Climate One at the Commonwealth Club hosted a discussion on the importance of California agriculture in regards to climate change and Assembly Bill 32 – California’s Global Warming Solutions Act. The video features excerpts from the panelists.
Panelists:
Cynthia Cory, Director of Environmental Affairs, California Farm Bureau Federation
Jeanne Merrill, California Climate Action Network
Paul Martin, Director of Environmental Services, Western United Dairymen
Karen Ross, Secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture
Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, spoke at Climate One at the Commonwealth Club just prior to the San Francisco premiering of the new coal film which he participated in “The Last Mountain“.
In these excerpts Kennedy compares economic and environmental aspects of dirty fossil fuels vs. clean green alternatives, such as solar and wind.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at the Commonwealth Club before the S.F. premiering of the coal film “The Last Mountain“. Here he responds to a question on nuclear power.
Partial Excerpts:
“There’s not a single utility in this country that will build a nuclear power plant today unless 100% of the construction costs are paid for by the federal taxpayer. Why is that? And then at the end of the life cycle of the plant, we have to store their waste for 30,000 years which is five times the length of recorded human history. What kind of subsidy is that? What kind of deficit spending is that to dump on our children.?”
“…If you’re safe, then get an insurance policy and compete in the free market. You know they can’t get an insurance policy. The insurance industry won’t write them a policy because they’re too risky to insure. And if they had to write them a policy it would be so expensive they couldn’t compete in the marketplace”
“…In a capitalist society, the insurance industry is the final arbiter of risk. You go home and look at your homeowner’s policy. Every homeowner’s insurance policy in this country has a provision in it which says, this policy does not insure you against radiation contamination caused by a nuclear power plant. So you are now insuring yourself against their mistakes. No other industry gets that gift. That is a huge subsidy.”
‘(Reuters) – The House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday that would speed up approvals for drilling in the Arctic by removing regulatory hurdles that have stymied development of the area’s vast oil and gas resources.’
‘WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former US vice president and environmental activist Al Gore has accused President Barack Obama of failing to lead on climate change, warning that the very survival of civilization was at stake.’
‘KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As record floodwaters along the Missouri River drench homes and businesses, concerns have grown about keeping a couple of notable structures dry: two riverside nuclear power plants in Nebraska.’
‘BRACEVILLE, Ill. – Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.’
Here’s the larger threat:
‘…Nuclear engineer Bill Corcoran, an industry consultant who has taught NRC personnel how to analyze the cause of accidents, said that since much of the piping is inaccessible and carries cooling water, the worry is if the pipes leak, there could be a meltdown. ‘
‘OSLO (Reuters) – Life in the oceans is at imminent risk of the worst spate of extinctions in millions of years due to threats such as climate change and over-fishing, a study showed on Tuesday.’
‘In a defeat for environmentalists, the Supreme Court agreed with the companies that regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Congress, not the courts.’
‘Developing nations publicly insist the rich must agree far deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, but increasingly believe that only a weaker deal can actually be achieved to keep the existing Kyoto Protocol, or parts of it, alive beyond 2012.’
