"Energy, Environment and the Election"
The event that I attended on Wednesday, October 22 was the "Energy, Environment and the Election" at Vanderbilt Hall of NYU Law School, sponsored by NYU Wagner Environmental Department and Environmental Law Society. Three speakers who discussed energy and environment issues related to the election were Josh Klainberg, a current deputy director of New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV), Richard Farren, a member of NYLCV and Republican delegate, and Dan Abbasi, a senior director of MissionPoint Capital Partners. The panel started around 6:20 P.M, and most attendees were students at law school, faculties, journalists, and some students from this course!
In the panel, the speakers discussed two candidates’ campaigns dealing with energy and environmental crisis especially climate change and resource independency. Josh Klainberg pointed out that the energy and environmental issues now had become one of the key concerns of voters. It seemed that people hope to see some fundamental changes in government policies that would resolve ever increasing prices of oil and gas. Two main challenging energy issues are oil supply independence and trade balance with countries like Venezuela that the U.S. purely import resources from.
Richard Farren, a supporter of the former president candidate Mr. McCain, stated that historically the U.S. economy was built on cheap energies. But we are not even able to grasp the idea of cheap energy in this time period anymore. Therefore we need a broad based search for substitution energy. Mr. Ferren believed that McCain was the one who would be capable of finding substitutions and resolve energy crisis. Farren mentioned very briefly about using a nuclear power as a possible replacement of oil energy but didn’t say much further.
Dan Abassi explained Mr. Obama’s campaign on energy and environment in three different categories: to build clean energy economy, to achieve oil independency, and to resolve climate change. Mr. Obama, now as the new president elect has been advocating for accumulation of renewable technology and clean air policy since 1995. In his presidential campaign, he proposed that he would spend $ 300 million on clean air policy to upgrade national air quality. Abassi also stated that in last month’s presidential debate, Mr. Obama chose building a new, clean energy economy as a number one priority of his administration along with issues of economic recovery. Abassi spoke with confidence that Mr. Obama and his campaign have more detailed, rigid, and stable planed policies and strategies to deal with energy independence, climate change and clean air development. Lastly, he pointed out that even looking at the records of past few years, it is certain that Mr. Obama has been an active participator in solving energy and environmental problems and ready to give out a profound and systemic solution.
Few days before I attended the event, I watched the second presidential debate between Senator Barack Obama and John McCain over the issues of energy and environmental crisis. Two candidate’s heated debate inspired me to learn more about the issues of climate change and resource independency. I also became curious about what the experts would say about their arguments. So I decided to attend this event, “Energy, environment and the election. It was a great and meaningful experience for me to learn about the most concerned current energy and environmental problems and their interactions with politics. I learned why there are rising debates over the issues of oil dependency and climate change and how the new president-elect and his policies must deal with them. These problems of energy and environmental crisis, which now all Americans acknowledge as a rising threat to the U.S economy, requires fundamental changes in behaviors of society as a whole.
At this moment, our new president-elect seems to recognize this need of policy changes well enough. Dan Abassi spoke in the panel that Mr. Obama believes that the cost of inaction is twenty times greater than the cost of action. This is why Mr. Obama prioritized matters of energy independency and climate change over other public concerns. One article from New York Times quoted Mr. Obama after the election. “My suggestion to all of you is to enjoy the holiday season and rest up because I think it’s going to be a very, very busy 2009”. Mr. Obama’s concern about solving climate change and reducing greenhouse gases already excite many environmentalists in and out of the United States with a hope of seeing real changes in government actions.
Every time I watch Mr. Obama’s speech, I feel that he knows how to present himself credible. He has charisma that appeals people and persuade people. Through his speech he has shown people that he knows what he’s talking about ‘what he’s talking about’! As Josh Klainberg mentioned at the end of the panel, I also believe that both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain had will to resolve energy and environmental crisis, but what matters more is not the willingness but the ability. And if someone asks me who would be a better dealer with energy/environmental problems, I would say it is Mr. Barack Obama. What I noticed in the panel was that Abassi gave more tangible and detailed strategies and policies of Obama Campaign than Farren did. Mr. Ferron seemed to speak more general ideas about concerns of energy and environmental crisis rather than specific methods of how to solve them. From my observation in the panel at least, it seemed that Obama campaign has more things to say about energy and environment. The ideas and strategies of Obama campaign were more organized and realistic—realistic in that it is actually helpful and effective.
I remember the night of the Election Day. People were having parties celebrating Mr. Obama’s victory and shouting on the streets. Although our new president-elect faces many hardships including economic crisis, I look forward to seeing his great leadership as well as successful changes in energy and environmental issues.
[Videos]
Energy, Environment and the Election Panel Video
Mr. Barack Obama’s speech on energy and environment
CCN news clip on the president elect’s first year plan on energy/environment
*in case it doesn't link to the video site go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2rfetK8vSY