Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is one of the ‘top tier’ candidates for the Republican nomination for President. Rudy served as Mayor from 1994 through 2001, distinguishing himself in the eyes of many Americans during the national crisis on September 11th. Giuliani had previously served in the Reagan White House, and also as a Public Prosecutor, and in the US Attorney’s Office.

On the campaign trail in New Hampshire, only next-door (Massachusetts) neighbor Mitt Romney has made more trips to New Hampshire than Giuliani has. Rudy has campaigned in every corner of our state.

I caught up with “America’s Mayor” in mid-June. I asked him about his plans to make America energy independent. Giuliani replied, “”Let’s get serious about energy independence. We need to put resources into ethanol production. We need to license more nuclear plants. Nuclear power is dangerous but so is every other form of power.” (Really? Wind power is dangerous???)

When I asked him about what forms of clean energy he favored, he seemed ambivalent – “We need to look into cleaning coal. Wind and solar energy today are just too inconsistent.”

While on the stump that day, Giuliani spoke about how energy independence was a critical component of our national security. He begrudgingly acknowledged that global warming is occurring and that we are probably exacerbating the problem but it is not a staple of his stump speech. While he doesn’t run from the topic when asked, he doesn’t offer it without provocation. 

So what are Giuliani’s plans for Energy Independence?

· He wants to expand domestic corn ethanol production; he believes that we should use bio-fuels to help displace foreign oil use in our vehicles. Corn and cellulosic ethanol, as well as bio-diesel should play a role. He believes that the bio-fuels industry can help revitalize rural America

· Giuliani wants to license more nuclear plants within the US and to relicense and modernize existing plants. To anyone worried about the safety of nuclear power, Giuliani said, “No one’s ever died from nuclear power in the United States” but that nuclear power needs to be produced safely.

· Giuliani also called for more clean-burning domestic natural gas;

· He has been promoting expanded drilling for domestic oil and natural gas, including drilling off of the coast of Florida and in ANWR;

· He believes that clean coal technology will help us become more energy independent. Carbon sequestration techniques are a priority for him. He stated that our abundant coal reserves may help wean us off polluting fossil fuels;

· Giuliani also supports the coal to fuel synthesis claiming it can be one of most “valuable contributors to our energy independence;”

· Giuliani is promoting Efficiency and Conservation. He has stated that America’s government, corporations, and individuals must engage in efficiency and conservation efforts that reduce demand for oil, without damaging America’s competitiveness worldwide or our standard of living. America needs to use more energy-efficient technologies and take personal responsibility for conserving energy.
With respect to climate change, Giuliani recognizes that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. He has said, “I do believe there’s global warming, yes. The big question has always been how much of it is happening because of natural climate changes and how much of it is happening because of human intervention. I think we have to accept the view that scientists have that there is global warming and that human operation, human condition, contributes to that.”

While he recognizes that climate change is a problem, he opposes mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. He falls back on the old argument that “if China and India are not restricted, then our contribution will be minor.”  (Where is the leadership?)

Surprisingly, regarding Renewable Energy, Rudy said, “Renewable sources of electricity, including solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal power, will play an important role in our move to energy independence.”

However, I do tend to take his comments on expansion of renewable energy with a grain of salt. The reason for that is because he is leading all of the presidential candidates, of both parties, in accepting contributions from people in the oil and gas industry, totaling over a half million dollars already! Not incidentally, his current law firm has represented such companies as Chevron Texaco, Enron, Duke Energy and Pacific Gas and Electric.

Based on current national polls, Rudy may very well wind up being the Republican nominee in 2008. The NH Republican primary voters just might not support Rudy if they keep the sage words of Stephen Stills, ringing in their ears,

“Don’t let the past remind us of what we are not now. I am not dreaming.”

Next Week: Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo

SmartPower - the national non-profit marketing organization that is leading the creation of a voluntary market for clean energy and energy efficiency.

Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential Campaign Website

Image Credit: Flickr - First in the Nation Forum, Manchester, NH

Mike Garofalo’s Previous ‘Power To The People’ Columns

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes….

Senator Barack Obama is the junior US Senator representing the state of Illinois in the US Senate. He was elected to the Senate in 2004 and is serving in his first term. Previously, Obama had served as a 3-term Illinois state senator. Barack is married to his wife, Michelle, and they have two young daughters.

Obama, even as a freshman US Senator, is in the ‘top tier’ of Democratic candidates for President. He has visited New Hampshire more than 20 times, spending more than a month’s worth of time traveling across the Granite State. He has been virtually in every corner of this state bringing his messages of hope to Democratic and Independent voters here.

Obama’s reputation for delivering passionate speeches full of hope and promise is legendary. He is often compared to Senator Robert F. Kennedy for his ability to inspire and motivate those who hear him. But for all his inspirations and hope, Obama appears to be a man of great contradictions, at least as far as renewable energy issues are concerned.

I caught up with Senator Obama in mid May traveling through NH’s seacoast area. At a town hall meeting, I asked him, as I have asked all of the candidates, about his views on promoting clean energy. Obama’s response, “I have been leading the bipartisan effort to raise CAFÉ standards and to promote the development and use of hybrid cars.”  Well, raising CAFÉ standards is a good idea and hybrid cars are great but I really wanted some depth (and inspiration) from this man.

I followed up with my usual follow-up question about how can we make America more energy independent and he replied, “I am also working on a bipartisan effort to produce more clean coal.”  Not quite what I had hoped he would say. His candidacy and his campaign positions offer some opposing views.

Last month, Senator Obama unveiled details of an ambitious energy policy, right here in New Hampshire. Unlike in most of the presidential debates, clean energy is a real concern of the voters here, so announcing his plan in NH made sense.  Senator Obama supports:

* A Cap-and-Trade system that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. This seems to be the standard against which all ‘green’ candidates are being measured. Obama wants the emission permits to be auctioned rather than allocated, which would a lot of money that he wants dedicated to clean energy research and development.

* He supports a national renewable portfolio standard that would require 25% of US electricity to be generated from renewable sources by the year 2025.

* He supports huge and continued subsidies for corn-derived ethanol production, which would certainly help farmers in Illinois, but do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But, he does support expanded use and development of cellulosic biofuel production. 

* There is another issue that Obama has supported that has not won him many friends in the environmental and renewable energy communities. He strongly supports expanding and developing more ‘clean coal’ technologies. He also wants to invest in lower emission coal plants. Again, this would help southern Illinois coal producers, but at the expense of exacerbating greenhouse gas emissions.

* Obama has stated that, ”The U.S. is recognized as the global leader in understanding better geologic coal-sequestration technologies. If we abandon that leadership, we risk leaving the rest of the planet wide open to investing billions in polluting infrastructure.”

* He would support signing the Kyoto protocols to demonstrate American leadership in battling global warming. Obama would prefer a new international global warming partnership.

* As recently as the last Democratic debate (in Las Vegas) Obama reiterated his support, albeit lukewarm, for nuclear power. He reminds us that nuclear currently provides over 70 percent of our non-carbon generated electricity. But he does understand that there are significant safety and waste issues that are cause for real concern. Nonetheless, his support is undeterred because of our dependence on foreign fossil fuels.

* Obama wishes to invest $150 Billion over the next ten years to develop renewable energy technologies in the United States.

* Another courageous stand, that many candidates are not advocating, is conservation. Obama would like to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 35% by 2030.

* He is also promoting energy efficiency by making federal government buildings more energy efficient. His energy efficiency plans also call for the phasing out of traditional incandescent lightbulbs by 2014.

* Obama also wants the federal government to lead America in the use of clean energy. He wants 30 percent of the government’s electricity use to come from clean energy by 2020.

* Obama has authored or co-authored over 100 eco-friendly bills in the US Senate and promises this set of issues will have a prominent place in the Obama Administration. 

Senator Barack Obama is a man full of hope, promise, and complicated positions and beliefs. He is a compelling candidate, with some really strong environmental beliefs. But in his short political career, his positions on a variety of issues have changed, and so has he.

As David Bowie might sing, “Time may change me, But I can’t trace time…..”

Next week: Former NY City Mayor Rudy Giuliani

SmartPower - The national, non-profit marketing organization that is leading the creation of a voluntary market for clean energy and energy efficiency.

Barack Obama’s Presidential Website

Image Credit: Flickr - Obama at UNH, Durham, NH - February 2007

Mike Garofalo’s Previous ‘Power to the People’ Columns

It is extremely hard to find any politically uncommitted New Hampshire residents who have actually seen Duncan Hunter on the campaign trail – though it has been reported he has made 9 separate trips up here. It’s even harder to find someone who actually heard Duncan Hunter talk about clean energy or energy independence while he was here.

In early June, Hunter did attend a gathering of the New Hampshire State Republican Party in Manchester. I was able to ask him a question about making America energy independent. His response, “I support drilling offshore and in ANWR to reduce our dependence on hostile foreign sources. We need to increase our dependence on American oil. I would also support construction of more American oil refineries.”

I quickly followed it up with a question about if he felt that fossil fuels were exacerbating the global warming crisis. Hunter’s response, ”I have to leave now.” Perhaps he actually did have to leave. Or perhaps he thought I was one of those enviro-types! In any event, that was all that he said.

Not to be deterred, I searched Hunter’s official presidential campaign website for his positions on energy independence, and how he would combat global warming. I think the ‘Internet wasn’t working properly’ because no matter how hard I tried to find information on his website about those two topics, I couldn’t find them? I hunted, and hunted, and hunted – to no avail.

At a Republican candidates’ debate in New Hampshire, Hunter stated that we “should battle the problems of global warming and energy independence together” – which isn’t a bad idea! But where is Hunter’s plan for doing that?

The Republicans for Environmental Protection watchdog group, hardly a group of left-leaning environmental crazies, gave Hunter a rating of 13 (out of 100) for the year 2006. While that is an awfully low rating, it was a marked improvement over his 2005 rating of MINUS 4! The nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters issued Hunter the lowest possible environmental score for 2006; his lifetime rating from the LCV is just nine percent.

Even without a written energy plan or a plan to combat global warming, some people in New Hampshire are supporting Hunter. But how many? Well the recent NH polls all have Hunter at 1 to 2% or less. In fact, reviewing the Republican polls from 2006 forward, there were no polls in which his support in NH measured more than 2%.

I guess New Hampshire Republican voters are just ‘hunting” for someone else.

Next week: Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois

SmartPower - The national non-profit marketing organization that is leading the creation of a volunatry market for clean energy and energy efficiency.

Duncan Hunter’s Presidential Website

NH Polling Home 

Image Credit - Flickr - Hunter in NH at St. Anselm’s Debatein Manchester

Republicans for Environmental Protection

League of Conservation Voters

Mike Garofalo’s Previous ‘Power to the People” Columns

…. with apologies to a similar sounding movie title, I did attend an event at which Mike Huckabee was the guest speaker. Back in March, former Republican Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, was interviewed by WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH. ‘Channel 9,’ as it is affectionately known, is the only statewide television station in New Hampshire and it is taking advantage of our lead-off spot in the Presidential Primary process by interviewing all of the presidential candidates.

Okay, well we are the first primary state as of today, but that is certainly subject to change. With all of the states jockeying for position and wanting to leap-frog over other states, New Hampshire is zealously guarding it’s ‘Number One’ status. In fact, NH Secretary of State Bill Gardner has stated that "New Hampshire state law mandates that New Hampshire’s primary shall come first and that is what I am going to do." If other states keep moving the process up, we may wind up having our primary in about two weeks! Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not much of one.

Anyway, Governor Huckabee came to New Hampshire to discuss his presidential campaign, and to educate the voters of the Granite State who seemed to know very little about this former Governor. Regardless of where you stand politically, after you meet him, you have to admit that Huckabee is a very interesting guy. If elected, he would be the second US President from the small town of Hope, Arkansas. Yes, William Jefferson Clinton was the first US President from Hope – population just over 10,000. Admittedly, Huckabee is a bit of a long-shot, but then again so was Clinton in 1991!

Huckabee served as Governor for ten years, and is well-known as a social conservative. He garnered fame beyond politics by losing a whopping 110 pounds through a strict diet and exercise regimen. He went from huffing and puffing while trying to walk up the steps of the State Capital to running in marathons.

He is engaging and articulate and argues his positions well. But where does he stand on clean energy and making America energy independent? Well, I wandered over to his website to see if any additional information was available beyond his answer to my direct questions to him.

His exploratory campaign website has a section called ‘Issues’ and I opened the ‘Energy Independence’ tab. While I was interested in reading it, I thought that it was light on specifics. Huckabee’s plan on his website is short on specifics, but some of what I see raises lots of red flags with me

The highlights are:

• The first thing he will do as President will be to send Congress a comprehensive energy plan – (so far so good);
• He wants us all to conserve;
• He wants to expand exploration (hmmmm);
• He wants us to pursue all avenues of alternative energy:

• Wind
• Solar
• Hydrogen
• Biodiesel
• Biomass
• Clean coal (ouch!)
• And, of course, (here it comes) nuclear!

He does make a valid point that with 6 million flex-fuel vehicles on the road, of all the pumps at the over 170,000 filling stations nationwide, there are only 2,000 gas pumps that can actually dispense E-85 ethanol. And let’s not even talk about the corn subsidies that help the price of ethanol remain at an artificially low levels.

At the ‘Conversations with a Candidate’ program, I asked Huckabee how would America become more energy independent in a Huckabee administration. He responded, "America needs to become more energy self-sufficient. We have to explore all types of energy options such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass, ethanol and, as Europe is doing, we really do need to look at small nuclear."

When I asked him how he would deal with nuclear waste and the enormous cost to build a nuclear plant, he said that technology may hold the answer to the waste, and building smaller nuclear plants will significantly reduce the costs. When he reiterated that "Europe is doing it," I reminded him that Europe also uses much more wind and solar than we do and, perhaps, that might be a better course to follow.

Overall, Huckabee is likable but he seems to be a contradictory candidate. He is extremely conservative on some issues, yet broadly, dare I say, liberal on others. But that is a dangerous game to play. His efforts to be all things to all voters may mean that he actually appeases none of them.

Next week…. Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich!

SmartPower

Mike Huckabee for President

Image source: WMUR-TV ‘Conversations with a Candidate’

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Census was published by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasi-public agency that runs a renewable energy trust fund of green power projects. The study found that clean energy industry had a 26 percent increase in jobs and now accounts for more than 14,000 jobs in the state. Those jobs are expected to grow three times faster than any other major industry, adding about 3,000 jobs in 2007. The next biggest increase was in the scientific, technical, and management services sector with an increase of 5.4 percent.

Three hundred and two companies, government agencies, and university research centers responded to the survey. Those in the renewable energy category said they will increase staff by an average of 30 percent in the next 12 months, while the energy efficiency sector will add an average of 25 percent more employees.

High fossil fuels costs and venture capital funding are contributing to the strong clean energy performance, as well as politicians and a public wanting action on global warming emissions.

However, the report also points out that the industry is still very young: of the 255 companies surveyed, 103 had annual revenues of less than $1 million. Most companies focus on selling their products to other companies within New England to speed up sales cycles. But this may result in limited growth if companies are passing up opportunities in faster growing and larger markets.

Governor Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi agreed last month that by 2010, Massachusetts should offset all of its growth in electricity demand with increased efficiency.

The survey defined “renewable energy” as including solar power, biofuels, wind power, wave systems, solar-assisted fuel cells, and all fuel cell companies, although the study recognizes that fuel cell production may be powered by fossil fuels.

Business Journals
Climate Ark
Massachusetts Clean Energy Census

• Plan a workshop to determining the most expeditious way to achieve energy efficiency savings from new and existing residential and commercial/public buildings.

• Hold a forum on transmission needs to accommodate the integration of large amounts of renewable generation in the Western power system.

• Work with federal agencies to identify and mitigate the risks associated with carbon sequestration and develop a pipeline transport system that can move CO2 to enhanced oil recovery and sequestration areas.

• Work with federal agencies to secure funding for near-zero emission coal pilot facilities (i.e. coal plants) and examine accelerating the deployment of near-zero emissions coal technology.

• Determine the most effective way to use federal funds to research and develop technologies that would reduce the cost to develop solar, wind, geothermal, bio-fuel and biomass projects.

I wouldn’t use the term “clean energy” in this resolution. Perhaps cleaner is a better term, as coal should certainly not be lumped in the same category as wind, solar, and geothermal power that emit no global warming emissions.

Notably, the Western Governors Association did come out against Congressman Nick Rahall’s bill that threatens to slow and complicate the progress of wind power.

Thanks to Jon over at Loon Commons for the heads-up on this announcement.

Hog House Blog
Western Governors’ Association

SmartPower, a nonprofit marketing organization that promotes clean energy, used YouTube to form the Clean Energy Challenge. The aim was to create an ad for SmartPower around the belief that “clean energy is real. It’s here. And it’s working.”

After reviewing 150 submissions (not a ton, but not bad for such a wonky topic whose actors have virtually no chance of finding a mate on national TV), the $10,000 winner has been chosen. But in the true style of any reality show, the final results are drawn out over several days. The top 10 ads were posted on June 10th and for every day until the 18th one ad will be removed, finally leaving the “last ad standing” on Monday.

The winner will be announced via webcast at 5:00PM on June 18th and all finalists voted off are highlighted on the SmartPower Blog.

I was impressed with the quality of most of the finalists – these weren’t all made in someone’s basement. I’m a big fan of “Reading Light” and “Time Machine” because they made me laugh. And the kid in “It’s Your Choice” is really quite good. What's your favorite?

SmartPower

Representatives from China and India reported that both are implementing emissions cuts in various economic sectors, but neither is convinced that mandatory limits are the fastest way to cut global warming pollution. Besides, they rightfully pointed out, the developed nations are missing their Kyoto Protocol targets, and the big Kahuna – the United States – isn’t even participating. Rather than hefting this unfair burden of limits, they instead want greater access to clean energy technologies.

The problem is that coal is an abundant resource in this area of the world, so “clean” coal technologies is what many are talking about. But the technology needed to burn the coal without releasing carbon dioxide isn’t available. Asia is crucial to the global warming fight, but the transition to a global clean energy economy will be too slow unless the existing technologies out there like wind, solar, hydro, etc are made available and purposefully developed on a massive scale.

The next phase of the Kyoto Protocol includes getting developing nations – which were exempt from the mandates in the current plan - to sign onto emissions targets starting in 2012.

Yahoo! News
Wikipedia: Kyoto Protocol