July 24, 2008
Summit Kicks off with Leadership and Energy
Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund and Marvin Odom, president of Shell Oil, discussed possible energy, economic and environmental solutions for states.
NEW ORLEANS - The challenges of leadership, in the legislature and on the energy front, were in the spotlight Wednesday as the National Conference of State Legislatures opened its 34th Legislative Summit in New Orleans.
The focus of the opening session was on energy. Marvin Odum, the president of Shell Oil, and Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, were featured in an hour-long discussion about the challenges ahead as Americans face $4 a gallon gas and increasing anxiety about the future of the energy supply. While the audience might have expected the pair to clash on a range of issues, they seemed to be in accord on most topics.
NCSL President Donna Stone, a representative from Delaware, opened the session by introducing 7-year-old Tionne Johnson, who wowed the crowd with a powerful rendition of the national anthem. She was followed by a welcome from Louisiana Senate President Joel Chaisson and House Speaker Jim Tucker.
All the opening speakers talked about the ongoing challenges faced by New Orleans and Louisiana in the wake of the two devastating hurricanes that ripped through the area in 2005. Chaisson said he is especially appreciative that NCSL stood by its 2001 decision to hold this year's meeting in the city.
"After the storms many walked away," he said. "You did not."
PLENTY OF AGREEMENT
The tone was more serious, though no less amiable, when Odum and Krupp took the stage along with moderator William Jenkins, chancellor of Louisiana State University.
The two touched of a wide range of energy issues, including offshore drilling, government regulation, alternative energy and the Gulf Coast wetlands.
Offshore drilling was one of the few areas of obvious disagreement. Krupp called President George Bush's recent decision to lift the ban on offshore drilling largely rhetoric since it would not have an immediate effect on gas prices and the ban will remain in place without congressional action. A better alternative, he said, would be to use the heightened concern about energy resources to pass pollution credits cap-and-trade legislation at the federal level.
"I'd like to see some policies that get at efficiency and don't use this moment when people are hurting because of high gasoline prices to do things that aren't really going to help," Krupp said.
Odum called it a "good decision," though he, too, noted it was largely symbolic. Rising gasoline prices, he said, have had a significant effect on attitudes, with far more Americans now willing to consider offshore drilling.
"We should not be afraid of developing these resources from an environmental standpoint," Odum said, adding that exploration in the Gulf of Mexico made it clear energy companies can conduct that sort of exploration without damaging the environment.
The Shell chief, however, made it clear he was not your father's oilman when he spoke out strongly for the development of alternative fuels.
"We need dramatic growth of these alternatives … that could provide 30 to 40 percent of the world's energy needs. That is phenomenal growth. But I think we're still going to require hydrocarbons," he said.
Krupp pointed to the states as the leaders in the arena of public policy to encourage the growth of alternatives, including California's proposed cap-and-trade system. He encouraged the assembled state legislators to push for similar changes at the federal level once a new president takes office.
LEADERS AWARD
New Jersey Senate President Richard Codey and former Minnesota House Speaker Steve Sviggum received the annual State Legislative Leadership award, the nation's top legislative honor presented jointly by NCSL and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation.
Codey got the biggest laugh of the morning when he told a story connecting his ascension to the governor's chair for 14 months after the resignation of Governor James McGreevey amid a sex scandal in 2004 and the resignation earlier this year of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. He said a New York group asked him to stand in for Spitzer at a breakfast on St. Patrick's Day, the day he resigned from office.
"When I got up to speak I told them the only reason I was ever governor of New Jersey was because of sex. And the only reason I'm here this morning is because of sex. This proves you don't have to participate in the act to derive pleasure from it."
NCSL is the bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staff of the states, commonwealths and territories. It provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues and is an effective and respected advocate for the interests of the states in the American federal system.
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