Midwest governors jolt the world with bold action on energy security and global warming
by Fresh Energyby Michael Noble, executive director, Fresh Energy
The “Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Platform for the Midwest” and a “Greenhouse Gas Accord” to establish a program for capping carbon pollution was announced yesterday in Milwaukee and signed by the governors of Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and the premier of Manitoba. The governors of South Dakota, Indiana, and Ohio signed on as observers, and the governors of Nebraska and North Dakota said, “No thanks.” These governors’ agreements include much that is good, some that is remarkably good, and some that will stir controversy among environmental advocates.
The final speaker of the governor’s conference was Armond Cohen, the CEO of the Clean Air Task Force, who reminded the governors that to stabilize the world’s climate we will need to produce almost twice as much carbon-free energy globally by mid-century as we have total energy today. He also said that is about the most detailed set of policy recommendations he had have seen from government in 30 years of dialogs/collaborations/stakeholder processes. It has the full commitment of the governors themselves, who I am told, fully realize how ambitious it is to reduce CO2 by 60-80 percent. These agreements are not the usually platitudinous principles that one expects from such lofty ventures.
It is not the perfect road map because it represents a compromise between very diverse economic, political, and environmental advocacy interests, but it is a landmark event and has much to praise. The state environmental spokespersons from NGOs in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Kansas at yesterday’s national press conference assembled by Fresh Energy’s Media Center called it “bold,” “historic,” “courageous.” Listen to an audio file of the environmental groups’ press conference.
With this announcement, almost half of the governors in the United States have now agreed to pass laws to regulate CO2, further driving the inevitable federal action that has been so dearly needed for about two decades.
Consider it: six governors from America’s heartland who are willing to commit to cut CO2 by 60-80 percent. Just say that out loud to yourself; if you try to imagine it 12 months ago, you’ll agree it’s quite remarkable. I salute our colleagues at Clean Wisconsin, Clean Air Task Force, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Izaak Walton League, Minnesota Project, Wind on the Wires, and the Midwest’s NGO RE-AMP partners who put in countless hours meeting with government officials and private industry on working groups covering these issues: Power Sector, Carbon Markets, and Advanced Transportation Fuels. Especially, I commend the Great Plains Institute for their business model based on relationships and dialogs. Their strategic decision to leave policy advocacy and lobbying to others enabled these long-overdue conversations to take place. I applaud the Joyce Foundation for helping to shift the power in the climate debate to governors when the Federal Congress and U.S. President has been so unfailingly ineffectual on global warming since 1990.
I was taken by the courageous leadership of governors who signed this:
- MGA Chair Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, a pragmatic and moderate Democrat who has forged a consensus among his peers
- Jennifer Granholm of Michigan who has lost over 300,000 jobs in the auto industry since 2000 and sees the green jobs energy revolution as the antidote
- Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas who is under siege from the coal and utility industry for denying them the permit for a coal plant on the basis of global warming pollution
- a youthful Chet Culver of Iowa, who spoke of it being “our turn to lead” and to put a point on it, promoted some of our closest Iowa environmental allies into leadership roles in his administration
- Governor Blagojevich who has coal mining, auto and heavy industry in his state
- Governor Pawlenty, who as a self-described conservative, bucked the anti-global-warming-solutions fringe of his base
By demonstrating that it is absolutely inappropriate for leadership of energy innovation to be a target of partisan politics, Governor Pawlenty gave the others room to join this action. Hopefully his outspokenness will open the same possibility for climate leadership among many of the Republicans who aspire to be President. I believe that he really understands the seriousness of our energy and climate crises now. Needless to say, Governor Pawlenty also made yesterday’s agreements possible by signing the sweeping renewable energy, energy efficiency, and global warming laws in 2007 that the other governors now aspire to.
Again, kudos to Rolf Nordstrom, Brad Crabtree, Mike Gregorson, Eric Shroeder, Brendan Jordan, Jennifer Johnson, and Sarah Walsh at Great Plains Institute, and Ellen Alberding, Steve Brick, Margaret O’Dell, and Mary O’Connell at Joyce Foundation.
The hard work begins to meet these goals, prevent their erosion or hijacking by special interests, and design and implement policy solutions that turn rhetoric into reality.
