|
|
|
|
Advertisement
With the Senate set to consider the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill later this spring, local governments are stepping up with their own plans for reducing emissions and becoming more energy efficient. During today's E&ETV Event Coverage, local and federal government officials discuss a new coalition focused on promoting federal-local partnerships to address climate change. Participants include, Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Senator Joseph Lieberman, (I-Conn.), and Senator John Warner, (R-Va.). The Senators also discuss plans for a national cap on emissions and the need for federal oversight for a new U.S. carbon market.
Roger Dickinson: I'm Roger Dickinson. I'm a county supervisor in Sacramento, California, and it is a pleasure to be here in Washington, particularly for this purpose this morning.
I'm joined by literally dozens of local elected officials from all across the country who have come together in a coalition to, we hope, restore and build on a local federal partnership, particularly when it comes to national legislation affecting our climate.
And this is, in my estimation, the greatest single social, economic, and environmental challenge of our time. And I'm very, very pleased that Senators Lieberman and Warner are here with us this morning and Senator Boxer will be shortly, who have taken such a dramatic and important leadership role on this issue.
And we're here this morning as a group, climate communities, to bring ourselves, as local elected officials across the country, together to support S2192, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, one of the most important pieces of legislation of our time without question.
We know that there are initiatives going on all over the country. This is, indeed, an issue where we can think globally and very much act locally. From King County in Washington in the Pacific Northwest to Miami-Dade County in southeast Florida and places like High Point, North Carolina, and Story County, Iowa, local citizens, along with their local elected officials, have taken the initiative to start addressing the very real needs of climate change and global warming.
We now come together to make sure that we have a voice at the national level. And we need the help of the federal government in recognizing that it is those of us at the local level who are literally on the front lines of bringing about change, that if we have the resources to do the job we will, in fact, be the most effective agents for addressing this critical issue of global warming.
This morning I just want to take one quick moment to talk about something that we're doing in the Sacramento region which has received national attention and notice. We call it the Blueprint Project, where all the local governments in our region, the cities and the counties, some 23 cities and six counties, have come together to chart our future, because while we are a region of 2.2 million people today, we will grow by another 1.7 million people between now and 2050 in our region.
We are the second fastest growing area in the state of California. What that means is enormous pressure on our natural resources, on our quality of air, on our water supply, literally our quality of life. And we know that it's got huge implications for climate change and global warming.
So, we have fashioned what we call the Blueprint to chart our future, a future which will call for more than $500 million in investment in transit and in changing our style of life to protect our natural resources, to grow in a more compact fashion, and, in fact, preserve our social fabric in our region.
This is just one example of an approach that can make a huge difference if we all are dedicated to this purpose. And out of this we expect that we will reduce our vehicle miles traveled in the Sacramento region by over one third between now and 2050, compared to business as usual.
The local effort to create smart growth, more public transit, and fewer vehicle miles traveled is at the core of what we're talking about in this legislation. Now, I'm joined this morning by other local elected officials, including supervisor John McGlennon of James City County, Virginia, who will follow me; Mayor Dannel Malloy of Stamford, Connecticut, and county executive Tom Souzzi of Nassau, County, who will also tell us about what's going on in his jurisdiction.
With that, once again, thank you very much for being here, thanks to our senators in particular and now let me turn the podium over to John McGlennon.
John McGlennon: Thank you very much Roger. Good morning everyone. My name is John McGlennon and I am an elected representative for the county government in James City County, Virginia. I represent Jamestown Island, which includes the settlement of the first English colony in the New World, which we celebrated 400 years of anniversary last year.
It's my great privilege this morning, in drawing attention to the relationship between local government and the national government's efforts in climate change, to introduce our Senator from Virginia. We have a great leader in John Warner.
Like Captain John Smith, Marine captain and senator John Warner has always shown courage, always had a pioneering spirit, and, once again, he's shown this courage and spirit by joining as a chief sponsor of the Climate Security Act. Senator, we're proud of you and what you are doing with Senate bill 2191 and we intend to work together with you to gather senators from both parties, and congressional representatives in the house, to move climate legislation forward.
Undoubtedly, the progress made on this climate legislation will be part of your enduring legacy for generations to come. Please join me in welcoming Senator John Warner.
Dan Malloy: Joe Lieberman is the lead man. The last I checked, when I left here around nine o'clock last night, the Democratic Party still controlled the Senate. So, I want you to come out here and I will follow, or you stand with me. Let's do it together. You know, this Washington protocol thing just throws you off. I'm up from Connecticut ...
Joe Lieberman: Do you want me to introduce you?
Dan Malloy: I have some remarks to give, but I know both senators are extremely busy. I do want to say that Joe Lieberman makes us proud. His leadership, in this particular area, will be a lasting legacy and contribution to our great democracy. The reality is that these two senators get it. They understand that our country is being damaged every single day as we waste energy and as we hurt the environment. They both understand that we need to change our behaviors and, quite frankly, that we're going to need an incentive package to get Americans do that. So I'm very proud to appear with my senator, Joe Lieberman.
Joe Lieberman: Thank you Dan. Thanks very much to Dan. Great to be with Mayor Malloy. Good to see my dear friend Tom Souzzi and always good to stand next to my partner John Warner. Typical of him, that he would want to yield. The fact is that if John Warner had not decided to become a leader in this effort to have America do something about climate change, we wouldn't have a prayer or a chance to pass this bill this year. It's as simple as that.
And, if I may give his speech for him, I was with him a while ago and somebody said, "How did you get involved in this?" Because he hadn't been earlier. And he said two words science, grandchildren. And, in a lot of ways, that really says it all. We've got a problem. It's a big problem. It's a global problem. It's not going to be solved unless we all do our part.
And the truth is that the national government in Washington has not done its part yet, but in classic American fashion, the municipalities, the counties, the localities, and the states all around America are taking the lead to do something about this problem.
I'm sorry that Dan Malloy didn't get a chance to talk about some of the things that he's done in Stamford, because he's both visionary and practical enough to turn his visions into a progressive reality.
First, we appreciate what you've done at the local level, the community level, creating this climate community movement, because it does directly contribute to a reduction in the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.
Secondly, we are greatly honored by your support of America's Climate Security Act, because what you're doing and what the states are doing is creating the pressure that's helping us move this forward. But your specific endorsement is a tremendous boost for us. This is a big problem; the legislation that we put in would create a big response to it.
It's complicated. It's a work in progress. We've made great progress. We've listened to a lot of stakeholders along the way. We have no sense of self righteousness or perfection about this and we want to engage you in the dialog.
In fact, I think Senator Warner and I both feel we can speak with more specificity in the final legislation about the ways in which we can assist at the national level, localities, and climate communities in doing some of the extraordinary projects you're doing.
Senator Reid, the majority leader, will tell you that he's sometimes not sure what power actually comes along with being majority leader, but one power he knows he has is to set the agenda to determine what's on the Senate floor.
And he's given us and Senator Boxer a promise that our America's Climate Security Act will come up to the Senate floor this spring and we'll have enough time to debate it. I think support is growing. This is not a partisan issue, it's a human issue, it's a global issue.
And we think we're in range of the 60 votes we need to get this passed. Your support today is a tremendous boost to us. Stick with us. Help us make the bill better. Do what you're doing at the local level to show that this can and will be done.
Look, this is so big a problem we know there's going to be a solution to it and we know there's going to be national leadership here, the question is how soon will we get it done? And your support at home and here in Washington today says to me that we're going to get it done sooner than later, which was what we need to do.
And now, I have the high honor to present Captain John Smith…oh, no. This is a great man and he's announced he's not running again and he wants this bill to pass this year and I think all of us want it to pass because it needs to pass. But we want it to pass as a tribute to a great American patriot and public servant, John Warner.
John Warner: Thank you. May I just second what my dear friend and colleague said. We've been partners in a lot of things in the Senate over our years together and he said it all. But I always say, Joe, I've been in politics about 40 years. I started in the Eisenhower White House as a speechwriter and I've gotten to know the system.
Five consecutive times I've been elected to the Senate, but I have the greatest respect for mayors, chairmen of the Board of Supervisors, and those people right down at the local level. My hat is off to you.
I have a state of 8 million people and, frankly, I can go hide. I can go anywhere in that state I want to go. You can't hide. Those people want to know where you are 24/7 and working hard. I don't know of a more dynamic group of people that we could have supporting this bill than those who are in daily contact with their citizens.
How many times have you been in the mayor's office, the phone rings and he answers it? He answers it! The sewer is broken? All right, I'll be right out there. Or the school bus isn't functioning. You are reaction people. You are closest to the front lines and the people that we're trying to serve.
Now, what is it we're trying to do? It's rather interesting here, Joe, can you hold this pile a minute? I went back and looked at the Clean Air Act and I was around here when that passed. And these are some of the things that were said about the Clean Air Act.
"A quiet death for business across the country," a clean air act working group. "We think is the old U.S. goodbye." And old Pat Buchanan, whom I've known through the years, "We may be in for a nice recession." Well, the facts are the Clean Air act was passed. It has worked and we have taken the cap-and-trade allowance system out of that act basically and incorporated it in ours.
I just mention that because I don't disrespect those who have concerns about this, but this is an epochal chapter in American history. Oh, the chairman!
Barbara Boxer: No, no, no, I'm waiting to follow you.
John Warner: You're dressed in royal purple! I mean you're blowing me away.
Barbara Boxer: And royal blue.
John Warner: But believe me, this is the engineer in the train and the brakeman. You've got the throttle and brake. But Joe and I got started on this and she said I'm going to support you and she has just every step of the way. But the point is this is an epochal chapter in American history because this issue of global change reaches into the sinews of almost every walk of life.
For example, I've spent most of my career in the Senate on matters of national security. This is the old Center for Naval Analysis and they write as follows, "Climate change can act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world and it represents a significant national security challenges to the United States."
I mean, we'll see water wars, we'll see drought wars, and this is important to our armed forces. A second book I have in here, well, anyway, I've got more than you can believe, but ...
Joe Lieberman: Malloy says I'm very good at this properly.
John Warner: Well, you see, I used to be a trial lawyer. If you had the right stuff to hold up you'd win a case. But the point is, it just isn't a lot of wonderful green people or mossy people as we refer to them, this is America's national security structure.
I have a volume here on the Center for Strategic Studies, one of the leading institutes. They're studying. Everybody is into this issue. Now, in absolute simplicity, many mayors have their communities bordering other states and you want to proceed fervently to do your climate change.
But the other state over here doesn't want to do it and they happen to have the power plant in that state. And everything out of the stack blows across your state and you can't do anything about it. Or let's put it in the context of the guy that runs the power plant.
He sees these regulations coming along and he serves six or seven or eight states. He's got to go to the highest common denominator to serve that state as if he's going to serve all six or seven states. This is a cross-border situation. This is why Uncle Sam, the United States of America, has got to step in and lead.
We've got 31 states that, on their own initiative, and, hey, my hat is off to them, have begun to start their own steps on climate change and what their citizens in that state must do. But the things we're dealing with, CO2, knows no state boundaries, knows no continental boundaries.
It hits us all and that's why America has got to step forward and lead. China and India are not going to move until they see that we have decided to go forward. That's why I feel so strongly about this issue and we're going to work hard and, I'll tell you, of all the groups that have come in, this is the team that can put it across the goal line, if you get it in all 50 states going. So, I'd like to yield the floor to our distinguished chairman right now and stand by for ram, as we say in the Navy.
Barbara Boxer: Oh, I need my box so I can see everybody. Okay, I've got my box. Roger, Supervisor Dickinson, thank you very much for that. I'm so happy to see you here and my partners in this incredible venture. I just want to say how thrilled I am that they came together as they did.
And when I took a gavel, about a year ago, a year and a few months, I said two things were my priorities; one, bringing back bipartisanship to the environmental issue, because somehow we've lost our way. And I sort of grew up in the environmental movement. It was always bipartisan. You couldn't tell a Republican from a Democrat.
And then, when I traveled abroad to see their progress in England, for example, it was the Conservatives and the Labor Party arguing over who could do a better job on global warming. The Conservatives said Labor wasn't tough enough and Labor said conservatives weren't tough enough.
And I remember telling Senator Warner, at that time, I hope we live to see the day when our presidential candidates are arguing as to who's going to be best on global warming. That day is here! We have the three candidates all saying they'll sign the California waiver.
We have them all saying they want to pass tough laws. So, to all of you who have been out there being the wind at our back, thank you. When my colleagues came together I sat with them and I said, look, we have got to get this done, so let's be a team. Let's be open with each other, transparent.
We'll argue it out. We'll reach compromises, as long as, from my standpoint, we have a very strong bill that gets the job done. And, frankly, as Carl Pope of the Sierra Club says, we have to do what is necessary. We have to do what is necessary to avoid catastrophe.
I don't know what Senator Lieberman said, but if it's what he normally says, I know he painted the picture very well as to what would happen if we don't do this. And I heard Senator Warner talk about the national security implications. These are clear and they're coming from our Pentagon and our intelligence officials.
And that's why his partnership in this is so key. I would say that, in general, Senator Lieberman and I have worked on environmental issues together for years. Senator Warner has been there, but because of his dedication to national security that was his thrust.
But now, all of a sudden, we see this global warming issue marries up the environment, national security, and, frankly the reason we have so many supporters in the religious community, it's a spiritual issue and it's a responsibility issue to our children. Well, let me quickly talk about you, local government.
I started in local government, so I'm particularly proud to see that support you are giving to this issue. You are already playing a major role in your communities. You understand that energy efficiency is the low hanging fruit.
As a matter of fact, in the first several years of our bill, once it gets signed, energy efficiency is going to be what drives the reductions of carbon and other greenhouse gases. And 825 mayors have signed onto the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement. Did you talk about that, Joe, in your statement?
Joe Lieberman: No, I didn't need to.
Barbara Boxer: OK, in which these mayors have pledged significant reductions in global warming in their own communities. And 118 mayors that sign onto this agreement happened to be from my home state of California, yea!
That is important, because my state has really been the laboratory to forward-looking approaches to solve climate change. And one statistic I put out a lot, and I want to say to those of you not from California and for my colleagues to hear, is that if every other state had adopted the energy efficiency and the per capita energy use of California, we would save the equivalent of all the oil we import from the Middle East every year, the equivalent in energy.
That is how amazing? If you look at California's energy use over the past 20 years it's gone this way and the rest of the country has gone this way and that difference is what's going to help us when you close that gap in the next years to come. So, we make, I think, some tremendous investments coming out of this bill and this bill is going to be deficit neutral.
It will be deficit neutral, but we will make tremendous investments to spur new technologies. That, along with the cap-and-trade system, that's going to do it for us. And my own belief is the detailed goals we have in the bill…well, they're not goals, they're actually mandates for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, I think we'll do even better than those.
Because I feel once we get rolling this thing is going to happen. And the greatness of our entrepreneurial spirit is going to kick in once we have a price on carbon that's set in the private markets. So, we will be a leader, Senator Warner, you're right, as we deserve to be and we have never sat around.
We have never waited for China to be the environmental leader. I mean our athletes will be lucky if they don't have to put masks on as they run in the Olympics and we wish them all well and we hope the Olympics go well for our athletes, but I have to say, we don't sit around and wait for other nations to lead on the environment.
So, I'm pleased to be here. We're going to bring this bill to the floor. Harry Reid has told me June 2, that's the date that is coming. Yes, it's really happening! And you will see these Three Musketeers on the floor talking, working. We'll be putting together a manager's package and we know that you deserve to have the freedom to do what you want to do in your states, in your cities, in your counties to really make sure that we take the lead on this issue. Thank you so very much everybody. Are there any questions from anybody?
Question: Senator, could you comment on the degree to which your bill intends to incorporate lessons learned, (inaudible)? How do you respond to those that say the bill gives away too many credits to companies?
John Warner: When we three decided to put this bill together, we recognized people of good intentions on the right and on the left were going to be the target. We drove through what I call a centrist bill and we have freely acknowledged that there are many senators over a period of the last four or five years that have been interested in this subject and have put in their own bills.
We've carefully and politely sat down with each one of them and said, "We like this section in your bill and we're going to incorporate it in ours." And they were rather pleased with that. So, this bill is a compendium of a lot of work that's taken place in the Senate over a period of six or eight years. And we're not satisfying the extreme right or the extreme left, but in order to get this through the Senate that's the course of action we're going to follow.
Barbara Boxer: Let me try to answer the question in terms of the experience in Europe. What we found out from the Europeans when we went there was that they really hadn't measured the emissions very well. So, we have a greenhouse gas registry. It's pretty much the first title of the bill.
And we're going to measure it right, because we don't want to give away too many allowances. So I think that was the first thing. They gave away too many allowances so there wasn't a cost to the carbon. It was a big mistake. And they gave away everything and we do not do that. Now, are there are some of us who would like to give away fewer? Yes.
And will there be amendments on that? Yes and we'll let the body work its will, but we did, as Senator Warner said, try to compromise on this. You know, we do set up a carbon efficiency board. We are going to have transparency and I want to thank Senator Whitehouse on the committee because he is making sure that people don't game the system. And so I think it's fair to say we have learned from the European experience.
Question: Senators, as you know, this community in particular is taking a lead role at the local government level.
Barbara Boxer: Yes.
Question: And what brings us together are just asking for your assistance and your legislation to recognize that and help us do our job. So, our hope is that part of the manager's amendment that you will be considering will be providing funding for those without bills.
Joe Lieberman: Well, maybe I should yield to the manager, but we're going to do it together.
Barbara Boxer: Well, we're working on it together.
Joe Lieberman: We're going to do it together, but the answer is we know that we have not…in the basic architecture of the bill, which I know you understand this, we're setting the mandatory caps, putting America on a path to slowly, methodically, but definitely reduce our greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2012 and out to 2050.
As part of the cap-and-trade system we have free allowances to some to smooth the way, to make it possible to do it without creating real economic difficulty. But the second thing is we auction credits and that will raise a lot of money and this gives us the opportunity to reinvest that money in technologies and in entities like states, counties, and municipalities that can help with the process.
So, actually, what I want to say to you, if I could be real direct, is thank you for your support of America's Climate Security Act even though we have not, as I said in my opening statement, spoken with real specificity about how we can help you.
Consider that to be a kind of let's say an open page on which we will write together in this legislation, because there is money there and we understand and recognize the leadership role that the cities and municipalities and local communities have played and must play in the future. So, we're from the federal government and we want to help.
Barbara Boxer: Yeah, let me just say as the manager, is that we are going to address this issue very specifically.
Dan Malloy: The lady in the back right here.
Question: Essentially would there be any negotiations for amendments to the bill to possibly put market oversight with CFTC or some other regulatory agency?
Joe Lieberman: Yeah, very briefly, I'll start. We've all been concerned. Senator Warner really, I remember in our early discussions, very concerned about the integrity of the system. So, we're trying to figure out ways to do that. We are setting up a climate change credit corporation, which will have a critical role in enforcing the bill. We're setting up the carbon market efficiency board. We're contemplating that there will be other oversight, including potentially from the CFTC, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which in fact, if I'm correct, oversees the market in acid rain trading. So it would be a natural thing to have that. This is very important and it will involve a lot of money and there was some speculating and profiteering in the early European experience which we don't want to have happen here. So, that will definitely be part of the final legislation.
Barbara Boxer: Yeah, and just adding to that, I mentioned Senator Whitehouse. When we marked up the bill, in full committee, he said that he wanted to work with us to make sure that those rules were tightened and so on and so forth. So, there is a lot of work to be done between now and next four weeks, because we want to give our colleagues a substitute in time for them to be able to look at it all. And so you'll have that document as well.
Roger Dickinson: Let me just pick up a word on that, because that's key. I finished up 30 years in this institution and I've been involved in many pieces of major legislation. This is perhaps the most unique. We have drawn, and it's printed in here, a bill. With the leadership of the chairman and two of us we got it through our committee.
I was the only Republican that voted for it in the committee, which means I've got extra work to do, as a matter of fact, it's lunch today where I address my caucus on it, to point out to my colleagues what we're going to put in this bill to protect things that they're concerned in.
It's just not the Republicans, all are concerned about what is the impact that the gas pump when you fill up your car? What is the impact in trying to heat your house? Now, you get right down to the consumer level and that's big votes. So, what we have done, are doing, and are continuing to do, are the three of us conduct open forums. The coal industry has been in to see us two or three times and we're trying to work with them. They are faced with a technological issue.
Can they, even if they want to, is there the technology by which they can achieve their reductions? Well, frankly, I think it exists now, maybe in an embryonic phase, but it can be there and we're going to generate the money to put into research and development to help them get there. So, this is a bill that's a living document until we get to that floor in June and then life will really spring into it when all of the amendments come on it. And finally, these three weary senators will wrap up that bill and hit that gavel and call that vote.
Barbara Boxer: Oh yes, I like that!
Roger Dickinson: You've all been very generous with your time. We appreciate it.
Dan Malloy: I'm very proud to appear before you. I was actually the 12th mayor in the country to have signed our initiative, the U.S. Conference of Mayors Initiative, in support of voluntary compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. That's the kind of commitment that municipal governments across this country, of all sizes, including my own, have demonstrated.
I should say to you, and I mentioned it to Joe Lieberman when we were talking earlier, that I have been in constant contact with him arguing the case and the cause of local governments playing a very active role and, quite frankly, benefiting from the leadership that they've already demonstrated. I think it's interesting that the senators appreciate how important local and municipal support has been to getting to this point, where a date has been set for debating this particular bill.
But it would be tragic, I think, if we were then left out of the mix, because the reality is that municipal government, not state government, has led the way. Municipal government, not state government, has come up with the appropriate ways to measure carbon footprints. Local government, not state government, is doing all the things that have gotten us to this point.
Quite frankly, if we left it up to the governors who have served over the last 10 years to have improved the environment, we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are now because first selectmen and mayors and county executives and officials working for them have actually done the early, hard work.
We deserve to participate in this program and I certainly hope that we will get to that point. Likewise, we certainly deserve to see funded that which has been authorized and that is a grant program to local municipal governments that mirrors the CDBG grant program. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has advocated on behalf of that funding.
We certainly have substantial numbers of commitments in the Senate and House with respect to $2 billion in funding and, I hope, that that will be accomplished this summer as well. So, clearly, we're doing what we need to do. I'm very proud that my city has played a role over the last eight years. Certainly, if we're going to save another 189,000 pounds of particulate from going in the air, I'd like to get my share of the benefit financially of that so that we can do even more in the future.
Thank you very much. It's great to be with you. Tom Souzzi is a delightful and energized local leader who has, really, a spectacular program to talk about and you really deserve to hear about it and bring it back to your own communities. It's great to be with you.
Tom Souzzi: Thank you Dan. Dan Malloy is not only a great mayor and a great chief executive, but has been a great environmentalist throughout his entire career. He and I worked together in the mid 1990s on the Long Island sound and have been working together since then.
How many local elected officials or appointed officials at here today? Okay, so the purpose of today's press conference was very clearly to say that we, at the local level, need national leadership and we saw these three senators here today demonstrating national leadership. We've been waiting for national leadership. We've been waiting for partners at the national level.
And the senators are saying, clearly, they recognize that they need us at the local level. We need to work together in order to address this very important issue of climate change. As Dan pointed out, he went through a litany of all the different things they are doing in Stamford. Well, that's happening in Nassau County, where I'm from, home to 1.3 million people, home to Levittown, one of the first suburbs or prototypical suburbs in United States of America.
And that's happening in all of your communities. Everybody is doing all these different initiatives piece by piece by piece at the local level. And in order for us to make sure that all local communities are doing this, and to make sure that this is happening throughout the entire country, we need to have support at the national level that gives us incentives and funding to do the stuff that we're struggling to do now.
It's hard enough for us to pick up the garbage and police our roads and pave them and snowplow, to be worried about this international climate change. It's a big, heady topic for all of us, so we need the national leadership and we need the funding in order to do that. There's three major sources of emissions, of global emissions, industry is about 30 percent, transportation is about 30 percent, and buildings, commercial and residential, are about 30 percent.
Clearly, we need the federal government to set up a system that's going to cap the emissions from industry and utilities and major point source emitters of carbon emissions. They've got to set up a system that says no more above this level. In fact, we want to reduce it over time.
And that's where the cap-and-trade system comes in, where you cap it and then if you can't do it yourself, maybe you could trade with somebody else and it generates money in the marketplace that can be fed back to local governments and to the marketplace to make more of these improvements to the environment take place.
Transportation requires federal and local governments working together to develop more mass transit, to get cars off the road, to promote energy efficiency. And transportation and buildings require really local support to encourage smart growth and also to encourage building design and retrofitting of buildings that will make them more energy efficient.
The reason I was asked to come here today is because we're doing a program in Nassau County called Green Levittown. Levittown, as you know, is one of the first suburbs in America, built by Mr. Levitt in 1947 as affordable housing for returning veterans after World War II. And, really, he's responsible for the whole suburban sprawl that we've gone through throughout the nation.
So, what we're doing in Levittown is we're saying everybody has come to accept the fact that global warming is a reality, or most everybody, you know, mainline persons have come to accept that global warming is a reality.
But it's for a hard for an average person who's got to pay their taxes and go to work and drop their kids off at school and at practice for soccer or whatever it may be to think about the polar ice caps. So, how do we get regular folks in their everyday lives involved in trying to do something about global warming?
So, we've set up a public and private partnership. One of our partners is here today, Tragar Oil, I'll talk about the boilers in a second. Public/private partnership, we've got about 10 corporate sponsors and the county government working together and an environmental group working in concert with us, where we're knocking on every single door of the 17,000 homes in Levittown.
And we're dropping off a brochure and we're educating them about what they can do in their house. It's easy being green and it can save you a lot of money too. We're educating them about the real things that they can do now, person by person, through a mass-marketing effort to retrofit their homes in a way that it can actually pay for itself.
So, for example, you see this boiler over here. That's the original Levittown boiler. There are at least 35 percent of the homes that still have those boilers, they're from the 1940s, late '40s and '50s and '60s, and there's about 5,000 homes that have those boilers.
Well, working with our corporate partners and working with a local bank, Bethpage Federal Credit Union, we're saying to folks, you can replace that boiler in your house and we'll give you a low-interest loan that the bank is doing, low interest loan, and pay it off over a period of five or 10 years, whichever you choose.
But the savings that you'll get from your new boiler, from using less oil, thereby creating less carbon footprint, will pay off the debt service on that loan. So it doesn't involve a federal subsidy. It doesn't involve any help from us other than we have to do the hard legwork of selling this idea to the people of our community. We're doing the same thing with changing light bulbs in people's homes.
They pay for themselves, but people need to be educated. They're so busy going to work and taking care of their kids they don't have time to think about this stuff. At the local level, and it's going to be different in every community, and that's why you need local governments involved, because one size does not fit all, we need to be out there marketing these things that you can do. Now, there are things like solar panels. It doesn't pay for itself right away.
It's not as clear. That's why if we had federal grants to give us subsidies to help encourage solar power and to encourage the things that we want to do in our government offices, which we're doing already, we could do so much more if we had the help of the money that would be generated from this cap-and-trade system. So, global warming is a reality. We all want to do something about it.
We haven't had national leadership. We are getting national leadership from the senators you saw here and some others. We're hearing about it from the presidential candidates, but we have been seeing leadership at the local level. We need support from our federal government to help our local governments to help our people so altogether we can actually address what is a very real problem in our lives. Thank you very much.
[End of Audio]
Advertisement
watch video
email video
