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Talking Climate in Portland with Norway’s Ambassador
By Brooks B. Yeager, VP for Policy, Clean Air-Cool Planet
Looking at America through Wegger Strommen’s eyes is very entertaining. Strommen, the long-time Norwegian Ambassador to Washington, has the outsider’s indelible eye for the extraordinary mosaic that is the United States. He loves the great distances of Nebraska, the crazy football chants in Fayetteville, the way the coast of Maine reminds him of Stavanger and home.
Ambassador Strommen has strabismus, which means that one of his eyes wanders. He always tells his audience which is which, so they don’t get confused. He does this as he stands before yet another Chamber of Commerce or Rotary crowd, explaining with great patience and gentleness why Norway, an oil drilling nation, is so committed to reducing its carbon emissions and doing its part to conquer climate change.
For the past three years, Clean Air-Cool Planet has been organizing events around the country where the Ambassador, Norwegian experts, and CA-CP senior staff explore some aspect of climate change, and seek the views of municipal leaders and ordinary citizens regarding what should be done about the problem. We have focused on adaptation in Portland, Maine, drought in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and carbon pricing policy here in Oregon.
The crowd here in Portland, more than ninety strong, were invited by the Portland World Affairs Council, an outfit that in the past hosted the Dalai Lama and Bono, among others. Daunting company to keep, for sure. And yet they seemed very engaged in the issue, asking questions for over forty minutes at the end of the presentations.
As for the program, it was quite straitforward: the Ambassador led off, and explained Norway’s, and his, interest in talking to Americans about climate change. For Norwegians, it’s a backyard issue – it’s their ice that’s melting. After the Ambassador, Harald Lund, the Director of Norway’s emissions trading effort and one of its top climate negotiators, explained Norway’s method of pricing carbon. They do it in a sector-specific way, charging the weathy oil companies more than, for instance aluminum smelters which might face undue foreign competition if the carbon price hit them too hard. Harald was followed by Angus Duncan, long-time senior aide to various Portland Mayors, who gave an account of Oregon’s efforts to price comparison and of how Oregonians got their somewhat unique patchwork approach to carbon regulation. Finally, I finished, discussing the prospect for carbon policy legislation in the 113th Congress. Such a thing is never going to be easy, but it’s at least conceivable, because once a deal is done concerning the so-called short-term fiscal cliff, this Congress come face to face with an even more difficult challenge – that of the U.S.’s long-term structural deficit. If we do nothing, the cumulative national debt will double to $18 billion in 2021, at which point we’ll be paying 3.5% of every year’s budget just in debt payments. A carbon price could bring in $78 billion per year and help us cut the then-year deficit in half.
We fielded questions, mostly friendly but all probing and intelligent, for half an hour, and then it was time to leave. People lingered, wanting to meet the Ambassador or just talk a little more about an issue that they sensed was important. Eventually, Ambassador Strommen and Harald Lund and I headed over to the Oregonian, Portland’s very good newspaper, to share thoughts with a member of the editorial board. The day was sunny and cool, with a few white clouds scudding across the sky.
Filed under: Policy Tagged: Angus Duncan, brooks yeager, carbon pricing, Harald Lund, national deficit, Norway, Oregon, Portland, Portland World Affairs Council, Wegger Strommen 
2012-12-15 00:22:07
Source: http://coolplanet.org/2012/12/14/talking-climate-in-portland-with-norways-ambassador/
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