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[[Notre Dame Forum: Sustainable Energy]]
[[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and welcome to the Joyce Center]
[for the 4th Annual Notre Dame Forum.]
[Our topic this year: Sustainable Energy.]
[At this time will you please welcome to the stage ]
[the president of the University of Notre Dame, Father John Jenkins.]
[[Jenkins] Welcome, everyone, to the 4th Annual Notre Dame Forum.]
[[Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. - President, Notre Dame]]
[These forums gather the whole university community and others]
[for serious discussion of issues of great consequence for our world.]
[They attempt to bring to bear learning of numerous disciplines]
[and the moral and spiritual wisdom of great religious traditions.]
[In past forums we've addressed issues of inter-religious dialogue,]
[global health, and immigration.]
[Today we take up another challenge for this time]
[and particularly for the lifetimes of our students: sustainable energy.]
[For me this forum, in Yogi Berra's immortal phrase, is like "deja vu all over again."]
[When I was a student here at Notre Dame, an undergraduate in the 1970s,]
[sustainable energy was on everyone's mind.]
[After the 1973 Yom Kippur Ramadan War,]
[the oil producing nations of OPEC embargoed oil shipments to the United States,]
[leading to a spike in energy prices and in turn, dramatic inflation]
[and a suppression of economic activity.]
[It was a tough time to find a job.]
[Our nation responded decisively.]
[To conserve fuel, highway speed limits went down to 55 miles per hour,]
[gas stations were closed on Sunday, and the nation went on daylight savings time]
[Attention was directed to the search for more energy-efficient engines]
[Yet with time, as geopolitical tensions eased and new oil sources were found,]
[the common resolve to find sustainable energy diminished,]
[and promising efforts to conserve fuel and develop alternative energies were set aside.]
[Today we use three times the energy we used in 1970.]
[Yet today as we face these questions, we simply do not have the option]
[to defer the search for sustainable energy solution for long.]
[More accurately, you members of the classes of 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012,]
[for you that option will be taken away in your lifetimes.]
[We must take action and make hard choices to serve the common good,]
[rich and poor, all around the world.]
[Our discussions today will, I hope, help us to make those decisions more informed,]
[It's now my great pleasure to introduce a good friend and a Notre Dame alum]
[who is one of the more intelligent voices in this area,]
[the chief environmental correspondent for NBC News, Ms. Anne Thompson.]
[[Thompson] Thank you. >>[Jenkins] Thank you so much for being here.]
[Good afternoon, and thank you all for coming and filling this arena]
[and talking about this very, very important subject.]
[[Anne Thompson - NBC News, Environmental Correspondent]]
[When I got my title at NBC, Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent,]
[within a couple of days I got a new nickname in the newsroom,]
[And to my colleagues it makes perfect sense because I went to Notre Dame.]
[I get to cover the world, and I get to learn about how we interact with this planet.]
[And I can't wait to get up every morning and do my job.]
[I have climbed up a ladder 27 stories high to sit on top of the wind turbine]
[near Abilene, Texas, and feel the power of the wind that you can't see]
[that they say will be our future.]
[I have rappelled down a ravine in the Costa Rican rain forest's heights]
[and gone to see a micro hydro power plant that a resort uses]
[so when its guests come and stay there, all they leave are footprints in the sand]
[and not some giant carbon footprint.]
[I have ridden a biofuel train in Sweden that is powered by organic waste.]
[And I have filled my rental car in Brazil with ethanol.]
[I tell you this not to make you jealous of what I do,]
[although I absolutely love what I do.]
[I tell you this because there are solutions out there,]
[and it is a possible thing to achieve to have energy from clean, renewable sources.]
[The other thing that strikes me as I travel the world is how hungry the rest of the world is]
[for leadership from the United States on this issue.]
[As a journalist, there are all kinds of reasons why people will talk to you.]
[One reason is that as a journalist you work hard to get people to talk to you]
[and hopefully they like you.]
[Another reason is they like the organization that you represent.]
[But what I have been stunned at as I've traveled the world covering the environment]
[is that doors open to me because I am an American.]
[And the rest of the world is hungry for our country to get involved in this issue and to lead.]
[And so today Father Jenkins has brought together some of the very best minds]
[and some of the very best leaders on this issue.]
[And what's so fascinating about energy is that the leadership in this country]
[has not come from the government per se, but it's come from ]
[the grassroots community groups, cities, states, and from corporate America.]
[And you're going to hear from four people who represent all of that.]
[But before we get to the questions, we must first understand the challenges.]
[And to that end, I would ask you to direct your attention to the video screens,]
[and we'll hear about the challenges facing this country.]
[We're at an energy crossroads today.]
[We've been trying to get by as inexpensively as we can.]
[We have a very high standard of living here in the United States.]
[[Narrator] The United States is 5% of the world's population [5% World Population]]
[but consumes 26% of the energy. [26% World Energy]]
[Americans use one-third more energy than in 1970. [1/3>1970]]
[That's six times more than the worldwide average.]
[The tremendous wealth and the wonderful opportunities that we have in this country]
[[Jason Grumet - President, Bipartisan Policy Center]]
[have really been built upon the energy system of the 20th century.]
[[85%] [Narrator] Eighty-five percent of our energy comes from coal,]
[natural gas, and petroleum. [Coal, Natural Gas, Petroleum]]
[[65% - Petroleum] Sixty-five percent of the oil is imported.]
[The indirect impact of our high energy consumption]
[[Joan Brennecke - Director, ND Energy Center] ]
[At current prices, that's over $700 million a day that we are spending overseas.]
[This is the largest wealth transfer in the history of the world.]
[[Narrator] Almost a third of total US energy is used for transportation. [33%]]
[Ninety-seven percent of that depends on petroleum. [97%]]
[Saudi Arabia has about 25% of the world's conventional oil reserves,]
[[Vijay Vaitheeswaran - Economist, Correspondent, Author "Zoom"]]
[and its four immediate neighbors have all of the rest of what's called cheap and easy oil.]
[We certainly see American foreign policy influenced by where there is and isn't oil.]
[[Narrator] Worldwide, energy consumption will grow 40% to 50% by 2030. [40-50%]]
[Developing countries like China and India use more than 40% of global energy.]
[Demand increases as people move into the middle class.]
[Usually when people start to make about $5,000 a year,]
[they can start purchasing cars.]
[We are now seeing that starting to happen in countries around the world]
[[Narrator] World population doubled in the last 50 years,]
[but car ownership increased ten times.]
[Still, almost one-quarter of the world's 6.7 billion people]
[live with little or no access to modern energy.]
[It's mostly places like sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, parts of the Caribbean]
[where it's women and girls who walk miles a day to get crop residue, twigs, or cow dung.]
[[1.6 million] [Narrator] 1.6 million women and children die prematurely]
[But health issues are not just beyond our borders.]
[Here in the richest country on earth, most of the polluters are--]
[In terms of factories, you'll find that they tend to be located in neighborhoods]
[that are disproportionately poor, disproportionately minority groups.]
[This is not, I think, some sort of racist plot,]
[but this is the nature of how power works and money talks]
[and really raises questions about environmental justice.]
[[Narrator] Burning fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide,]
[a gas implicated in global climate change.]
[The United States emits 21% of carbon dioxide worldwide. [21%]]
[Over 95% of the greenhouse gas emissions]
[[Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) - Chair, Energy and Nat. Resources Comm.]]
[that we produce are a result of energy production or use.]
[There's no way that we're going to change from using 85% fossil fuels]
[[Joan Brennecke - Director, ND Energy Center]]
[to 15% fossil fuels in anything but decades.]
[[Vijay Vaitheeswaran - Economist, Correspondent, Author "Zoom"]]
[There's no silver bullet. There's no single technology that's going to rescue us.]
[We need to have a range of them.]
[[Narrator] Currently, renewables are 47% biomass, [47% Biomass]]
[44% hydropower, [44% Hydropower]]
[6% geothermal, [6% Geothermal]]
[2% wind, [2% Wind] 1% solar. [1% Solar]]
[Each renewable method has pros and cons.]
[[Biomass] Biomass is produced locally but is not sustainable using food crops.]
[[Hydropower] Prime hydropower locations are already in use.]
[[Geothermal, Wind, Solar] Geothermal, wind, and solar suffer from geographic challenges.]
[The hottest, windiest, and sunniest spots in the US are far from power distribution lines.]
[[Nuclear] Nuclear, while not a renewable, produces little carbon dioxide.]
[[Jason Grumet - President, Bipartisan Policy Center]]
[It's really the only significant source of mass commercialized non carbon energy.]
[[Bingaman] It does not go on and off dependent upon whether the wind is blowing ]
[It, of course, has other concerns that people raise]
[that are real about how you dispose of the waste.]
[The fact that we are going to be faced with continued use of fossil fuels]
[for some amount of time is an important point that a lot of people don't appreciate.]
[They say, "Let's just quit using fossil fuels, and that will solve all our problems."]
[There's no way we can meet our energy demands with renewables at the moment.]
[[Narrator] Much of our household energy goes to waste.]
[An incandescent bulb only converts 2% of power into light. [2% makes light]]
[[25% escapes] Twenty-five percent of heating and cooling escapes from our homes.]
[Within two years, 20% of all household energy [20% is wasted]]
[will be used to keep appliances in standby mode.]
[The unsexy truth about this issue is that most of the progress we can make]
[in the near term is on improved efficiency.]
[Can we in fact maintain our lifestyle but do it in cars that go three times farther]
[do it in homes that are just as comfortable but use half as much electric power?]
[[Narrator] Solutions must come from a variety of sources--]
[government, corporations, and individuals.]
[This is a moment of tremendous challenge but also one of opportunity.]
[Energy is the thing that is going to determine everything in our lives this century.]
[We don't need to sit and freeze in the dark in order to solve our energy problems.]
[But we have to do a lot of things smarter than we have in the past. [♪♪]]
[[Thompson] And now our panelists.]
[She created green spaces in New York,]
[and she is now working on creating green jobs across this country.]
[She is the founder of the Sustainable South Bronx,]
[which helps environmentally challenged urban communities go green,]
[and she is now president of a green collar consulting firm, Majora Carter Group.]
[[Majora Carter - Founder, Sustainable South Bronx] [applause continues]]
[Our next panelist is Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric.]
[There are some who were surprised that General Electric]
[has gotten into the business of clean energy.]
[But they have because of Mr. Immelt.]
[He has spearheaded something called ecomagination.]
[You might be familiar with it because of its dancing elephant commercials.]
[It is a division of GE that has grown from $5 billion in 2004 to $18 billion this year]
[and is expected to grow to $20 billion next year.]
[[Jeff Immelt - CEO, General Electric] [applause]]
[Our third panelist is Dr. Ernest Moniz.]
[He is the director of MIT's Energy Initiative]
[and he is also famous for being an Undersecretary of Energy]
[for the Clinton administration.]
[[applause] [Ernest Moniz - Director, MIT Energy Initiative]]
[And if you watched the Democratic Convention this summer,]
[you probably saw this man, the governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter, Jr.]
[He is pushing his state into what he calls a new energy economy,]
[but he is getting considerable push-back from the oil and gas companies]
[for something called Amendment 58, which would repeal a tax credit.]
[Governor Ritter wants to use that money to fund college scholarships in his state.]
[[Bill Ritter, Jr. - Governor of Colorado]]
[The oil and gas companies want to keep that money. Have I got that right, Governor?]
[Before we get to the questions, each one of our panelists ]
[is going to introduce themselves to you and sort of lay out their vision ]
[We are going to start with Majora Carter. Majora? >>[Carter] Thanks.]
[Don't you kind of think it's a little true that words like sustainability and green]
[[Majora Carter - Founder, Sustainable South Bronx]]
[and clean are--if you take what you read in the paper all the time,]
[it's sort of like everybody and their mother is doing it.]
[But take, for example, things like clean coal ]
[or safe nuclear waste disposal and things like that.]
[But those of us in the know know full well that those kind of words ]
[and what they really mean on the ground for everyday, average Americans,]
[which is most of us, that's easier said than done.]
[The current crisis we find ourselves in today and addressing]
[has been felt in the ghettos of our cities and our country for decades now.]
[Whatever economic progress we've experienced ]
[has come on the backs of our nation's poor.]
[It's a subsidy of epic proportions.]
[The climate crisis is the end result of concentrating dirty industrial design]
[on top of people who have had very little power to influence let alone stop it.]
[Transportation, energy production, waste, and sewage processing]
[are point sources for the greenhouse gases that we're all trying to curb right now.]
[And it would be wonderful to think, "What if we had actually located all of those]
[noxious facilities in very wealthy communities as quickly as we did in poor ones?"]
[We would have had a clean, green energy economy a long, long time ago.]
[And because of that, we've got health issues such as asthma.]
[And asthma, yes, it is a respiratory disease,]
[but don't forget that the lungs are connected to the brain as well as to the heart.]
[One of the causes of that epidemic is also having an effect on young people's minds.]
[Columbia University showed in a recent study that learning disabilities]
[were directly related to the proximity to fossil fuel emission sources]
[from things like power plants and trucking and waste processing.]
[And many poor children who do poorly in school end up going to jail in this country,]
[and that might have something to do with the fact that America]
[as 5% of the world's population not only produces 25% of its greenhouse gases]
[but also 25% of the world's incarcerated.]
[Our tax dollars pay into the corrections system, ]
[but some people are paying because of our poor planning decisions with their freedom.]
[And one's heart and soul pay the price as well--]
[less trees, less open space, less beauty, less hope in one's life.]
[When people get out of jail and go back ]
[to the marginalized communities that they came from,]
[which often don't have any jobs there either,]
[In New York City, for example, two-thirds of them do.]
[But here's what we discovered at Sustainable South Bronx about five years ago:]
[When you put people to work fixing the environmental problems of our shared world,]
[suddenly men getting out of jail and welfare mothers who had never had a job before]
[suddenly become alive to the world around them,]
[and they see the world and act in it in very different ways.]
[They know that they have traveled from societal burden to environmental hero,]
[and they feel great about it.]
[I had the pleasure of watching that happen every day while I ran that organization.]
[And teaching the skills was the easy part.]
[Teaching them to understand urban forestry management,]
[how they can deal with storm water mitigation, and also urban heat island stuff--]
[believe me, they got that. That was the easy part.]
[The hard part was helping people--preparing people ]
[who have been economically neglected for generations to get and keep a job is hard,]
[but it's easier when you have this kind of agenda,]
[when you're solving two problems at once--]
[poverty alleviation and environmental remediation.]
[I am really proud to have started one of the nation's first green job training]
[It was born in the South Bronx, and just like the previous generation]
[that actually gave us hip-hop, this is going to spread.]
[I moved on from Sustainable South Bronx to start the Majora Carter Group]
[because I want to help municipalities--rural, urban, suburban, and exurban--]
[you name it--around the country and around the world]
[unlock their own green collar potential.]
[I will never forget where I come from, but there is a national need for this.]
[If you feel and you know that you've got nothing to offer]
[or anything to gain by being a part of a community]
[and there's no predictable outcome to the effort that you exert]
[and what you're going to see at the end of the day, violence is going to happen.]
[I don't care if it's the Middle East, I don't care if it's the inner cities in this country]
[or if you're living in the foothills in Appalachia ]
[underneath the shadow of what used to be a mountaintop ]
[that's been cut off to extract coal.]
[In the same decade that we've seen such supposed economic growth,]
[we've also seen poor peoples of all colors getting poorer]
[and the communities that they live in getting more and more toxic.]
[There is a misconception out there that in order to grow our economy,]
[we're going to have to do business as usual or at least go really, really slow]
[because cleaning up the environment, mitigating climate change,]
[Well, I say that the bill that we've been paying as humanity]
[is too hard for us to be experiencing even more.]
[We need to create green collar jobs so that poor people can see themselves]
[as having both a personal as well as a financial stake ]
[in the betterment of our environment.]
[We need to retrofit all of our energy in efficient buildings,]
[install those solar panels, and build a national grid]
[so that we can actually connect all the wind energy,]
[that power that's up in the Midwest--in Minnesota and way up there--]
[and all of the sun that's in Arizona and all of those places down there]
[and actually connect those with the centers that need the power.]
[Hello, those are lots and lots of jobs.]
[But this is as much about national security as it is about local economic development]
[and building American pride.]
[It's my understanding that American foreign policy ]
[isn't particularly keen on what's happening in Russia or Venezuela ]
[and their ideas of democracy.]
[And I can't believe that any of us think that just some certain sects ]
[of Muslim militants in Arab countries who are paying some of their people]
[to promote terrorist acts--that is where some of our oil money is going to.]
[So it makes sense for us to start thinking about a real domestic policy right now.]
[Climate change can become a stable and profitable business opportunity,]
[and we need to develop ways for the clean, green energy economy--a real one--]
[to flourish right here at home with clean tech industries, green manufacturing,]
[instead of outsourcing our production to countries that engage in slave and child labor--]
[that don't share our values for human rights or the environment--]
[or aiding and abetting acts of terrorism.]
[We must stand strong on the moral and economic high ground]
[without fearing those forces that will distort, cheat, and lie]
[to protect the portfolios of a very, very few at the expense of you, ]
[your neighbors, and all your future generations.]
[Environmental justice for all is civil rights in the 21st century.]
[People are aching--aching for leaders to inspire them to believe that there is another way.]
[We commemorated the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's death this year.]
[And I know that at the end of his life he was talking as much about economic equality]
[as he was about racial equality.]
[And actually, the day that he was killed he was actually in Memphis]
[to talk about environmental work.]
[He was there to support the black sanitation workers down there.]
[So this is a man who knew a little something about that.]
[And the prophetic dream that he had the night before]
[when he was up on that mountaintop looking out at the Promised Land,]
[Do you think he saw 25% of the world's population incarcerated ]
[or us producing 25% of the world's greenhouse gases?]
[Do you think he saw millions of children suffering]
[from environmentally related conditions?]
[And do you think he saw people of all colors living in poverty]
[in communities that were getting more and more toxic by the second?]
[What he saw was a future that was green for all of us, my friends.]
[It wasn't black, it wasn't white, it wasn't red or brown or yellow.]
[And I know that because I was there, and I know that many of you--all of you--]
[were there too because aren't we tired of building tributes to all of our collective failures?]
[And don't we want to build monuments to hope and possibility?]
[[Jeff Immelt - CEO, General Electric] Good afternoon.]
[What I thought I'd do is just briefly frame how I view the problem,]
[and then I look forward to a great discussion.]
[I would say I came at sustainability ]
[without at all having any emotional ties to the environment.]
[I've never camped in my life.]
[The closest thing I've come to nature is golfing, basically. [audience laughing]]
[So I had no emotional tie or any kind of spiritual tie at all to the environment.]
[I'm not saying that's bad. I just didn't come at it that way.]
[I came at it more the same way you come at it--as a student.]
[I like to learn about things, I like to solve problems.]
[The things I learned in college, like you're learning here at Notre Dame,]
[are the same ways I kind of run my life and my business today--I'm a student.]
[So in 2003 I was studying a lot of our businesses,]
[and I found a lot of our businesses across GE were working on energy efficiency,]
[clean water, clean energy, environmental technologies.]
[And so gosh, I said, "If four or five or six businesses are working on this,]
[maybe there's really something going on here."]
[And we basically at that time--at the end of 2003--created four teams.]
[One team studied the science of global warming,]
[one team studied public policy,]
[one team studied our customers and what they thought,]
[and one team studied the impact that if a billion new people in places like China and India]
[start driving a car in the next five or ten years, which they will,]
[what will happen to the demands on energy and the environment?]
[So we put four teams together, and here's what we learned:]
[Global warming is a technical fact, and it is caused by man.]
[I encourage all of you to go read the National Academy of Sciences study]
[or any other study you want to read, learn it for yourself. ]
[The second thing we learned was that the mood of public policy]
[and the mood of the nation has changed.]
[One thing I've learned from being in business for almost 30 years]
[is that when society changes its mind, you fight it at your own peril.]
[And this is a place where the societies in Europe, now in the United States and in Asia]
[have largely changed their mind, so you better get in front of it ]
[or you're going to get smashed by it. That's what we learned.]
[We learned that our customers were looking for leadership,]
[and our customers wanted technical solutions,]
[and they would rather have those first and not last.]
[So we learned that our customers were very appreciative.]
[And the last thing we learned was that the draw of population growth]
[and a population expanding to be wealthy around the world]
[was going to have a massive impact on the need for energy--]
[strains on the environment, strains on water.]
[There's going to be a shortage of all those things,]
[and so we said, "Boy, we better get ready for that."]
[So we looked at it purely as a student--purely as a student.]
[So in 2004-2005 we launched an initiative called ecomagination,]
[and we said, "Green is green,"]
[that there's no crime in making money solving some of society's toughest problems.]
[And that's what GE has done for more than 130 years.]
[So we dedicated $3 billion of R&D to develop new products.]
[We now have 70 new products.]
[We said we would work with customers and try to reach $20 billion in revenue by 2010.]
[We'll now reach $25 billion by 2010, up from $5 billion in 2005.]
[We said we would reduce our own carbon footprint in line with the Kyoto Protocol.]
[We basically reduced our own carbon footprint by about 12%.]
[And we said we would be public.]
[In other words, we would engage with the public, we would engage with politicians,]
[we would try to be very vocal in terms of what we did,]
[and we've done all four of those things,]
[and it's been one of the most powerful initiatives that the company has ever had.]
[I would say it's been more successful than I ever thought it would be.]
[One of the things that I would say is that when we started, oil was $25 a barrel.]
[Now with oil at $110 or $120 or wherever it is today,]
[there's a natural convergence between the need for energy efficiency ]
[and the need for clean power.]
[And so you now have multiple ways to think about why this is so important]
[for the next generation of people.]
[So I would urge you to think about this both in terms of what's in your heart,]
[like Majora can so eloquently, ]
[but also what's in your head.]
[You're a student. If you study what's going on, you're going to come to a conclusion]
[that this is extremely important.]
[I would make one other key point--]
[that this is really eminently solvable.]
[If you study R&D spending since 1945 in the United States,]
[there's a tremendous amount of spending on defense,]
[there's a tremendous amount of spending on health care,]
[there's a tremendous amount of spending on NASA and things like that.]
[There's been almost no money spent on energy technology over the last 50 years.]
[If we can unleash the power of innovation, the entrepreneurial spirit in this country,]
[it's basically a nascent field.]
[If we can take all the things that this country is good at,]
[this is eminently a solvable problem.]
[And when we talk to politicians and we think about, ]
["How do you frame a clean energy policy?" we basically talk about three things.]
[First, broad-based innovation and technology.]
[This country needs to unleash the power of intellect.]
[We shouldn't pick one technology; we should pick a dozen technologies]
[from renewables to more efficient hydrocarbons to conservation.]
[And we ought to let those technologies really ripple through the system.]
[It's very important that we do that and unleash the power that we have in this country.]
[The second thing is we should look at it as an economic power.]
[This is a way for this country to be competitive, it's a way to create jobs.]
[Let me tell you, the renewable energy industry, the clean power industry,]
[is going to create tens of thousands of new jobs.]
[When I stand here today, I know I stand before somewhere between 100 and 150]
[future GE employees, and I want you to know you're here today for a reason,]
[and I'm here for a reason, and you're going to go to work on clean power.]
[We're creating jobs, and this is going to be a tremendous aspect ]
[and a tremendous way to grow.]
[And the last thing is clean energy is a public policy.]
[This is something where the government has to be a positive catalyst for change]
[and has to be really with business, with society, to help create it.]
[I've studied a thousand problems in my career.]
[Sustainability, clean energy is a solvable problem.]
[There's no reason to think about this as impossible.]
[There's no reason to think this should take 20, 30, 40 years.]
[This is a solvable problem. Thank you.]
[[Ernest Moniz - Director, MIT Energy Initiative]]
[I want to thank Father John and all our Notre Dame colleagues]
[for the open-mindedness to invite a Boston College boy here to this symposium]
[and Anne for saying famous, not infamous, with regard to my D of E tenure.]
[I'd like to try to touch on three points on this issue of charting a sustainable energy future.]
[First, why do we need that future?]
[Secondly, what's our pathway to get there?]
[And third, what are some of the technology, business model,]
[and policy innovations to enable us to realize that future in time and at scale?]
[Before commenting on those three, though, first let me give my one sentence--]
[it's kind of a German sentence; it's a bit long--]
[characterization of the energy business today.]
[Highly capitalized, multi trillion dollar per year,]
[commodity business with incredible supply chains]
[providing essential services to all levels of society,]
[thereby inviting extensive regulation and complex politics.]
[And I would argue that every part of that sentence is important]
[as you think about the energy business and what it's going to take]
[to reach this energy future that we all want sooner rather than later.]
[So first of all, why do we need to think about this future?]
[Well, this will be a fairly short discussion.]
[In the campaign season as we are now in,]
[perhaps a good slogan is, "It's the carbon, stupid."]
[Now, there are two reasons for that, however.]
[One is the obvious one in terms of carbon emissions]
[and the enormous risks of climate change.]
[I know it will come as a shock to say that there's gambling going on in the house,]
[but that's what we're doing.]
[We are gambling on what kind of warming,]
[what kind of environmental consequences are going to ensue]
[by continuing the current path.]
[Just a little thing like melting the Himalayan glaciers]
[would have some consequences from India all the way through Southeast Asia.]
[That's just one very simple example.]
[And the other point about climate change I'll just mention]
[Co2 has a, roughly speaking, millennial time scale in the atmosphere,]
[so it's a cumulative problem.]
[We are spending the budget, and if one takes even what I would term ]
[the outer limits of prudence, say doubling of pre-industrial concentrations,]
[we should have it in our mind the clock runs out by mid-century.]
[When you go back to that definition of the energy business today]
[and its high degree of inertia, that means starting today]
[is the only prescription for success if we are to meet our goals again at scale]
[The second reason why it's the carbon, stupid, is actually security.]
[After all, the insecurity of the industrialized world is about acquiring carbon rich fuels.]
[So the message there is I believe that if we are going to move forward in this pathway,]
[what we need to do is to find the synergies of bringing together our environmental concerns]
[and our security concerns to move a very complex system--I don't mean technically;]
[I mean politically--forward to the goals that we want to pursue.]
[Frankly, I think we are all sitting here kind of watching a movie]
[of a slow motion energy, water, food, population, security train wreck to come]
[instead of in fact taking action to change the ending of that film.]
[Which brings us around to some of the things that we have to do.]
[First, we need to face, I believe, the fact that fossil fuels are not going away]
[in this half century for sure.]
[I think many of you know the well-known Saudi oil minister quote of the '70s]
[that the Stone Age didn't end for lack of stones]
[and the Oil Age won't end for lack of oil.]
[The issue is, what kinds of alternative technologies can we develop]
[that are cost competitive in a marketplace conditioned ]
[by things like carbon cap and trade systems to be competitive]
[and to displace fossil fuels?]
[The fact is that we have not found any better way of storing hydrogen]
[than by attaching them to carbon atoms.]
[And so until we find new technologies, the very attractive attributes of fossil fuels,]
[particularly globally, will continue.]
[So we have three things we have to do.]
[One is clearly we have to address the efficiency and conservation opportunities,]
[which are probably those with the nearest term major opportunities--]
[use fossil fuels more efficiently, use less of them to accomplish our goals.]
[Secondly, we clearly need to not only develop technologies]
[but to demonstrate and deploy at large scale very low carbon technologies--]
[nuclear power, renewables, solar, wind, geothermal, waves,]
[and I must say, in my view, looking a few decades down the road perhaps,]
[my bets go with solar as really having a tremendous opportunity]
[and cost reductions that are proceeding at a pace much more rapid]
[The third is we are going to be using fossil fuels.]
[We need to get into much more effective carbon management.]
[There are many approaches, but that which is perhaps particularly important]
[is learning how to economically capture Co2 following fossil fuel combustion]
[and sequestering it underground at very, very large scale]
[and for very, very long times.]
[I will use that as an example--the development of sequestration]
[and the associated technologies--as an example of where we are]
[frankly not displaying the sense of urgency that we need to get this technology]
[developed, demonstrated, deployed in a new still to be developed regulatory regime]
[to get this technology in place.]
[Frankly, we are going through the motions without putting in place an effective program.]
[We need to change that, and hopefully in the next administration--whichever flavor--]
[that will begin to change dramatically.]
[Third point: A few comments on innovations.]
[Obviously, accelerating technology innovation, as Jeff mentioned,]
[is clearly very important, a much more robust R&D program,]
[one, by the way--perhaps self-serving for most of us here--]
[one which has to engage our universities much more strongly than has been the case]
[We also need a much more aggressive publicly funded major demonstration program,]
[and here I would say at least one of the campaigns has the right number.]
[The number we're talking about is $150 billion or so of public investment ]
[That's an enormous amount or sounds like an enormous amount]
[for the appropriations activity in Congress]
[but on the scale of the energy business is actually peanuts,]
[and we have to find a way of getting there.]
[But also in terms of innovation, we are now seeing about $6 billion a year]
[in the United States in venture capital going into clean technology.]
[This is introducing something that has not been common ]
[in that business I described up front--]
[kind of a risk-taking mentality, an idea that if you want to score goals, you've got to shoot,]
[and a goalie stops a lot of them, but a couple get in.]
[This is energizing the energy business. It's great.]
[But it does leave, in my view, an unanswered question,]
[and that is, how are we going to capture that innovation]
[and scale it to the scale of the energy business--]
[something that's material not only on one company's balance sheet]
[but material for the public challenges we face in terms of environment and security.]
[One of the things that we have not yet learned to do broadly enough]
[is to learn how to match the innovative, entrepreneurial technology--]
[let's call it start-up culture--with the large energy incumbents--]
[I'm thinking let's say oil companies--who want to become energy companies.]
[How do we make that match so that the innovation flourishes]
[and the scale can be accelerated rather than what has too often historically been]
[more of a graveyard for technologies as they are mismatched ]
[to the scale of the companies?]
[So these are the kinds of challenges. ]
[It's technology, but it's also things like business models that we are going to have to learn]
[And finally comes the, in my opening description, policy and politics ]
[And again, I'll just make two points.]
[Clearly, implementing a robust carbon policy is important.]
[I would argue that if done well, it will have relatively modest economic impact.]
[But we cannot hide the fact that there are distributional issues.]
[There are winners and losers.]
[Many of those will be correlated with regional issues.]
[We must embrace this as a fact and not ignore it]
[if we are going to move our political system to really addressing the problem.]
[And secondly--and my last point--is that some question whether the words energy policy]
[Well, it's because energy policy is really the integration of energy concerns]
[with environmental policy, foreign policy, security policy,]
[fiscal policy, industrial policy, agricultural policy, on and on and on.]
[We do not have a Congress or administration structured]
[to make those integrative assessments to move forward with real energy policy.]
[One thing we could do is to-- Hopefully the next president, for example,]
[could appoint someone at the level of a national security advisor]
[as an energy advisor to be a convening force across the government]
[and use that to work with Congress.]
[I don't know the answer. That's a suggestion.]
[But clearly, we need to address both these distributional issues]
[and these organizational issues if we are going to come together]
[on a time scale that matters to reach that sustainable energy future. Thank you.]
[I also would like to take the opportunity to thank the conveners.]
[Father John, thank you for inviting me to be a part of this forum.]
[[Bill Ritter, Jr. - Governor of Colorado]]
[I come at this from a couple of different perspectives,]
[and I'll talk about the first of those perspectives as a father of four children.]
[My oldest is 22, my youngest is 15, so I have 4 children in that 7-year span.]
[In thinking about their future, I am absolutely convinced]
[that they will consume energy in an entirely different way than I have]
[through the course of my lifetime up to today.]
[They have to, really for all of the reasons that have been described]
[but significantly because of the carbon footprint we as Americans have]
[And really, with the emerging economies around the world,]
[the potential for the carbon footprint to grow if we don't change]
[the way we consume energy and don't really lead the world]
[in the way we change energy, then the future as you would know it]
[as a 22-year-old or a 15-year-old is completely different.]
[We have to change. We must change.]
[And I think the generation of people who are my children]
[and the generation of students that you have at the University of Notre Dame]
[are people who will experience a different way of consuming energy,]
[which also means that we will experience a different way in this country]
[and I believe around the world of producing energy.]
[So that's the first perspective as a father of four kids.]
[But really, it's as well as the governor of a state,]
[and I was only elected a year and a half ago.]
[When I began campaigning, I really looked at the state of Colorado and said,]
["This is a great state. It has abundant natural resources."]
[We have oil, we have natural gas, we have coal.]
[But we also have abundant wind and abundant solar,]
[and really, we're the fourth best state for geothermal possibilities.]
[And yet we were not making really any use of those resources.]
[And it occurred to me that as a governor of this state put in a leadership position,]
[you could really create what I call a new energy economy--]
[just to change the way we think about energy, even in a Western state]
[and to take those extractive industries--coal and oil and gas--]
[and mix them with industries that were about renewable energy--]
[about wind and about solar and geothermal.]
[So we began talking about the new energy economy,]
[and I actually filmed my first TV commercial as governor in a wind farm]
[And the tagline was that the future of Colorado is building wind farms]
[and wheat fields and making Colorado universities research leaders]
[And in a short 16 months, we've been able to see the fruits of your efforts,]
[if in fact you as a leader gather people around you ]
[who are really smart about this issue and really passionate about the issue]
[and you make it known to the rest of the world that you want to be a leader]
[in the area of renewable energy and really a national and international leader.]
[In the first legislative session we said, "We already have a renewable portfolio]
[standard," meaning the amount of renewable energy that must flow]
["We have an RPS, but we're going to double it."]
["We're going to make the world know that we're serious as a state]
[about renewable energy." And so we doubled it.]
["And 20% of our energy must be from renewable resources not counting hydro]
[by 2020." That was significant.]
[People said, "Well, there's a transmission issue."]
[We said, "What's the impediment?"]
["Well, it takes so long, and it's costly to build out transmission,]
[and utilities can't pass that on to their ratepayers."]
[We had two different bills that we passed in that first legislative session]
[that said, "Let utilities accelerate their cost recovery if it's renewable energy]
[because we want to inspire the build-out of that."]
["Let rural electric associations borrow against future income."]
[They hadn't been able to do that.]
[This year we passed a law for net metering that hadn't existed in Colorado that said,]
["If you produce renewables and you can actually load it onto the grid,]
[then your meter is going to turn backwards."]
[We put in place a tax credit. We put in place a clean energy fund.]
[I had to sign two different executive orders that were about the greening of government]
[and how we as a state can lead by example]
[by ensuring that our buildings were insulated,]
[by promoting efficiency, promoting conservation,]
[and as we build out, to ensure that we are building green buildings]
[as well as a second one that looked at our fleets and asked the question,]
["How do we transition to a different fuel usage in government?"]
[And then I put in place a climate action plan,]
[something people would have said was impossible in a state like Colorado]
[a climate action plan that says, "This is a different day."]
[We put in place the United States' first agricultural sequestration program]
[so that if you use what we call a low till or a no till method of farming,]
[you can actually sequester carbons and become part of the market]
[for carbon credits and carbon trading.]
[We did all those things and said, "This is a state that's going to make a difference]
[in terms of how we view the abilities around renewable energy,]
[conservation, and efficiency, and we're going to create an economy around it."]
[So just this past summer, Vestas--it's a Danish company--]
[It's announced 2,500 new jobs building wind towers,]
[the first North American manufacturing plant for Vestas.]
[It's one of the world's largest construction and manufacturing companies for wind towers.]
[Four manufacturing plants up and down the front range.]
[ConocoPhillips said, "We're going to really put thousands of jobs in Colorado]
[around research and development for alternative fuels."]
[We have the National Renewable Energy Laboratory]
[and this collaboratory of schools, of colleges, that are a part of that]
[because research and development is key to our being able to really figure out]
[how to maximize the use of renewables, maximize conservation,]
[And so we built that around an economy, and we're watching the economy grow]
[and grow and grow around this.]
[And so we call it the new energy economy,]
[and it's the way we as a country must think--not just as the state of Colorado]
[or even states that have renewable resources.]
[We must think about this nationwide--how we create an economy]
[around creating a different energy future.]
[So my three fellow panelists have all eloquently stated]
[the things that we need to do going forward.]
[I would suggest we think about it this way,]
[and it comes really from a trip that Majora and I were on to the Arctic.]
[There were a group of us that went to the Arctic to really study the issues]
[And at the end of the day--we were on a boat called the Endeavor--]
[we published a paper that said, "We're going to endeavor to act this group of principles."]
[And Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn Carter, Madeleine Albright, Tom Daschle,]
[the CEOs of eBay and Google and Monsanto]
[and people from the faith community, people from the nonprofit community]
[I used to say that if that boat capsized in the Arctic,]
[I would have been in the paragraph, "Also on the boat." [audience laughing]]
[There were a lot of really important folks that were on this boat.]
[And we came away with this sort of statement of principles]
[that we were on the Endeavor and we were going to endeavor to act.]
[And it was about five Es--that we're going to endeavor to act differently]
[about energy policy so that we could achieve energy security]
[in the United States of America,]
[that we could achieve environmental security,]
[that we'd really be taking action that impacted our carbon footprint]
[and get to a place where we had some security around protecting the environment,]
[that we would get to a place of economic security, as Jeff said,]
[the ability to grow jobs with the new energy economy and thinking about]
[how we produce energy differently.]
[So those were the first three Es.]
[The next two was that it was about education,]
[one of the reasons I think it's fantastic that you have this forum today on sustainability.]
[It has to be about educating the public because awareness has to change]
[in order for attitudes to change, in order for behavior to change.]
[And we must have behavior to change.]
[The fifth E is critical and is partly what Majora touched upon.]
[that we don't build out energy policy on the backs of the poor,]
[either the world's poor or the nation's poor.]
[If we do nothing, there is an impact on the poor around the world.]
[There are hundreds of millions of people who live in coastal areas]
[that are impoverished and who will be impacted in a significant way]
[about rising oceans if we do nothing.]
[If we build out an energy policy to solve this issue and we don't think about equity]
[and equity for the poor and how we involve them in the economy,]
[how we ensure that their energy prices aren't such ]
[that they carve into their already fixed incomes,]
[we really need to make that a part of how we think about it]
[so that there isn't just one group of people advantaged by a new energy economy]
[and a different energy policy.]
[So think about it in terms of the five Es--energy, environment, economy,]
[Those are the things that we must consider as we move forward as a country]
[and establish a leadership role in how we approach energy in the 21st century.]
