The West Is The Best

Those accolades for The West, specifically California in this case, are less about geography than accomplishment in this mention.

I just finished moderating two of the four panels at the Western Energy Summit in Mountain View, just outside San Jose. That's my tiny image in the middle of the head table, black suit, surrounded by great minds and impressive titles. One of the main themes at the summit,"California clean-tech research rocks!" That's my paraphrasing at work and not the official session title, as you might guess. In any event, it's difficult to argue against relevant accomplishments of the California public and private sectors.

(here's a link to the Western Energy Summit agenda)

Among the panelists during my two sessions, the directors of the Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Pacific Northwest, and Sandia National Laboratories. Also on hand, additional big guns from NREL, Berkeley, and Livermore. Remember, this is the atmosphere in which Steven Chu not only emerged to become Energy Secretary but also where he won his Nobel Prize. Impressive advancements seem to abound at the labs, though much of the accomplishments fly under the radar. Perhaps that's preferable for the work horses behind the glass.

(links for Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories)

During my sessions, we found some clear areas of consent among these participants. Whether you compare it to The Manhattan Project or The Apollo Project, the clean energy revolution carries great urgency and gravitas. Secretary Chu is the right kind of leader to give the labs what they need to rise to the energy and environmental challenges we're now facing. One of our greatest resources, and one that is easy to take for granted, lies within the talent and potential of U.S. students. Indeed.

We have a few of my interviews with summit panelists up right now on our website, with more discussion to follow. Also, by August 3rd we should have both of the panels I moderated available in their entirety. You can find everything at CleanSkies.com.

If you didn't recognize it, the inspiration for the title of this particular post comes from "The End" by The Doors. Man, it's astounding to me that Jim Morrison's lyrics about the blessings of The West and the seven-mile snake were published 42 years ago. Seems like far less to me, but then again my generation's mass introduction to The Doors came from Val Kilmer playing The Lizard King in the 1991 Oliver Stone movie.

Val's hair was perfect for the part.

What's In Waxman?

OK, so now that I've read that Post Title again, it occurs to me that the current health care debate may prompt you to consider the question literally. What is in Henry Waxman, and how much should you have to pay for the MRI to find out under a viable health care plan ?

No, I probably should've titled this "What's In the Waxman-Markey ACES Act Climate Legislation And What Does It Mean To Me?" But that's not especially wieldy, is it? And my current blog template doesn't especially encourage such character-rich titles. So, what is in Waxman?

This week, I attended a "power breakfast" (The National Journal Group's name for the event, not mine) with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has just lobbed a 1,400-page climate bill over to the Senate and now he's coiling to send a health care measure that way as well. Oh, and he has a new book to shill. Here's the portion of his discussion dealing with climate change legislation.

Anyway, the question about Waxman-Markey comes from a former classmate of mine, Alain Nana-Sinkam. In his words, "What should a layperson like me know about this bill?" Clearly, Alain's a curious and thoughtful taxpayer. And he was a terrific high school small forward, I should add.

So, let's approach this from a taxpayer's point of view. In short, are you willing to pay more for your electricity to cut our country's carbon emissions? Kind of depends upon your take on the cause of global warming, I suppose. And it certainly depends on how much that "more" really turns out to be. There, simply put, is where the political divide is focused.

Opponents of the climate bill (and more specifically, opponents of a cap-&-trade emission reduction plan) say you, American Taxpayer, will see significant jumps in your expenses. The Heritage Foundation's analysis of the legislation (the mid-May version) predicts The ACES Act would raise the average family's energy bill $1,500 and your inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by almost 75%. If you'd like to hear both sides of that contention, I moderated a debate between one of the report's authors, Dr. David Kreutzer, and Public Citizen's Tyson Slocum on The Energy Report back in May.

Then there's the testimony the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee heard this week from members of the Obama Administration. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said her agency and the CBO estimate the average family's "net cost" to be less than 50-cents a day by 2020, or roughly $180 a year. Then Energy Secretary Steven Chu cited the same sources, but came up with an annual coast of 22-cents to 48-cents a day ($80-$175).

So, like most well-contested issues here in Washington, it may be a matter of whom you believe. I'm not taking sides here, but Secretary Chu is a Nobel-prize winning scientist. So I assume he's, you know, pretty good with numbers and all.

Oh, and an addendum to this lengthy answer to your original question, Alain. Majority Leader Harry Reid just pushed back his timeline for bringing the Senate version of a cap-&-trade bill to the floor, so maybe we'll revisit this conversation when next year's version of the climate bill moves through the House.

You can catch my coverage of the discussion with Rep. Waxman and his response to my question about the cap-and-trade revenue lost under his plan on the Clean Skies News site. Here's the first story, a q-&-a immediately after the event. And then the more complete piece from that day's edition of The Energy Report.

"An American In Paris" (or "An American Roughly 230 Miles West-by-Northwest of Paris")

Dan Harper is as American as they come, as apple pie as they make them in The South. Grew up in small-town Alabama. Loves his college football, and thinks his Auburn Tigers are gonna be even better this season. Now he's making a career out of helping the U.S. get more energy.

Thing is, he's doing it in France. On the Contentin Peninsula of Normandy, to be more precise. And even more accurately, Dan's learning his trade on-site at Areva's La Hague nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Yep, a long, long way from The Plains of 'Bama.

Simply put, France reprocesses its spent nuclear fuel. Some striking numbers, from Areva. The process turns up to 96% of what would be nuclear waste into reusable nuclear fuel. That means only the leftover 4%, the really nasty stuff, has to be stored.

Here's my recent story about how the French Nuclear Industry does it and why we don't. Yet.

As for Dan's War Eagles, CollegeFootballPoll.com projects Auburn to 507, 5th in the SEC West. Tough schedule for the Tigers.

Sharp Dressed Man (no, not me)

Pictured: (from left): Clean Skies chief correspondent Tyler Suiters, who always seems to blink when a camera flashes; Clean Skies communications director Jim Allen, who was the best-dressed man in the house.

Location: Blue Duck Tavern, 24th and M Street NW, Washington, DC

Occasion: The American News Women's Club Roast & Toast for Katie Couric, winner of the Helen Thomas Award for Excellence in Journalism or Outstanding Public Service.

Note: Jim has a great deal of experience in out-dressing everyone in the room, given his impressive career in music. Just take a look at this Rick Astley video and focus on the handsome guy gettin' his groove on the keyboard: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmgB7qVh0-w If you can't sit through The Rick doing his thing, Jim's highlights are about :50 into the video.

Behind the Scenes, In Front of the Scene

Foreground: Clean Skies News Photojournalist Ian McCallister performing one of the tasks not expressly listed within his job description, making me look sharper than I am.

Background (not pictured): Flamanville-3, the EPW nuclear reactor Areva is currently building for Electricite de France.

The low wall you see behind Ian and me is a retainer that separates a winding, two-lane road from the short beach of Flamanville, France. We're facing north, with the EDF Flamanville nuclear generation site behind us. That's also where Areva is building a third reactor for the plant, but because of EDF press restrictions while the reactor is under construction, this is as close we we could get to shoot video. And by "close", I mean more than 1/4-mile from the site.

We're about to tape a "stand-up" segment for our future story on reactor design and the potential for a nuclear build-out here in the U.S. Because of EDF's restrictions, and our own travel schedule, Ian and I had roughly five minutes to set-up our camera, get this microphone on my collar, and start knocking out intelligible stand-ups. Pressure? Nah, not after some of the things we've both experienced cutting our teeth in local news.

The result: two good takes worthy of airtime, one take interrupted by a passing bus, and a timely arrival at the nearby train station to catch our ride back to Paris. Oh, and the anticipated rush of adrenaline that comes from meeting a rock-hard deadline.

My celebratory meal? A protein bar and a quart of 2% milk. Couldn't find any skim at the local market.

Posting By The Palace

 Whether you parlez vous Francais ou no, you might be able to put a make on this Mercure sign. Yep, that's a hotel. And that's me striking a not-so-medieval French pose in the 14th-Century town of Avignon.

 

 This is Day Two for us on a special-access tour of French nuclear facilities, all of them run by one of the world leaders in nuclear energy AREVA. In fact, the French company bills itself as the only fully-integrated nuclear company in the entire world. 

 Rare air, indeed.  And CO2-free air as well, so to speak, since nuclear power generates electricity without producing significant CO2 emissions. That's the major selling point for proponents in the U.S right now, including some very big names in Congress (John McCain, among them). 

 If The President gets his way and we implement a cap-&-trade system to limit our carbon emissions, the nuclear option for power generation could become more attractive than ever. Especially interesting, given that last month was the 30th anniversary of the partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island.

 Photojournalist Ian McAllister and I visited nuclear sites in five French towns last week, sites that represent various stages in the nuclear energy production process. Stick around, and I'll show you what we saw. Unusual sights inside plants, impressive scale of reactor components, and occasional unsettling proximity to potentially dangerous material.

 As for our stay at The Mercure in Avignon? Well, you're looking at my final few minutes there. I'm standing/working about 50 yards from Les Palais de Papes, the 14th Century home of the Avignon Papacy as an alternate to Rome.

 Want more details? Try this site: http://www.palais-des-papes.com/anglais/index.html. We arrived in town after the palace closed for the day and left before it opened the following morning, so I have little to reference about the Les Palais. Other than Le Mutardier across the square has some creative dishes.

A Tiger and His Tale

 This is the tale of Samuel, an up-and-coming Northern Virginia Tiger Cub clawing for his next badge. That's him between me and Susan, the only one of us not wearing eye concealer.

 Well, Samuel needed to meet his scouting communication requirement. And since his dad Tim and I have an Oklahoma connection, Samuel tapped us. So the whole family, Samuel's three younger siblings included, spent an afternoon at the Clean Skies TV studios watching our team in action. Personally, I think Samuel's mom deserves a merit badge of her own for keeping all the youngsters entertained and occupied during the newscast.

 He's only six, but I get the feeling Samuel has "Eagle Scout" written all over him. No pressure there, huh, Tim?