Bill Clinton: Save America’s Economy With Clean Energy (And Save The Planet)
For the second year in a row, the Wonk Room is covering the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City.
President Bill Clinton believes the “number one thing” to restore the American economy is clean, efficient energy. In a blogger roundtable at the beginning of his Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, Clinton told us his “favorite ideas” for making the green economy a political and economic reality:
One: Federal loan guarantees for building energy efficiency retrofits
Two: Renewable energy initiatives in economically depressed cities
Three: Green jobs programs for poor Americans
Clinton, relaxed and slim, held court with a dazzling mastery of policy details, wit, and storytelling. Citing a Center for American Progress report on the promise of energy efficiency, Clinton described his desire for the federal government to kickstart private financing of energy retrofits, much as the Clinton Foundation had done for the Empire State Building:
The Center for American Progress says we can get half the way home to an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2010 by efficiency alone. Unemployment in construction is 25 percent. We can’t go out and build new houses. And there are very few office buildings that need to be built. So what I think we should do is to have a lot more Empire State Buildings. We should retrofit every public school, every college and university building every hospital, every auditorium in this country, and every office building unencumbered by debt.
Clinton believes the reason that this investment hasn’t already happened is that “spooked” banks don’t want to make loans that could collapse. His solution is to establish a federal loan guarantee program, which he believes could create one million jobs with only $15 billion in federal investment:
Give them a federal guarantee like the SBA guarantee, and you only have to set aside $1 for every $10 you loan. Still very conservative, because we know the historic failure rate is one percent, not ten percent. It might not cost the taxpayers anything.
Here’s the multiple: every billion-dollar investment in retrofits gives you 7000 jobs. Homes 8000. Wind energy 3300 if you build and assemble the windmills where you put them up. Solar 1900, coal 870, nuclear a little over 900. This is not close. If you want to put America back to work, give a loan guarantee, get banks start making loans.
Set aside $15 billion for guarantees, you get $150 billion in bank lending, you get a million jobs.
His other policy ideas are about making the clean energy economy real for the American people, rich and poor:
My second candidate: pick places that are both distressed and full of potential for energy independence. My number one candidate is Nevada, where the sun shine and the wind blows. And you’ve got all those real expensive hotels there with roofs that could be filled with solar panels. And you have all the hills around that could be filled with windmills.
I would say take a few places like that and go straight out and make them energy independent and document how many jobs have been created, and then everybody will want to do that.
My third candidate is prove it works for poor people. One of our best commitments is designed to provide after school jobs and summer jobs for poor kids in Harlem, upper Manhattan Washington heights by paying them to go in and retrofit a lot of these old buildings, whitewashing the black roofs.
If you did those three things so that every day you were proving over and over again to all the naysayers that it was good economics to build a clean energy future, you can build a consensus necessary to do what has to be done. You could beat the special interest groups.
He admitted that the key problem with this vision is that it requires a change from how the energy sector traditionally makes money:
If you make a deal for a nuclear power plant or a coal-fired power plant and you knowingly deprive all these jobs increase greenhouse gas emissions or you increase other risk or you increase huge costs — with nuclear, it’s always more expensive — the only real reason they do it is because they’ve always done it that way, and it is so much simpler. If you’re running the utility, there’s one contractor that’s going to build that plant, there’s one supplier of the fuel, and then you go to one PUC and they give you permission to make the ratepayers pay for it at a profit. It’s simple because it’s centralized.
The new energy economy is more decentralized, but it’s less expensive, more job intensive, and parenthetically will save the planet.
“That’s what I think we have to do,” Clinton concluded. “You’ve got to prove this is good economics. And it is! The number one thing we could do for America is change the way we produce and consume energy.”
Tell me about your job.
I’m a costume character. I work at birthday parties, corporate events, nightclubs, conventions and more. For example I recently dressed up as a parrot for carnival theme night at a nightclub. For the record, I’m not a furry. There’s a difference between costume characters and Furries. Costume characters are for entertainment, fun, Furries are just creepy.
How did you get into it?
I’m in college right now, at Hunter for Business Marketing. I got into this to make a little money on the side while going to school. A friend of mine hooked it up. I’ve been doing it for four years.
What’s the best part about the job?
All jokes aside, when you’re working a job, and people really believe that you’re the character that you’re playing, it’s a great feeling. You’re making people happy, who doesn’t love that? When you make that connection, it’s nice to know that people appreciate the job that I’m doing.
Have you dealt with New York’s bedbug epidemic firsthand?
I’m bedbug free-thank God, I don’t even want to think about it.
What’s your opinion on Park51, the proposed community center/"mosque" in Lower Manhattan?
People should pray wherever they choose. But, under the circumstances, it’s a touchy thing. They should move to a better location, someplace less controversial. It’s a touchy situation.
What’s your favorite thing/place/neighborhood/hotspot in New York?
I love Coney Island. Something about the atmosphere there, the beach right in the middle of the city. The people there are great, it just has such a good feel to it. I don’t know if it’s old timey or what. It’s a very cool place.
What’s your least favorite thing about your job?
Sweating. Well, not the sweating, but when the sweat gets in your eyes, you can’t see! It’s dangerous! Also the occasional condescension, people who don’t appreciate what you’re doing. You get parents sometimes who ruin it for their kids, who tell them to stay away because it’s just a guy in a suit. I don’t get that. Why would you want to ruin that illusion for your kids? It’s like telling your kids that Santa Claus isn’t real. I don’t know why you’d want to do that. Kids need to have imagination. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Previously: Candice Preau, Dating Expert
Andrew Piccone is a photographer in New York City.
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Bill Clinton: Save America’s Economy With Clean Energy (And Save The Planet)
For the second year in a row, the Wonk Room is covering the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City.
President Bill Clinton believes the “number one thing” to restore the American economy is clean, efficient energy. In a blogger roundtable at the beginning of his Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, Clinton told us his “favorite ideas” for making the green economy a political and economic reality:
One: Federal loan guarantees for building energy efficiency retrofits
Two: Renewable energy initiatives in economically depressed cities
Three: Green jobs programs for poor Americans
Clinton, relaxed and slim, held court with a dazzling mastery of policy details, wit, and storytelling. Citing a Center for American Progress report on the promise of energy efficiency, Clinton described his desire for the federal government to kickstart private financing of energy retrofits, much as the Clinton Foundation had done for the Empire State Building:
The Center for American Progress says we can get half the way home to an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2010 by efficiency alone. Unemployment in construction is 25 percent. We can’t go out and build new houses. And there are very few office buildings that need to be built. So what I think we should do is to have a lot more Empire State Buildings. We should retrofit every public school, every college and university building every hospital, every auditorium in this country, and every office building unencumbered by debt.
Clinton believes the reason that this investment hasn’t already happened is that “spooked” banks don’t want to make loans that could collapse. His solution is to establish a federal loan guarantee program, which he believes could create one million jobs with only $15 billion in federal investment:
Give them a federal guarantee like the SBA guarantee, and you only have to set aside $1 for every $10 you loan. Still very conservative, because we know the historic failure rate is one percent, not ten percent. It might not cost the taxpayers anything.
Here’s the multiple: every billion-dollar investment in retrofits gives you 7000 jobs. Homes 8000. Wind energy 3300 if you build and assemble the windmills where you put them up. Solar 1900, coal 870, nuclear a little over 900. This is not close. If you want to put America back to work, give a loan guarantee, get banks start making loans.
Set aside $15 billion for guarantees, you get $150 billion in bank lending, you get a million jobs.
His other policy ideas are about making the clean energy economy real for the American people, rich and poor:
My second candidate: pick places that are both distressed and full of potential for energy independence. My number one candidate is Nevada, where the sun shine and the wind blows. And you’ve got all those real expensive hotels there with roofs that could be filled with solar panels. And you have all the hills around that could be filled with windmills.
I would say take a few places like that and go straight out and make them energy independent and document how many jobs have been created, and then everybody will want to do that.
My third candidate is prove it works for poor people. One of our best commitments is designed to provide after school jobs and summer jobs for poor kids in Harlem, upper Manhattan Washington heights by paying them to go in and retrofit a lot of these old buildings, whitewashing the black roofs.
If you did those three things so that every day you were proving over and over again to all the naysayers that it was good economics to build a clean energy future, you can build a consensus necessary to do what has to be done. You could beat the special interest groups.
He admitted that the key problem with this vision is that it requires a change from how the energy sector traditionally makes money:
If you make a deal for a nuclear power plant or a coal-fired power plant and you knowingly deprive all these jobs increase greenhouse gas emissions or you increase other risk or you increase huge costs — with nuclear, it’s always more expensive — the only real reason they do it is because they’ve always done it that way, and it is so much simpler. If you’re running the utility, there’s one contractor that’s going to build that plant, there’s one supplier of the fuel, and then you go to one PUC and they give you permission to make the ratepayers pay for it at a profit. It’s simple because it’s centralized.
The new energy economy is more decentralized, but it’s less expensive, more job intensive, and parenthetically will save the planet.
“That’s what I think we have to do,” Clinton concluded. “You’ve got to prove this is good economics. And it is! The number one thing we could do for America is change the way we produce and consume energy.”
Tell me about your job.
I’m a costume character. I work at birthday parties, corporate events, nightclubs, conventions and more. For example I recently dressed up as a parrot for carnival theme night at a nightclub. For the record, I’m not a furry. There’s a difference between costume characters and Furries. Costume characters are for entertainment, fun, Furries are just creepy.
How did you get into it?
I’m in college right now, at Hunter for Business Marketing. I got into this to make a little money on the side while going to school. A friend of mine hooked it up. I’ve been doing it for four years.
What’s the best part about the job?
All jokes aside, when you’re working a job, and people really believe that you’re the character that you’re playing, it’s a great feeling. You’re making people happy, who doesn’t love that? When you make that connection, it’s nice to know that people appreciate the job that I’m doing.
Have you dealt with New York’s bedbug epidemic firsthand?
I’m bedbug free-thank God, I don’t even want to think about it.
What’s your opinion on Park51, the proposed community center/"mosque" in Lower Manhattan?
People should pray wherever they choose. But, under the circumstances, it’s a touchy thing. They should move to a better location, someplace less controversial. It’s a touchy situation.
What’s your favorite thing/place/neighborhood/hotspot in New York?
I love Coney Island. Something about the atmosphere there, the beach right in the middle of the city. The people there are great, it just has such a good feel to it. I don’t know if it’s old timey or what. It’s a very cool place.
What’s your least favorite thing about your job?
Sweating. Well, not the sweating, but when the sweat gets in your eyes, you can’t see! It’s dangerous! Also the occasional condescension, people who don’t appreciate what you’re doing. You get parents sometimes who ruin it for their kids, who tell them to stay away because it’s just a guy in a suit. I don’t get that. Why would you want to ruin that illusion for your kids? It’s like telling your kids that Santa Claus isn’t real. I don’t know why you’d want to do that. Kids need to have imagination. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Previously: Candice Preau, Dating Expert
Andrew Piccone is a photographer in New York City.
How to be a data journalist | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk
Data journalism trainer and writer Paul Bradshaw explains how to get started in data journalism, from getting to the data to visualising it • Guardian data editor Simon Rogers explains how our data journalism…
Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/1 - Arrowhead Pride
Good morning, AP. Another day, another post full of Kansas City Chiefs news. The stories died down a bit today. Most stories are now focused on this weekend's games. There are a couple of good ones, though. Be sure to check them out.
Catherine Herridge - Fox <b>News</b> | Gender Discrimination | Age | Mediaite
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a complaint yesterday against Fox News for a gender and age discrimination case dating back to 2007. The FNC correspondent, Catherine Herridge, is still an employee with the company, ...
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