printable versionPanel cites swell in public support for tackling global warming
BY LISA TREI
“Clean, Secure and Efficient Energy: Can We Have It All?” featured, from left, Sally Benson, Paul Ehrlich, George Shultz, Fred Krupp, J.B. Straubel and moderator Amy Goodman.
A groundswell of support from the U.S. public, legislators and industry provides an unprecedented opportunity to tackle global warming, participants said during a Sept. 5 panel discussion titled “Clean, Secure and Efficient Energy: Can We Have it All?”
The event was sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford and Stanford’s Aurora Forum.
The bipartisan group of panelists in Memorial Auditorium included former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz; Fred Krupp, executive director of the national nonprofit Environmental Defense; Sally Benson, executive director of Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP); Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies; and J.B. Straubel, a recent Stanford graduate and chief technical officer of the electric car company Tesla Motors. Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of the independent news program Democracy Now!, moderated the two-hour event, which attracted a capacity audience and hundreds of reporters attending the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual conference held on campus last week.
Shultz, a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution, expressed optimism that the momentum for change exists. “We have a moment when we see there are problems with the environment,” he said at the beginning of the discussion. “At the same time, we can see there are problems with our dependence on oil, which is a bad thing from our national security standpoint. And there are problems with high and volatile energy prices from an economist’s standpoint. These three things come together—each has a different constituent, but all are advocating the same thing. From a political standpoint, it’s a very precious moment when something might actually happen. So you want to make sure that something happens that works.”
Ehrlich said the United States should have addressed global warming, which he referred to as global heating, more than a half century ago. However, he said if both political parties come together, positive changes can take place under the leadership of industry executives.
Krupp called on Congress to set mandatory legal limits for carbon dioxide emissions. “Until we do that, we’re all kidding ourselves that voluntary actions, however laudable, are going to solve this,” he said.
Benson spoke about GCEP’s efforts to carry out innovative research on solar power, improved batteries, carbon capture and storage, and more efficient combustion. When moderator Goodman questioned GCEP’s independence because it is funded in part by the oil company ExxonMobil, Benson defended its work, noting that research is peer reviewed and reflects the interests of faculty concerned with finding new ways to provide energy without increasing global warming.
Straubel spoke about the efforts of entrepreneurs like himself to develop affordable, long-lasting batteries for non-combustible car engines. While Benson lauded efforts to reduce emissions, she noted that 50 percent of electricity in this country comes from burning coal, a major source of greenhouse gases. “Until we deal with that, electric cars will go only so far in dealing with global climate change,” she said. “Simply shifting to an electric car will not reduce the carbon footprint today.” SR