Jay Inslee, the Governor of Washington, is running for the Democratic nomination for President. He’s a seasoned politician, having served in the House of Representatives from two different districts in Washington, first from the rural eastern part of the state and later from Seattle. He’s in his second term as Governor. What is unique about Inslee’s campaign for the presidency is his focus on climate change as his primary issue. He sees this campaign cycle and this time in history as critical for the success or failure of our efforts to overcome the climate crisis. He seems to have some company: According to new polling, climate change is now the top concern of Democratic voters and independents who lean Democratic. And, not incidentally, a new report indicates that experts from 28 global think tanks have now ranked “mitigating and adapting to climate change” as a top priority for policy makers. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Council on Foreign Relations
World Energy Outlook 2017
I went to a talk last night at the Council on Foreign Relations: Dr. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency IEA), sat down with Amy Myers Jaffe, the Council’s senior fellow for energy and the environment, for an interesting discussion. (The video is here, along with a transcript.) The IEA was founded in 1974 to help the world’s major economies respond to the Arab oil shocks of that time. It has since become a well of knowledge about the world’s energy resources, now and for the future, and many of the critical aspects of our energy production and use, not the least of which are climate change, pollution, and energy poverty. This year’s World Energy Outlook, in fact, contains an important report on the outlook for energy access for those billion of our fellow world citizens who have no modern energy services. Continue reading