Lowering carbon emissions by focusing on better technology in the transportation sector isn't new. But Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., argues that raising the corporate average fuel economy standards, as he helped do in 2007, and encouraging the development of cleaner-energy vehicles isn't enough.
Reducing emissions requires a large reduction in the average "vehicle miles traveled," Carper says, meaning people need to drive less and find other, lower-emissions ways to get around. To that end, he's proposing legislation to encourage people to travel greener.
At a Policy Lunch sponsored by National Journal, CSX and the Transportation Construction Coalition, Carper spoke with reporter Lisa Caruso about low-emissions transportation options and how they would change the American landscape. Video excerpts from the conversation follow.
Continue reading Carper: Transportation Key To Energy Reform.
With the domestic and international debates over climate change reaching a critical point, former Vice President Al Gore is back with a book on the issue. In Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, Gore argues that the prospect of disruptive climate change presents "a unique and unprecedented challenge" because its impact will unfold over decades and affect societies worldwide. Those are bigger units of measurement than political leaders usually work with when trying to build coalitions for action. "In other words, because of its planetary scope, this crisis masquerades as an abstraction," Gore writes, in one of his book's most memorable passages.
As the debate intensifies, Gore isn't focused just on the far horizon. His Alliance for Climate Protection and its associated Climate Protection Action Fund has 200 organizers working in 22 states trying to build support for legislation to limit carbon emissions; the groups are collecting thousands of video statements of support for action on their Repower America Web site. Gore spoke with National Journal on November 5 about his new book, the Senate climate debate, and the prospects for the international climate-change meeting that will open in Copenhagen on December 7.
Read the full interview here.
These are confusing times for the military industrial complex. Defense spending levels are high, but many experts doubt that a faltering U.S. economy can sustain them. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has criticized the arms-buying bureaucracy for focusing on high-tech weapons for future wars while failing to adequately support the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, chronic cost overruns threaten military modernization.
Recently, National Journal editors and correspondents sat down to talk about these and other issues with Robert Stevens, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin.
Subscribers can read the full interview here.
As the American public tries to make sense of the swine flu vaccine shortage, policy makers and vaccine manufacturers are contemplating new ways to produce vaccine that don't rely on the old, unreliable process of growing it in chicken eggs.
The manufacturer Novartis already is making cell-based vaccine in Germany for seasonal flu, and is about to open a facility in North Carolina to do the same for the United States. Novartis put its new technology to the test in Germany, where it produced a cell-based H1N1 vaccine that was ready months before any egg-based vaccine was. Because the company didn't have to wait for a lab to make a seed virus, which is required when growing vaccine in eggs, that saved four to five weeks. And because it didn't face the additional delay that occurred when the seed virus didn't grow well in eggs for other companies, that saved another month.
Eric Althoff, director of global media relations for Novartis, talked to National Journal last week about the advantages of using the next-generation, cell-based process for making vaccine. The following are edited excerpts from the interview.
Continue reading Full Speed Ahead For Cell-Based Vaccines?.
While Congress remains in gridlock over the best way to tackle climate change, the European Union is going into its fifth year capping and trading its emissions. Henry Derwent, who helped craft the EU's system and is now president and CEO of the nonprofit International Emissions Trading Association, says the lessons of the EU experience are clear enough that the U.S. should enact a cap-and-trade system of its own.
For instance, he argues, if the federal government doesn't act, both the Environmental Protection Agency and individual states will move forward with regulation. And, that Derwent said, will cause a monstrous headache balancing state and federal authority that's compounded by EPA regulation -- something no one seems to want. "If there is no action in Washington, then it seems probable that you will find essentially a fragmented position across the United States," Derwent told NationalJournal.com recently after a conference his organization hosted in Washington.
Edited excerpts from that interview follow.
Continue reading Learning From The EU On Cap-And-Trade.
As President Obama contemplates what may well prove the most momentous decision of his presidency, what to do about a failing war in Afghanistan, he has not suffered from a lack of advice. Many Republicans have accused him of dithering, recommending that he immediately grant Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for as many as 44,000 additional troops. Meanwhile, many Democrats argue that he should narrow the mission and refuse to escalate a war they fear is becoming an unwinnable quagmire.
Less has been heard in public recently from the president's top military adviser, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On Nov. 4, National Journal staff correspondent James Kitfield and Government Executive editor in chief Tim Clark spoke with Mullen about his views on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Edited excerpts from that interview follow.
Continue reading Top Military Adviser: Obama Isn't Dithering.
The Strategic Management of Human Capital, an education initiative seeking to boost student achievement through improved use of human resources, met in Washington this week for a two-day conference centered on the release of its new report. Taking Human Capital Seriously: Talented Teachers in Every Classroom, Talented Principals in Every School is a direct response to Education Secretary Arne Duncan's call to action last summer to improve the quality of the education workforce. Founded in 2008, SMHC seeks to bring attention to the "people side" of education reform. This week marks the end of SMHC's task force, a blue-ribbon panel chaired by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
National Journal caught up with Pawlenty right before the conference began.
Continue reading Pawlenty On The 'People Side' Of School Reform.
In April, Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer asked Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., to head up a working group to address some of the coal industry's concerns on climate change legislation. Carper worked with eight other senators, including six from coal states, to hammer out a plan that would encourage coal-based utilities to develop and install technology to capture power plant greenhouse gas emissions and sequester them underground. Much of the compromise language drafted by the team was included in the climate change bill now being considered by the Senate Environment Committee.
But the coal group was less successful in reaching agreement on several other key coal-related provisions, including whether the legislation should prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from using the Clean Air Act to control greenhouse gas emissions. That and other contentious coal-related issues are destined to be debated during the ongoing Senate climate change debate.
National Journal reporter Margaret Kriz Hobson spoke with Sen. Carper on Oct. 23 about the coal negotiations.
Continue reading Carper Sees Limited Progress Pre-Copenhagen.
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, played a leading role in reforming the Energy Department's nuclear weapons complex before Sept. 11 and in creating the Department of Homeland Security afterwards. He currently sits on both the House Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Well regarded in both parties for his thoughtfulness on security issues, he now laments what he sees as deepening partisan divides on everything from Iraq to intelligence.
National Journal reporter Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. interviewed Thornberry on Oct. 28.
Continue reading 'Support General McChrystal... Or Replace Him'.
In September, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., became chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Before taking control of the panel, Lincoln had been a vocal critic of climate change legislation. Since she joined the leadership, she's taken a more cautious approach. As a member of three committees with jurisdiction over global warming issues -- Agriculture, Energy and Finance -- Lincoln's agricultural perspective will carry great weight in the climate change debate.
Lincoln talked to National Journal reporter Margaret Kriz Hobson on Oct. 23.
Continue reading Lincoln: More Than One Way To Lower Carbon.
