Our energy future, our economy, our health and our security all demand the same thing: We must reinvent the way America generates and uses energy. (from intro to Clean Energy Jobs Bill)
The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act seeks to do this by addressing four urgent national priorities:
- Putting America back in control of our energy future (i.e. Energy Independence).
- Reasserting American economic leadership and competitiveness (i.e. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs).
- Protecting our families from pollution (i.e. Reducing our carbon emissions).
- Ensuring our national security (i.e. stopping our $1 billion per day subsidy of middle east fossil fuel extraction).
While one can argue the fine print of this bill, what is indisputable is the need to get comprehensive Climate Change legislation passed NOW. Please join me below the fold to learn about Senator Dianne Feinstein and her stance on climate and energy issues. If you live in California, follow the contact info at the end to take action and ensure that both of our senators vote yes on this important bill.
This diary is one in a DailyKos series profiling certain Senators' likely votes on the climate bill. "Adopt A Senator for Climate" is a whip project in which a volunteer targets a particular Senator, ascertains and diaries the Senator's likely vote on the climate bill, and tracks the Senator's position as the bill moves through the Senate. Meteor Blades has previously written Adopt-A-Senator For ACES Targets Climate Legislation, and RLMiller wrote You can affect climate change: Adopt a Senator For ACES, both using the name of the House bill. Please contact RLMiller (email address in profile) for details.
Background on Dianne Feinstein:
For anybody who lived in the San Francisco area in the 1970’s or who saw the movie MILK, Feinstein will forever be remembered as the supervisor who spoke before television reporters and made the announcement that shocked the city by the bay as well as much of the nation: "As president of the board of supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement. Both Mayor Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed."
Since that time, she has had an impressive career and has accomplished many firsts for women:
• First female President of SF Board of Supervisors.
• First (and still only) female Mayor of San Francisco.
• First female Senator from California.
• First woman to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• First woman to chair the Senate Rules Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee.
On the environmental side, she received a score of 100% from The League of Conservation Voters for the 110th congress. The legislation she is most proud of, however, is The California Desert Protection Act of 1994, which she sponsored. This Act protects 6.37 million acres of California’s desert lands. It created 2 national parks - Joshua Tree and Death Valley and established The Mojave National Preserve.
Not in Denial:
Senator Feinstein believes strongly in the science of climate change and that the government needs to take steps to halt it. She has publicly stated the need to reduce emissions up to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.
Where She Stands…
On Offshore Drilling
In April of this year she reaffirmed her opposition to offshore drilling off the coast of California. As she testified at a hearing on the matter:
Offshore drilling is no quick fix. Allowing new rigs along California’s coastline would not bring down gas prices, increase energy security, or fuel our economic recovery. In fact, new offshore drilling could jeopardize California’s thriving coastal economy, our fragile ocean ecosystem, and our goal of making a permanent shift to a cleaner and greener energy economy.
On Nuclear Power
In 2003 Feinstein opposed federal subsidies for constructing new nuclear power plants. Instead she favored devoting resources to renewables like solar, wind and geothermal.
Recently, however, her position on nuclear has shifted. On Sept. 23rd of this year on the senate floor she stated:
If we are going to address global warming, all of the options have to be on the table and we have to rethink and re-look at nuclear power as being a viable alternative as a clean fuel.
I am one who believed originally that the human element and the waste element was such that it was not a viable alternative source. I no longer believe that. I think it is a viable alternative source, if we can fix the permit process that enables state-of-the-art nuclear technology to be built in a relatively short period of time. The yield from a nuclear plant, as we know, of clean energy is very large indeed.
On Renewables:
She is generally a strong supporter of renewable energy. With Olympia Snowe, she sponsored legislation in 2008 to renew tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Her support of renewables, however, recently collided head-on with her love of the California Desert. The Bureau of Land Management is in the process of reviewing applications for concentrated solar thermal power stations in the Mojave Desert and specifically in some of the areas covered under her Desert Protection Act. Since these lands were donated to or purchased by the federal government so they could be protected, Feinstein feels they should not be eligible for this type of development. As she states, “I’m a strong supporter of renewable energy and clean technology -- but it is critical that these projects are built on suitable lands.”
Her opposition to solar in the desert has earned her much criticism from Governor Schwarzenegger and the environmental community. As an editorial in the Los Angeles Times noted: Yet perhaps it's possible to love the desert too much; if we go too far in protecting it from solar development, those wide arid spaces promise to become a lot wider in the scorching future.
Will She or Won’t She…
sign the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act? Feinstein has not yet released a statement on the bill and her staff wouldn’t divulge anything, so we’ll have to read the tea leaves here. Many signs would point to a yes:
* She has supported similar legislation in the past, and in 2007 she introduced her own Cap and Trade bill. Several weeks ago she released this statement after the EPA ruled that large industrial polluters must take steps to reduce their emissions:
“I fully support EPA’s actions to require that the nation’s largest stationary emitters, responsible for roughly 70 percent of America’s carbon footprint, take appropriate steps to contain these harmful emissions and improve energy efficiency…Hopefully, this will encourage the Senate to pass a comprehensive climate change bill quickly.”
* Last month on the Senate floor she stressed the importance of the United States taking a leadership role at the
United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cophenhagen in December.
We have a big conference at the end of the year… where nations will come together and where they will look at the United States and say: You are the wealthiest country on Earth. You have 5 percent of the population, but you use 25 percent of the energy. Therefore, you have an obligation to lead. … it is very important that our President stand tall, that the United States stands tall and that we are willing to offer real leadership to the world. Whether this happens remains a cipher, but I very much hope and pray it does.
* Along with Olympia Snowe, Feinstein has introduced Carbon Market Regulation legislation to prevent “Enron like fraud, manipulation and excessive speculation” in the carbon market that the climate bill would create. Boxer is planning to use this language in the final bill.
* Feinstein’s own office recently released this statement:
Senator Feinstein looks forward to working with her Senate colleagues to advance and enact legislation to promote clean energy and clean energy jobs in the United States Senate later this year.
Would she vote against it?
As her office told me, the only concern that Senator Feinstein has regarding progressive legislation of any kind is its cost and impact on the economy. With the economic downturn, they said that she is giving extra scrutiny to all legislation in this regard.
As I see it, the only way she would vote against it is if it turned out to be an extremely poorly written bill that would seriously harm the economy. But given the fact that this bill is deficit neutral, would create lots of jobs in energy and clean-tech sector, and offers rebates for low and moderate income families to protect against price increases on energy, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
A strong argument can be made that the climate bill would be a boon for California. Billions of dollars from government funding around the world have been pouring into clean technology recently, which has helped spur the flow of private capital into this industry as well. Clean-tech is now the largest venture capital investment sector - ahead of IT and Biotech, and recent clean-tech investments bring welcome news and jobs to the San Francisco Bay Area:
The two biggest clean-tech investments in the quarter were $198 million for Solyndra, a Fremont maker of solar panels, by a group led by Argonaut Private Equity; and $82.5 million for Tesla, the San Carlos electric-car maker, by a group led by Fjord Capital Management.
Solyndra last month said it would use a $535 million federal loan to build a new solar-panel factory in Fremont. Tesla also has received a $465 million loan from the federal government.
Think of the jobs, the tax revenue and the overall boost to our economy that even more of this government and private investment into Clean-Tech would bring to the Golden State.
What You Can Do:
First, if you haven’t already done so, get familiar with the bill by reading the overview and other details here.
Then, contact your Senator and let them know we need them to support the CLEAN ENERGY JOBS AND AMERICAN POWER ACT.
Don’t like certain provisions in the bill? Think we could be more aggressive or do something different? Now is the time to voice your concerns and ideas.
Feinstein’s staff stressed that they compile daily and weekly reports of phone calls, emails and letters and that the Senator reviews all of these. They said that it can’t hurt to try an “all of the above” approach - that is don’t just pick up the phone - also send an email. If you still own pen and paper, try that too. And, while you’re busy being a super activist protecting the planet for future generations, get a friend or two to do the same.
Contact Info for Senator Feinstein:
Phone: (202) 224-3841
Email
Senator Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Final Inspirational Messages to motivate us all to get busy and do all we can to get a quality, comprehensive Climate Bill Passed NOW
From the patriotic angle…
America has never shied away from a challenge before. Now, by passing the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, we can lay the cornerstone for decades of economic growth and a stronger, more powerful America.
(From the Clean Energy Bill).
From the “think of your children” angle…
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.
— Dr. Seuss, from The Lorax
and, lastly, from the guilt angle…
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
- Albert Einstein