Jack Harris has the toughest job in Louisiana. He’s a Jersey kid who moved to New Orleans in the middle of the summer. He dropped by The Independent office recently to chat. Plain-spoken and earnest, Harris is the Louisiana communications director for Repower America, a non-profit group that is part of the Alliance for Climate Protection. I’ll pause a moment to allow the blood to return to your extremities.
While Harris could no doubt sidle up to a cypress and throw a loving embrace around it, he’s not your prototypical tree hugger. But in Louisiana, we fell our trees to make the paddles that spank our children, and to clear space for oil and gas wells. We do not hug trees.
Harris’ grandfather was a mechanical engineer who, for a time, buttered his bread on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The irony doesn’t escape him.
He confessed that probably more than any other state save for Tennessee and West Virginia, where coal is king, Louisiana is a hard place to make the case for a clean-energy economy. “It’s tough,” he admitted, “but we’ve gotten a lot of support so far.” By support I assumed he meant they haven’t been chased to the Pearl River by dipstick-waving roustabouts. The national group was so unfamiliar with Louisiana, it tried to arrange a door-to-door canvassing effort in the state in August. Harris and his colleagues in the New Orleans office, fearing the loss of consciousness that occasions movement outdoors in August, explained that that would be like asking the Minnesota branch to press doorbells in January in their stocking feet.
Repower America is part of an environmental phalanx dispatched last spring in the wake of President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Jack and his group support the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, otherwise known as the Kerry-Boxer Bill, the Cap-and-Trade Bill, and the Completely and Utterly Decimate Louisiana’s Economy Bill. Harris refers to it as the former, but many here in Sportsman’s Paradise refer to it as the latter. Repower America’s assignment is to sell the nation on the idea that clean energy — wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric — is something we not only can but must transition to in the coming years, and that it can be a viable contributor to the U.S. economy. Natural gas isn’t part of the Repower pitch — unfortunate because, assuming the U.S. will eventually make the switch to clean energy, natural gas as a bridge from oil and coal to solar and wind would save Louisiana a whole lot of heartache. Jack Harris wants to get there fast.
But some $45 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, according to Harris, is coming into Louisiana right now to ignite clean-energy industries, and he cites research predicting that Louisiana could see the creation of 29,000 jobs based on its share of $150 billion in clean-energy investments nationwide.
And he’s bringing that message around the state. He stopped in Lafayette on his way back to New Orleans from Shreveport, where the Haynesville Shale — a massive and lucrative natural gas discovery — shouts down virtually any talk of wind turbines or photovoltaic cells. But according to Harris, that $45 million in DOE dough is being spent everywhere in the state, except in Lafayette — not surprising considering our high density of rig huggers.
Harris says one of the groups in Louisiana most willing to listen to Repower America’s climate-change-is-real message is sportsmen, in particular hunters who have noticed the altered migrations of waterfowl. “Folks who are familiar with the land see it,” Jack says. “What’s the cost of inaction,” he adds rhetorically. “What does it mean if we don’t take steps to address carbon emissions?”
The reply of the oil industry, which has tipped our waiters, endowed our professors, raised our public art and paid our private-school tuition, may well be: “Louisiana survives.”
A persistent Harris’ response, I imagine: “You don’t know Jack.
... written by Jason K , November 25, 2009 - 12:35 pm
How does a person working for a non-profit climate protection afford to eat? What does our climate need protection from?
... written by JP , November 25, 2009 - 02:58 pm
More "power" to you, Jack. There are enough rational people in this state, too, who realize the necessity of transitioning to clean power. It will take decades, so why wait until the last minute and have to scramble?
It's just a shame that the money is a pittance relative to what we spend on the warfare/welfare state, or the money we recently gave to Wall Street robber barons. Imagine if our priorities REALLY shifted from entrenched interests into real solutions. I wonder how much it would cost to put a solar roof on every house?
... written by Caitlin , November 25, 2009 - 04:50 pm
Jason, the climate needs protection from the human activities that are destroying it.
... written by Billy , November 25, 2009 - 05:22 pm
29000 jobs? How do you get that number? And, how many jobs will it cost? Wind turbines? Are you kidding me? Ask T Boone Pickins about wind turbines!
At this point, I think most people just need protection from the government.
... written by Pocketfullofaces , November 25, 2009 - 05:36 pm
That worthless group better not knock on my door. The man-made global warming scam is being exposed for the fraud it is, bit by bit. The latest exposed emails go a long way to show how dishonest the global warming scam artists really are.
Drill now, drill here, drill everywhere..........
... written by Dolly Llama , November 26, 2009 - 03:59 pm
A problem with the Greens is their fanaticism prevents them from being wrong; similar to an Islamic terrorist. They might as well yell AllÄhu Akbar.
Green energy will not work unless the numbers add up. Some ideas, like better insulation and building design do; these are passive but the investment is worth it. Others like wind energy and solar can not compete. Until the economic equation tilts, oil, gas, and coal will remain with us.
... written by Jay Bienvenu , November 27, 2009 - 02:47 am
Repower America should probably canvas Louisiana by foot in the middle of August. Then they would understand why we need to keep energy cheap and plentiful--in addition to feeling it for themselves, they would see the ubiquity of air conditioners and the generators that have become standard home features in post-hurricane Louisiana.
They will have even more success if they keep the politics out of the discussion. They should dismiss and ignore the discredited global-warming excuses that are being used to drive legislation and silence opposition. Do they promote nuclear power, which powers Europe?
Noticeably absent from the article is any mention of ethanol. What happened to it? Why aren't we talking about getting biofuels from sugarcane?
... written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , November 27, 2009 - 09:09 pm
THERE IS NOT EVEN ENOUGH SUGARCANE GROWN IN AMERICA TO FUEL THE CARS IN LAFAYETTE FOR 1 YEAR!!!!!!!!!!! WHY, would you think that ethanol wouldn't cause harm to the environment? Digested cud by cattle, causing methane, does!!
... written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , November 29, 2009 - 06:41 am
GOSH! Dolly Llama, YAH must be AH LAGCOE OIL DROP or ah LAGCOE QUEEN ?
... written by ETEE , December 01, 2009 - 07:02 pm
Take it from someone that works in the Renewables field, there will not be any "Green Jobs". In comparing a proposed 500MW Wind Generation Plant to a current Coal-Fired Electrical Generating Plant, we will eliminate 3 out of 4 jobs. Everything from Mining Equipment manufacturers,Coal Miners, Coal Train Engineers,and the list goes on.The people we do hire will be experienced former Plant Operations personnel of those Coal-Fired Plants that will be forced out of operation by Cap & Trade Carbon Taxes.
Wind Generators are made in India,the EU or China; American manufacturers, soon to be strapped with Cap & Trade Carbon Taxes will never be able to compete with them.
The only "Green Jobs" available from Obamas Administration seem to be tilling the rows in Michelle's Organic Whitehouse Vegetable Garden.Perhaps they can buy Harris a hoe............
... written by JP , December 01, 2009 - 10:54 pm
ETEE, reading your post I find it hard to believe that you would be an objective source of information on green jobs and renewable energy. Too many partisan talking points. The amount of cynicism and downright vitriol expressed in these comments is atrocious. One even compared "Greens" with "Islamic terrorists."
Coal production actually requires less manpower than it used to due to technology, especially with the efficient yet environmentally devastating form of mountaintop removal. Renewable energy does have great job potential...maybe not much more than conventional energy but certainly not the dismal outlook that you portray. The fossil fuel industry is entrenched in this country and has bought off a big chunk of lawmakers in both parties, which is part of the reason why we are not already on a better path to renewables. Of course we will have to still use fossil fuels, but the transition to a renewable energy paradigm will have to come sooner or later...and we will all benefit from less pollution. It ain't a "left/right" issue.
... written by Jeffrey Sadow , December 01, 2009 - 11:18 pm
>Natural gas isn’t part of the Repower pitch
Why not, because it burns clean and with the Haynesville, Bossier, and other formations coming on line, there are hundreds of years worth of reserves? And it burns clean. And why not nuclear? Because it's not part of the ideology of this group, which is funded by the Alliance for Climate Protection, an Al Gore wacko-founded group: http://www.climateprotect.org/about/
Recognize that the main focus of these groups is not so much environmental as it is to use the issue to bring the private sector under control of the government. And as, the recent unveiling of the effort among climate change hawks to cook the data and stifle dissent has corroborated, based on, at best, questionable science, at worst, junk science.
... written by Joe the Poster , December 02, 2009 - 03:33 am
Where are you getting your talking points, Jeffrey? The focus of these groups is not some nefarious scheme to turn us into a communist state, but a simple desire to have energy that doesn't pollute and destroy the environment that nurtures us, or warm the planet. And, the emails of a half dozen scientists, however bad they are, do not refute the entire body of evidence. Let's look at the studies they participated in and if they are flawed, then throw them out. There's still a vast amount of other evidence for our influence on warming. Partisan hacks trying to say these emails change everything already had it in their mind before this that it's all a big conspiracy.
... written by Jason D. Faulk , December 04, 2009 - 01:54 am
I would just like to remind everyone that there already is a CAP and Trade protocol in place in the United States along with most other countries. It is the Cap on Sulfur Dioxide emissions. You might remember those nasty buggers as the chemicals that caused acid rain.
This began with the 1990 Clean Air act. It has worked.
However, there is some debate as to whether a Carbon Tax on emissions or a Cap/Trade/Reduce system is the best option to reduce emissions.
Around the same time as the SO2 cap, the Montreal protocol was established to Tax the production of CFC's. You might remember those as the terrible ozone destroying chemicals, that put holes in our atmospheric defense against the sun's UV rays.
While preparing this comment, I searched online and read the following source which provides some background to this matter: http://uscarbonreport.com/what-worked-for-acid-rain-won’t-work-for-climate-change/
And then there are those of you doubt any approach is necessary. Regardless of climate change, peak oil/gas/coal will still be issues for us to deal with, along with retooling our national infrastructure for moving and powering our cities and farms (much less global trade).
We will still have local environmental degradation from mountain top removal mining and coal ash, coal slurry, and coal sludge ponds. These are threats to water and air quality, ... threats to our health, threats to the health of the food we eat, farm, fish, hunt, etc.
Many think the push to develop renewable energy is based on vague and blurry communo-socialist/fascist, totalitarian-du-jour, the goals of an underground trickster-elite. That's hogwash. Renewable energy, and a more sustainable economy are nothing more than ensuring that we can live within the limits of what our planet can handle, and returning America to its traditional economic values of free-markets.
The presence of transnational global corporations controlling the political process is not the manifestation of the free-market. It is corporate socialism. These entities exploit us by taking wealth out of our communities disproportionately greater than what they create, they manipulate our government, these entities deplete our natural resources as well as those of "3rd World" countries through the creation of free trade zones and the removal of non-tariff barriers to trade, and they exploit the people all around the world and their governments through the international trade and banking institutions which heretofore have had a bad record of forcing countries to grow single crops for export and loaning funds only for export related infrastructure projects. If anything, the elites in the 3rd world benefit and the little people, (which one would think is us type o' folk here in Lafayette, Louisiana) are the ones to suffer through mandated structural adjustment programs, forcing their governments to privatize public health, education and utility services, in order to see their governments pay back the foreign debt owed.
One could consider this approach with respect to the issues of sugar-cane and catfish growers and the shrimp and crawfish harvesters. How many no-regulation Republicans down in Louisiana would really care to down those Chinese imports, and who's pocket are you putting your money in to? This isn't meant to be a xenophobic appeal, but a little-guy appeal.
So sorry for the huge ramble. JP mentioned conspiracies, so I had to indulge. It's no conspiracy, but simply the daily affairs of what's going on in this world, behind the scenes.
Simon Johnson and other former economists at the World Bank and IMF have a lot to say about this trade issue, as well as the follies of Wall Street and it's control of Washington and the subsequent bail-outs.
Do some reading and research. You'll find the "leftists" and the "rightists" often have a lot in common. Their supposed "extremes" are of scale when compared to centrist policies.
Really, if the other countries are going to get the jobs from the wind/solar bonanza, at the expense of the domestic US fossil fuel production industries, then what does that say for the US if we'll be forced to buy and uncompetitive to produce wind and solar? Doesn't something not add up?
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