National Clean Energy Project

National Clean Energy Project
Feb. 23, 2009
Washington, D.C.
By Ashley Baird

What happens when you put a former President, former Vice President, the Speaker of the House, various Senators, Congressmen, Department heads and more into one room? And how about getting them to agree on something? That’s what took place Monday at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., where a group of the nation’s heaviest hitters came together with one goal in mind: to establish a national energy plan.

Former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Ed Markey, Senator Jeff Bingaman, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and a group of other big names in the energy world gathered around a table to discuss “National Clean Energy Project: Building The New Economy”.

The event, sponsored by the Center for American Progress, focused on modernizing and expanding the electricity grid and increasing transmission capacity for renewable energy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) opened the discussion, explaining that the first step to a new energy economy is the economic recovery package. “The money is there,” he explained, “there’s $11 billion alone for the national energy grid.” The Senator said he will introduce the bill sometime this week.

Former President Bill Clinton played an active role at the table, discussing why it took so long to do something about energy. “We didn’t have the votes,” he said. He stressed the importance of not underselling the efficiency investment angle. Former Vice President Al Gore, one of the most notably active advocates for climate change, complimented the entire stimulus package, particularly the green portions. “What makes me so hopefull now is that the U.S. is stepping up to the plate,” he said, “That’s what the real meaning of these developments in the last month are about.” The two goals that he brought to the table were not foreign to his listeners: to reduce global warming pollution and to wean the U.S. off its dependence on foreign oil. He said the most important part of a green jobs creation program is to build a unified national smart grid.

After the two hour discussion, CSTV’s Margaret Ryan caught up with one of the roundtable participants, Former New York Governor George Pataki. She asked him about the chances that the states are going to agree to a partnership and give up authority on citing for a new transmission system. He told her that there needs to be wind power, solar, geothermal and that it’s not going to happen unless we have a system. “There has to be authority that has the ability to permit that,” he said. You can watch the rest of Gov. Pataki’s interview on www.CleanSkies.tv.

Other participants in the roundtable included: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, T. Boone Pickens, John Podesta, Denise Bode, and several more. You can watch our complete coverage of this event only at www.CleanSkies.tv