temperatures from 1970 to the present. This has caused a rise in sea levels, the melting of arctic ice sheets and a shift in our weather patterns. Ecologically the polar bears and other creatures are struggling as their environment and food sources change.

The United States, Mr. Pomerance insisted has to develop a policy to regulate carbon used in our economy and to spur other countries to join us in this endeavor. There are three facets to this: A cap and trade policy to limit use of fossil fuels, a carbon tax and research and development to create alternate fuels. Global agreement in needed since India and China in particular use the fuels inefficiently. Public opinion should be aroused with movies such as Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”; there should be international pressure for prompt action.

Politically, the electoral debates are an excellent opportunity to discuss this problem and the candidates are beginning to realize this. Mr. Pomerance gave as an example that as part of the New Hampshire primary 180 towns had pro-green resolutions on climate change on the ballot and the resolutions were passed in 164 of them. He said that the new president should present a bill on comprehensive climate change policy during the first 150 days of his /her administration.

Representative Shays, who was designated “Lifetime Hero” by the League of Conservation Voters, also emphasized the need for presidential leadership in environmental matters. He said that if we didn’t act quickly our children and grandchildren would say of us “What were they thinking?!” to let the quality of the environment deteriorate so rapidly. Al Gore got people’s attention with his movie and his book but before that people ignored the issue or pushed it aside.

What can we do? Shays said the first step should be conservation. In 1987 he introduced a bill that would raise the gas tax by 50 cents. The tax would be used for new technology and infrastructure. The auto manufacturers and the UAW successful resisted this. The Energy bill this year raised the automobile miles per gallon requirement to 35 mpg and included SUVs and mini-vans but did not provide funding for renewable fuels such as solar heating. Representative Shays said he wished the president had submitted the Kyoto protocol to congress. Although it would not have passed because China and India were not included in the protocol, Kyoto would have provoked a solid discussion of the climate problem in this country. Now, Shays feels, the country and the congress are asking more pertinent questions. The president signed the resolution passed in Bali which called for continued international negotiations on climate policy to conclude at a further conference in 2009.

During the question period following the presentations one question was especially pertinent. “What two things would you do if you were the Climate Change Tsar?” Mr. Pomerance said he would price fuel high enough to change people’s behavior, and establish a research and development program to improve alternate energy resources.

Representative Shays said that he would find ways to stimulate the market to act sooner to produce “greener” energy and educate the people in more efficient use of energy.

This important LWV program will be aired this week on Channel 79 at 7:00 a.m.,

12:30 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and midnight.