The obvious news on the climate change front is that "An Inconvenient Truth" won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Given his chance to speak to the fabled billion people live for fifteen seconds, Gore spoke about climate change as a moral issue, not a political issue, and said we have everything we need to get started, except maybe the will to act. (The quotes come from Eli Rabett.)
But the unexpected news is that the largest utility in Texas, the notoriously anti-environmental TXU Corporation, has agreed to a huge buy-out in a deal brokered by a former head of the EPA, William Reilly, a Republican who served under the first President Bush. The deal would cancel eight out of eleven planned new coal plants, and include California-style incentives for conservation, in an effort to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
It’s a complicated deal, and according to the LATimes, may face resistance from the Public Utility Commission. But a fascinating NYTimes article about the deal points to what brought the two sides together. Resistance to the deal from Texas mayors and local officials convinced investors that the deal might collapse of its own weight, driving down the TXU stock price, and opening the door to a deal brokered by Goldman Sachs, which has long had a strong interest in reducing emissions.
The crucial quote (from an official who insisted on anonymity):
"We didn’t want to be on the wrong side of history."
That’s the sound of the turning of the tides. Even in Texas, the environment still matters.
Kit Stolz 