Running Clean: Good Policy, Good Politics

Posted by: Melissa Harrison - April 9, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melissa Harrison, NRDC Action Fund, 202-513-6278, mharrison@nrdc.org

Running Clean: Good Policy, Good Politics

NRDC Action Fund Report & Videos Show Success of Clean Energy Candidates in 2012

WASHINGTON (April 9, 2012) – Americans overwhelmingly supported clean energy candidates in the 2012 elections, despite the massive investments by polluters pushing their dirty agenda. Election night polling showed that, regardless of partisanship lines or demographics, nearly 2 in 3 voters, 64 percent, say they have a favorable impression of renewable energy, compared to only 13 percent who say they have an unfavorable impression. When given the chance to choose a future of investing in renewable energy sources and a clean energy economy, voters time and time again chose the candidates who were Running Clean, according to a new report and video series released today by the NRDC Action Fund.

Today, the NRDC Action Fund released Running Clean: Good Policy, Good Politics an in-depth report and video series produced biennially. In the report, the NRDC Action Fund highlights multiple successful candidates who chose to run their campaigns on clean energy, protecting the environment and public health and conserving our natural resources. These hard-fought campaigns demonstrated that America’s leaders can be proud to support a clean agenda that fosters good jobs, healthy families, conservation and a more sustainable future. This cycle the report contains case studies on: President Barack Obama and Senator Angus King (I-Maine) with additional video interviews with Senators Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), Jon Tester (D-Montana), Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii).

At a press conference in Washington, DC the NRDC Action Fund showed Senator Tim Kaine’s video for the first time. In his video interview Senator Kaine says, “Virginians really believe this is an important issue to tackle, and so I could comfortably do events with environmental organizations or with the environmental community because I knew that was right. I mean it’s what I believe, but I also knew it was right where my voters were.”

“The last election cycle showcased candidates who were able to prove that running clean is not just good policy, it is a winning political strategy,” said Peter Lehner, NRDC Action Fund Executive Director. “The NRDC Action Fund produced Running Clean as a roadmap for future candidates who want solid evidence that supporting clean energy and protecting the environment will help provide them a path to electoral victory.”

“It’s simple, Running Clean works,” said Heather Taylor-Miesle, NRDC Action Fund Director. “Supporting candidates who run on platforms which endorse clean energy investments, protecting the environment and conserving our natural resources will help us grow the environmental majority across America. Candidates from both sides of the aisle should be looking for opportunities to embrace these issues. Ultimately, these are the values represented by their voters and what’s best for our future.”

The Running Clean report and videos can be found online at www.nrdcactionfund.org/runningclean. To read the report: Running Clean: Good Policy, Good Politics. To view the video interviews:

Senator Tim Kaine

Senator Jon Tester

Senator Martin Heinrich

Senator Mazie Hirono

To request hard copies of the report please contact Melissa Harrison at mharrison@nrdc.org.

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The goal of the NRDC Action Fund is to grow the environmental majority across America. The Action Fund is growing power in the places that always matter around the country, so that together we can protect public health and the environment. www.nrdcactionfund.org

Note to reporters/editors: The NRDC Action Fund is an affiliated but separate organization from the Natural Resources Defense Council. As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, the NRDC Action Fund engages in various advocacy and political activities for which the Natural Resources Defense Council, a 501(c)(3) organization, faces certain legal limitations or restrictions. News and information released by the NRDC Action Fund needs to be identified as from the “NRDC Action Fund.” The “Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund” is incorrect. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the NRDC Action Fund cannot be used interchangeably. Also please note that the word “National” does not appear in Natural Resources Defense Council.

Running Clean Candidate Video Release, Full Report to Be Released April 9th

Posted by: Melissa Harrison - April 4, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melissa Harrison, NRDC Action Fund, 202-513-6278, mharrison@nrdc.org

Running Clean Candidate Video Release, Full Report to Be Released April 9^th

NRDC Action Fund Releases New Videos with U.S. Senators Mazie Hirono & Tim Kaine

WASHINGTON (April 4, 2012) – In the 2012 elections, U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D- Hawaii) demonstrated that America’s leaders can run on and win with a clean agenda which fosters good jobs, healthy families, conservation and a more sustainable future. In anticipation of Running Clean, an in-depth report and video series to be released on April 9^th, the NRDC Action Fund is previewing a video with U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), one of the four candidate videos complementing the upcoming full report.

“Senator Hirono highlights how investing in clean energy job creation, protecting our environment and public health and conserving our natural resources is a winning political strategy,” said Heather Taylor-Miesle, NRDC Action Fund Director. “We are now just a few days away from releasing the full report and additional videos which will be the roadmap for future candidates on how to support these issues because it’s not just good policy, it’s good politics.”

To view the video interview: Senator Hirono

As a sneak peak, the NRDC Action Fund is also releasing a short clip of U.S. Senator Tim Kaine’s video, which will be shown publically for the first time at a press conference featuring NRDC Action Fund Executive Director Peter Lehner and NRDC Action Fund Director Heather Taylor-Miesle on April 9^th in Washington, DC. To view the clip: Senator Kaine

Due to space limitations, media interested in attending the press conference must RSVP to Melissa Harrison at: mharrison@nrdc.org. If you are unable to attend in person, a conference call number will be provided. Additional details regarding the press conference will be released on Friday, April 5, 2013.

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Michiganders for Clean Energy

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle - March 21, 2013

Senator Carl Levin has announced he will not seek reelection in 2014 and already the succession speculation has begun. Michigan has a deep field of leaders to draw from to run for Levin’s seat. Yet whoever steps forward will have to chart their course carefully. Michigan is solidly purple, having voted for Democrats in six of the last ten presidential races, but electing a Republican governor and a Republican legislature.

How can potential Michigan candidates appeal to the broadest range of voters? By calling for clean energy and climate action.

This approach worked across the nation in the 2012 election cycle. Energy was a central issue in races from the top to the bottom of the ticket. Given the choice between candidates who promoted clean energy and those who held polluter-friendly positions on fossil fuels, voters overwhelmingly chose clean energy champions. And that includes Independent voters. Every major swing state went for President Obama, and states from Montana to Maine to Virginia swept clean energy candidates into office up and down the ticket.

This same approach can work in Michigan in 2014. Voters will have experienced two more years of extreme weather events pummeling their communities. But they will also have seen more wind farms and solar panels become ordinary parts of everyday life, and they will know more people with jobs designing and building fuel efficient cars.

Support for clean energy and climate action will only grow. Here’s why smart Michigan candidates should tap into that support.

Voters of All Stripes Support Clean Energy

Some GOP lawmakers still believe fossil fuels are our only viable energy source, but most voters have left those outdated views behind. They want American to develop clean energy. Last fall, polluting industries and their allies spent millions in Michigan races. Yet despite all the dirty money, undecided voters said they would side with a candidate who “supports EPA standards to reduce dangerous carbon pollution” over one who does not by a wide margin (56 percent versus 20 percent). Undecided voters also said they preferred congressional candidates who, like Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, support “standards to reduce toxic mercury pollution from power plants” over those who oppose them (62 percent versus 18 percent.) Curbing subsidies for oil companies, increasing fuel economy standards, and boosting clean energy drew similar support.

Some may say clean energy suffered a setback in Michigan last fall when voters failed to pass a ballot measure that would have amended the state constitution to include policies to promote renewable energy. However, election night polling showed that voters were rejecting an attempt to alter the constitution. They strongly supported action from their elected officials to create renewable energy policies in Lansing, not in the constitution.

Now Governor Snyder is holding hearings all over the state to discuss the future of energy policy in Michigan. We are engaged and working with our partners to ensure support for clean energy job creation and energy efficiency are part of the plan moving forward.

Clean Energy Is Another Way to Talk about Jobs, Jobs, and More Jobs

Michigan is ranked eighth in the country for the number of clean energy and clean transportation jobs in the state, according to a report released earlier this month by Environmental Entrepreneurs. The state is on track to add even more: companies and communities have announced 19 new projects that will generate nearly 4,000 additional jobs in Michigan. All together, the state’s renewable energy sector has attracted $1.79 billion in investments through 2012.

Meanwhile, Michigan added 34,100 auto manufacturing jobs last September for a gain of 32.7 percent since the trough in June 2009. A recent report published by NRDC and their partners found that a considerable amount of this growth is driven by new clean car standards that will be double fuel economy for cars by 2025—and save drivers $80 billion a year at the pump in the process.

Many Michiganders have benefited from clean energy jobs; many more could in the future. The state requires 10 percent of all electricity come from wind and solar power. Nearby Iowa, in contrast, is already getting 23 percent of its electricity from renewables. If Michigan created stronger clean energy standards and incentives, the state would get more home-grown jobs. And voters would reward candidates who helped deliver those jobs.

Climate Denial Is the New Black Helicopter

A generation ago, candidates sounded out of touch if they tried to convince voters the United Nations was sending black helicopters to take over America. Today, when candidates mention sun spots as a cause of climate change the extremist alarm bells start going off in the minds of voters. In fact, a majority now say that climate change is happening and we should do something to address it. While it may not be the top issue for every voter, most feel uncomfortable with candidates who blatantly reject science and chart out extreme positions…

This is no different in Michigan. Michiganders had their fling with extremism and now they are paying a price. Republican Representative Justin Amash’s own party found his positions so far afield that they kicked him off the budget committee—leaving his district without a voice in this critical arena. Now there are rumblings Amash may run to replace Levin. His opponents simply have to ask him what he is going to do to protect the Great Lakes from climate change or where he stands on government efforts to reduce global warming pollution, and voters will see the extremism shine through.

Clean Energy: Good Policy and Good Politics

As we wait and see who jumps into this race, one thing is for sure. Michigan is poised to be a leader in the clean energy economy and Michiganders deserve a U.S. Senator who represents those values. If we learned anything from the 2012 election cycle, it’s that candidates can run and win on investing in clean energy, protecting the environment and conserving our natural resources. The best part is these aren’t just good policies, they are good politics too.

Time for Clear Thinking on Keystone XL

Posted by: Christopher Arndt - March 5, 2013

The most damning statistic about TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline can be found in management’s own discussion of the project: The estimated annual rate of depreciation for “Oil pipeline and pumping equipment” is “approximately 2%-2.5%.”[1] What this means is that the entire project is based on the assumption that it will be carrying the tar sands oil for the next 40-50 years.

Tar sands oil, it is broadly acknowledged, is dirty fuel. In addition to local and regional environmental impacts, the process of producing tar sands oil generates three times the greenhouse gas pollution as producing conventional North American crude.[2] Support of the keystone pipeline is therefore a commitment to supporting one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet for the next 40-50 years.

If we acknowledge the threat posed by greater storms, droughts, and temperature extremes—if we know that we will be living in an increasingly carbon constrained world, such a commitment does not make any sense. Of course, we are not going to stop consuming oil tomorrow. But it does not follow from there that we need to make a new, 40-50 year commitment to production of the most polluting form of oil.

Investment can be better directed. At minimum, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a way of tapping existing domestic sources with less carbon pollution than conventional oil. More importantly, investments in biofuels, electrification, and efficiency offer potentially higher returns than tar sands even prior to considering the cost of carbon pollution. But if you do consider carbon pollution, tar sands oil is not economic as compared to these choices, almost out of the starting blocks and certainly over time.

Joe Nocera, who has written in favor of approving the Keystone pipeline several times, recently noted that his last column on the Keystone Pipeline contained a serious error:

“In my column on Tuesday, I described the strategy of anti-Keystone XL pipeline activists as boneheaded. In writing about the effect of a carbon tax on Canada’s tar sands oil, I was pretty boneheaded myself. I said such a tax would likely make tar sands oil more viable. But, obviously, it would do the opposite, by decreasing demand for oil and making the already expensive tar sands oil even less economically appealing. What was I thinking?”

Joe deserves credit here for this candid admission, but let me venture to answer his question “what was I thinking?” Turns out he also favors a carbon tax as a way of making polluters accountable for carbon pollution. But, properly understood, a meaningful fee on carbon pollution would tend to undermine the economic viability of tar sands oil—over time perhaps entirely, making the Keystone Pipeline a complete waste. To be in favor of the project, he really needed to botch the logic of the policy, and so he did.

Bottom line: If you favor holding polluters accountable for pollution, there’s no rationale for going forward with Keystone’s 40-50 year commitment to dirty fuel. Joe Nocera is not the only pundit that clings to the contradiction of acknowledging the serious problem of carbon pollution, yet favoring the Keystone pipeline. It’s time for him and others to pull off the logic blinders. Denying a permit to the Keystone Pipeline should be, as he would say, “a no-brainer.”

Chris Arndt is a private investor and a member of the NRDC Action Fund board.

[1] http://www.transcanada.com/docs/Investor_Centre/2012_TCC_MDA.pdf

[2] http://www.pembina.org/pub/2404

The Bullies are Bringing the Fight to Your Playground

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle - March 1, 2013

Bullies. We’ve all dealt with them, either personally or with our kids. You know the type; they’re overly aggressive, want everything their way and will try to beat you up on the playground if you don’t do what they want. In politics today, those bullies have grown up, but they’re still bringing the fight to your local playground. But, the stakes are much higher than losing your lunch money.

Last year, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—a coalition of conservative state legislators and corporations—teamed up with a number of fossil fuel-funded groups including the Heartland Institute, the American Tradition Institute and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) to dismantle state-level Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) around the country. In 2012, legislators in at least nineteen states introduced bills that would repeal, freeze, or weaken their state’s commitment to clean energy. Three of these bills made it into law—in Ohio, New Hampshire, and Virginia.

But those attacks were just the beginning from these grown up bullies. ALEC’s “Energy, Environment, and Agriculture” task force, composed of corporate entities including Exxon Mobil, Koch Companies, and Peabody Energy, among other fossil-fuel companies and utilities, has now drafted a model of legislation which would repeal state RPSs, calling it the Electricity Freedom Act. Already, ALEC member legislators have begun or threatened to bring this fight to a playground near you, better known as the state legislatures in Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Michigan, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Montana, Maine and Ohio. And with a total of 29 states having passed RPS, many more states could still be under threat.

But, if there’s one thing you know about me from all my other posts: we’re more than willing to stand up to bullies. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.

In an early defensive victory, Kansas rejected ALEC’s efforts to tell them what to do. There, the RPS has driven massive investment in wind energy development since its passage in 2009. In the legislature, there were two bills that would have either repealed or weakened the standard. But just yesterday, the House voted 63-59 to send a bill that would repeal the RPS back down to committee for further review. The Senate also rejected a bill weakening the standard by a 23-17 vote. With a supermajority of Republicans in both chambers, we showed that the RPS has created 12,000 jobs and $3 billion worth of investment by the wind industry. Now those are some figures both sides of the aisle can agree upon. And something that even the bullies have a hard time denying.

However, the battle is far from over. The RPS in several other states is still under attack and there are ALEC members ready and willing to forgo stealing your lunch money to do the bidding of dirty polluters.

Missouri: The Renewable Energy Standards (RES) were approved at the ballot box by a two to one margin in 2008. Republican state Rep. Bart Korman, an ALEC member has introduced HB 44 which would allow all hydroelectric plants, no matter how big or old, to count towards the state’s renewable energy quota, subverting the standard’s original intent. The House passed HB 44 just yesterday. The standard and the will of the people are now threatened. So too are the prospects for the 10,000 jobs and $2.87 billion of economic stimulus that were predicted within two decades of RES passage in 2008.
Ohio: The chair of the Senate Public Utilities Committee, Sen. Bill Seitz, is an ALEC task force member who predictably is calling for a “meaningful review” of the Buckeye State’s efficiency and renewable energy standards. In a February 1, memo Sen. Seitz listed nine issues that he wants to see reconsidered. His last bullet point tellingly begins, “In the event that the current EE/RPS benchmarks are significantly altered or abolished…” And sure enough, on the same day, Ohio State Sen. Kris Jordan—another ALEC task force member—promoted his bill (SB 216) before the Senate’s Energy and Public Utilities Committee which would repeal Ohio’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS). Sen. Jordan must not be listening to his constituents, because a recent poll shows that nearly 80 percent of Ohio voters support a legally-binding clean energy standard.

In addition to Kansas, Missouri, and Ohio, progressives in Wisconsin and Minnesota are having to fight to preserve the integrity of their states’ renewable energy policies. Every state with an RPS can expect to be challenged by the deep pockets ALEC and their dirty polluter allies. These bullies are well funded by billionaire oil barons who use false data and scare tactics to get their way.

But, we don’t have to take it. Together we can stand up to these modern day bullies and tell them the American people have paid enough and we’re not going to take it anymore. It’s time take back our playgrounds and tell them hands off our clean energy economy. This is our playground too and we need to leave it in a better place than when we found it.

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