Climate One

The Climate Fix? Roger Pielke, Professor, University of Colorado What’s the most efficient way to minimize the impacts of climate change? Public policy? Massive funding of new technology? Buying off emerging countries that will soon emit most of the world’s carbon pollution? Pielke, who is affiliated with The Breakthrough Institute, is critical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He’ll explain why and offer his take on the state of climate science. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francicso on October 15, 2010

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Greg Dalton, Founder of Climate One, moderator In just her third appearance before a US audience as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton touts the potential of American innovation to further public diplomacy and to help tackle a host of global challenges. Before a sold-out Commonwealth Club crowd of 1,500, Clinton comments on global flashpoints – Afghanistan, Iran, and Mexico – while addressing climate change and clean energy. Clinton repeatedly stresses the need to leverage the creativity of Silicon Valley with work underway at her department. “Innovation is one of America's greatest values and products,” she says, “and we are very committed to working with scientists and researchers to look for new ways to develop hardier crops or lifesaving drugs at affordable costs, working with engineers for new sources of clean energy or clean water to both stem climate change and also to improve the standard of living for people.” In the Q&A, Climate One founder Greg Dalton asks Clinton if the State Department would reconsider granting a permit for the controversial Alberta Clipper Pipeline. Clinton concedes that while a final decision had not been made, the project is likely to go ahead: “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.” Clinton also comments on Senate’s failure to act on climate change. “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,” she says. Clinton closes with advice for Ellie, a 10-year-old who expresses concern for the future environment. “I think that there is a lot that you can do, because it's been my experience that young people are much more environmentally conscious and committed to protecting the world you're growing up in than some of us older people are,” she says. “I'm out of politics, as you all know. So speaking as a private citizen,” she adds, to laughter, “I think people running for office should be asked to explain their positions on what they're going to do.” This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on October 15, 2010

In the Balance: Energy, Economy and Environment Part of The Chevron California Innovation Series Raj Atluru, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Ralph Cavanagh, Energy Co-director, Natural Resources Defense Council Cathy Reheis-Boyd, President, Western States Petroleum Association Jack Stewart, President, California Manufacturers and Technology Association Virgil Welch, Special Assistant to the Chairman, California Air Resources Board Greg Dalton, Climate One - Moderator The low-carbon economy is California’s future. But this panel of energy experts convened by Climate One disagrees on how fast that transition will take, and how it will impact the economy. Jack Stewart, President, California Manufacturers and Technology Association, and Cathy Reheis-Boyd, President, Western States Petroleum Association, repeatedly stress that California could be more business friendly, and that green jobs alone won’t pull the state out of recession. “We all see a clean energy future,” Stewart says. “The question is: When do we get there? How fast do we get there? And at what cost?” “We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are not in a good state in California,” says Reheis-Boyd. “I can tell you my members are making some very difficult choices about where to invest their next dollar.” We have to get the rules right, the remaining panel members say, but they see no trade-off between environmental and economic good. “I think the energy history of California over the last 30 years is how to do both well,” says Ralph Cavanagh, Energy co-director, Natural Resources Defense Council. “Nobody is satisfied with 12.4% unemployment, but I don’t think the answer is doing less of what we already know we do better than anyone else. I think it’s speeding up.” For Virgil Welch, Special Assistant to the Chairman of the California Air Resources Board, it’s also about maintaining California’s global competitiveness. “The policies that we as a state are working on are not just what we need to do for our energy and environmental needs, but they’re critical to driving us towards where the global economy is heading, which is clean energy.” As long as California’s maintains its forward-thinking policy framework, green innovators will call the state home, says, Raj Atluru, Managing Director at the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. “California has succeeded over the last century because of its innovation. We’ve innovated in entertainment, flight, defense, communications, PCs, the Internet. Our bet, at our firm, is that the next wave of innovation is going to be the green jobs economy. ” This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on October 12, 2010

Solar Surge? John Woolard, CEO, BrightSource Energy Karen Douglas, Chairman, California Energy Commission Lisa Hoyos, California Director, Apollo Alliance Greg Dalton, Climate One - Moderator A “perfect storm” of policy and incentives has made 2010 a banner year for solar in California, but for the boom to continue in the state and the rest of the United States, major obstacles need to be cleared, according to a panel of experts convened by Climate One. Karen Douglas, Chair of the California Energy Commission, BrightSource Energy President and CEO John Woolard, and Lisa Hoyos, California State Coordinator, Apollo Alliance, caution that the absence of a coherent, stable, and long-term national clean energy policy is holding back the industry. “One of the challenges in US policy is that … it’s been, ironically, perpetual and long term for fossil fuels, but short term and extended sporadically for renewables,” Woolard says. “We need a longer time horizon … at least five, more likely ten years, is reasonable.” Douglas agrees: “It’s terribly damaging to extend a policy and then reverse the policy. If you do that too many times, developers feel burned.” We also need to be able to deliver the clean energy to the grid. Woolard notes that over the past decade US regulators have sited 12,000 miles of natural gas pipelines but only 600 miles of power lines. “It’s like running interstate commerce without highways and rails,” Woolard says. If you can get projects financed and approved by regulators, it will mean jobs, Hoyos says. “Clean energy jobs are growing ten times faster than any other sector of our economy in this state,” she says. “We need to fully put our energy behind opposing Proposition 23 so we can continue to realize the benefits of AB 32, which is expected to generate in the next ten years over $104 billion in investment and other economic opportunities.” This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on October 8, 2010

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: Green Light or Red Light Ahead? With an election approaching that will decide his successor and the fate of his landmark legislative achievement, California’s climate law known as AB 32, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers a full-throated defense of his legacy. Schwarzenegger’s aim, he says, is to shed a spotlight on “forces willing to sacrifice this country’s environmental future for private gain” by pushing Proposition 23. “Oil companies like Valero and Tesoro and Frontier and Koch Industries are blatantly trying to manipulate the will of the people and the public good,” he says. “They are creating a shell argument that this is about saving jobs. Does anyone really believe that these companies, out of the goodness of their black-oil hearts, are spending millions and millions of dollars to protect jobs?” Asked by Climate One founder Greg Dalton if he welcomes Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman coming down on his side on Prop. 23, Schwarzenegger replies, “Yes, I welcome anyone who comes to our side and helps. I hope she uses some of her billions of dollars that she has and put it into the campaign to fight Prop. 23.” Schwarzenegger repeatedly stresses that California’s future rests on its ability to lead the transition to a clean energy economy, and that doing so would not negatively impact the state’s economy. Since 2005, he says, jobs in the greentech sector have grown ten times faster than the California average and are the single-largest source of new job growth in the state. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club on September 27, 2010

Salt, Oil and Carbon Jane Lubchenco, Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Nancy Sutley, Chair, Council on Environmental Quality, the White House Greg Dalton, Founder of Climate One A new national oceans policy will require a patchwork of federal agencies to collaborate on managing the country’s oceans and lakes for the first time, according to Jane Lubchenco, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. They told a Climate One audience the creation of a National Oceans Council should help streamline and centralize the fractured system that had existed before. “What we have is a whole new dimension of collaboration,” says Sutley. The pair’s enthusiasm for the new reforms was tempered by the dire state of the oceans and the manifold threats that promise to degrade them further. Lubchenco notes that the acidity of the oceans has increased by 30% in the past 100 years. That is compromising the ability of calcium carbonate-shelled creatures to make shells, she says, threatening the “rainforests of the sea” – coral reefs – and placing in jeopardy the base of the marine food web. How will the BP oil disaster affect the health of the Gulf of Mexico? Lubchenco says it will take years to really know. Of the 4.9 million barrels that gushed into the deep ocean, Lubchenco says ¼ was burned, skimmed, or captured; ¼ evaporated; ¼ was dispersed, naturally or by chemicals; and the last ¼ collected as sheen on the surface, in tar balls, or washed ashore. Lubchenco remains concerned about the very dilute but still toxic oil that remains below the surface. “Dilute does not mean benign,” she says. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 8, 2010

Cradle to California William McDonough, Architect and Author, Cradle to Cradle Greg Dalton, Founder of Climate One American architect McDonough and German chemist Michael Braungart started the Cradle to Cradle revolution in manufacturing and design. Now they want to drive that integrated thinking deeper into the heart of capitalism. How? By creating a startup in Silicon Valley. The Green Products Innovation Institute, which McDonough and Governor Schwarzenegger christened last spring, aims to transform the “making and consumption of things into a regenerative force for the planet.” The institute will certify products to inform consumers and encourage corporations to use cleaner and more sustainable materials and processes. Does the world need another green seal of approval? McDonough says it’s about much more than that. He’s thinking big about architecture, manufacturing and transportation. And with his track record, he has the ear of captains of industry as well as activists including Brad Pitt. Join us for a conversation with one of the leading lights of the sustainability movement. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 7, 2010

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Power Shift: The U.S. Navy and Global Energy Reform

Rep. Ed Markey: Cap and Fade?

After BP: Climate Progress?

Shai Agassi: A Better Model?

Hot, Wet and Uncertain

America’s Climate War

Merchants of Doubt