Senator Kamala Harris on the CNN Climate Crisis Town Hall
I can’t cover all of the talks, but I should cover California’s Senator and past Attorney General.
If she was taking a course from me in energy and environment, I think I would give her a B grade. She wasn’t well versed in everything, and hadn’t thought through some of the even rather naive questions asked by CNN.
Let’s start with the Hillary level goof on coal. Clinton said in a coal state that they would all be looking for jobs when she became President. K-Boom. She later said that of course she would have a retraining program. But she never could get past the original comment.
Sen. Harris was asked if she would ban fracking. She fell right into the trap and flippantly said yes. Let’s not even concern ourselves with the workers, yet. In a few weeks, most of the autos and trucks in the country will stop, and never start again. We would all clean out all the shelves, and soon starve. Electricity from natural gas would soon vanish, and there would be no electricity at night in California. Yes, some fracking companies do not take care of their waste water, and that has to be controlled. California would still have some oil because we get oil from Saudi Arabia, but that makes us more dependent on their Middle East behavior. Having the benefit of post research, fracking produces 2/3 of the nation’s natural gas. Natural gas replacing coal has been our major climate progress. Fracking produces 1/2 of the nation’s oil, making us less dependent on the Middle East.
She was asked about nuclear waste. She immediately said that Yucca Mountain was a non-starter for her, because it is near California. It is actually next to the rather unoccupied Death Valley. It is in Nevada, and on an old atomic bomb testing site, so nobody lives near it. That was the first time that I had heard that California was opposed to that site. I thought that the site could have been approved. She didn’t say to cut out nuclear power, after CNN said that it was 20% of our energy, but she had no replacement idea. It turns out that the few Senators opposed to the site are all running for President, plus Nevada’s two Senators. It is near earthquake faults, but earthquake faults also go through Las Vegas. The used fuel is encased in casks with steel lining, surrounded by concrete. They are also designed to survive train crashes. Yucca Mountain exists over a naturally lined basin, so any leaks would be contained. After a hundred years of being stocked, the site would be sealed.
She did back the Paris Agreement, as does everybody. She would end fossil fuel leases on public land, but how do you do that if development was already started? She backed the Green for All plan. Wanted a carbon fee. Backed social justice with $250 billion for clean water. She wanted electric buses since 25 million children a day ride polluting school buses.
She would oppose drilling on public land. But what about wells that are already delivering in California and the Gulf of Mexico?
She was asked about Russia having 40 ice breakers, and we only have two. She said that she would have to find out why. The melting Arctic ice will lead to a Northwest Passage over Canada, and also over Russia. To do that effectively, countries will need ice breakers for each ship.
She was asked about the 14.5% of emissions from cattle, and answered well that we have to educate the public about it. Some candidates mixed up all meat, rather than just red meat or beef. Methane can actually be collected in a barn in a feedlot. Cows fed with corn instead of grazing only emit one-third as much methane. Methane can also be reduced by putting manure in a digester. Half of the emissions in beef are from the manure. Non-red meats like turkey, chicken, and pork only emit 27% of the greenhouse gases as beef, and dairy or fruit are about 33%.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, from the farm State of Minnesota, was also asked about beef and dairy. She also did not know about the answers in the above paragraph, and changed the subject to other ways to save emissions, like buildings. She let the topic turn to the extremes of hamburgers versus vegans, rather than methane capture, other meats, and dairy as being manageable. That is the the meaty extreme contrast that Republicans have already focused the discussion of climate action on. Plus, of course, Green Democrats are going to take their cars away from them. Klobuchar does accept natural gas as a transition fuel, which is realistic.
While people discuss rooftop solar electric, nobody brought up the much cheaper rooftop water heating, which directly saves on natural gas, and has to be done locally.
I think that CNN really slanted one question that they asked as: Do we all have to drive electric cars? What is wrong with driving electric cars? You charge them at home. How many people would prefer to take their mobile phones to a gas station every day to add a few drops of gas to power them? You will also save money on gas, since electric cars are much more efficient, and you save money in the long run. There are electric sports cars, electric SUVs, electric compacts and full size cars. They accelerate rapidly when you need it. There are growing networks of charging stations, and some employers let you charge at work, which draws from solar energy. Charging over many hours allows short term fluctuations in renewable electric power to be averaged over.
