environment – Page 4

Grassroots: Energy bill a bad compromise

My Grassroots column in The Progressive Populist is available on the Web site. It’s on the energy bill.

Green incentives

We are in a down economy, especially on the real estate end, and there is vacant warehouse space available in the region. What to do?

The Middlesex County freeholders have a pretty decent idea: Seek out firms in the environmental field.

A new county committee has been formed to match manufacturers of energy-efficient and sustainable products with vacant warehouses, which could bring business into South Brunswick.

”Our goal is to actively pursue as many economic opportunities as we can by creating green jobs and boosting the economy,” said Freeholder H. James Polos. “Middlesex County is in position right now to take the lead and help our communities attract new business opportunities.”

The Middlesex County Green Economic Development Zone Committee was established to study the economic value in creating “green” zones, with hopes of bringing burgeoning green technology companies into the county, according to Mr. Polos.

A team of local, county and state officials and representatives from the corporate and academic sectors met in late May to lay the groundwork for attracting these companies to the area in order to boost economic growth and create jobs.

This makes sense on a number of levels. First, we need to generate jobs and green jobs are likely to have more staying power than the service-sector stuff we’ve focused on in the United States for the last couple of decades.

Second, we need property tax revenue. The state is unlikely — regardless of who wins the Statehouse in November — to make the kind of drastic changes in the tax system needed in New Jersey. So, we need businesses to occupy empty buildings and there is some demand out there for light-assembly work (solar panels) and distribution of eco-products.

Third, creation of a green zone in Middlesex County could trigger other green zones — creating the incentives necessary to move away from our carbon-based lifestyle. The more cheaply we can produce environmentally friendly products, the cheaper they will be for consumers. And if we can lower the cost on the consumer end, we are more likely to see consumers make green choices. The Middlesex County green zone could, under this reasoning, serve as a model for other counties in the state and other regions in the country.

As the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board wrote in a draft report (quoted from Thomas Friedman’s column in Sunday’s Times:

“Sustainable technologies in solar, wind, electric vehicles, nuclear and other innovations will drive the future global economy. We can either invest in policies to build U.S. leadership in these new industries and jobs today, or we can continue with business as usual and buy windmills from Europe, batteries from Japan and solar panels from Asia.”

Act locally think globally

It is becoming increasingly clear that we must do more than talk about climate change here in the United States. We need tough rules at home and a program that shares new technologies abroad to make it clear that we are not asking the developing world to sacrifice more than we are willing to sacrifice.

Without that, the developing countries will continue to balk at any potential treaty:

In the end, people close to the talks said, the emerging powers refused to agree to the specific emissions limits because they wanted industrial countries to commit to midterm goals in 2020, and to follow through on promises of financial and technological help.

“They’re saying, ‘We just don’t trust you guys,’ ” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group based in the United States. “It’s the same gridlock we had last year when Bush was president.”

The cap-and-trade plan, approved by Congress, is a good start for the United States, but not nearly strong enough to do what needs to be done.

Good news on environmental front

This is no small matter — and one of the few tangible payoffs of having a Democrat in the White House. From The Washington Independent:

Following through on earlier promises, the Environmental Protection Agency today approved a request by the state of California to fight global warming by reining in auto emissions.

As Mike Lillis points out,

Because 13 other states and the District of Columbia have jumped on California’s waiver proposal, the move effectively creates a new national emissions standard that will force the nation’s automakers to make more fuel efficient vehicles.

This is probably better news than the passage of the climate change legislation, which has been watered down, because it bypasses the moderates in Congress and allows the more populous, environmentally conscious states to drive the bus, so to speak.

Greening climate legislation — with oodles of cash

It is difficult to understand how, with huge Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, with a Democratic president who says he is committed to reversing climate change and a majority of the American public saying they’re concerned about the environment, the legislation that is winding its way through Congress has become a shell of what it should be.

Or, maybe it’s not that difficult at all.

As with the health care fight, there has been plenty of money flowing through this debate.