Face It: Cutting carbon means curbing consumption

Want clean energy?  Want reasonably pristine Arctic wilderness?  Want a ban on offshore drilling?  Well, Governor Ted Kulongowski of Oregon has three simple words for you: Use less stuff.

God bless Oregon's straight-talking governors.

Over at Green Inc., the green+business blog of The New York Times, Kate Galbraith talks with Mr. Kulongowski about his carbon cap-and-trade proposal, aimed at expanding Oregon's clean energy development and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.  The moves would be part of the state's participation in the Western Climate Initiative.

(BlueOregon offers a more critical opinion of the governor's intentions on combatting global warming.)

The plan has been meeting resistance in the Oregon legislature (no surprise to this former Oregon resident  and environmental news producer), which is channeling opposition from business lobbyists (no surprise...) by expressing its worry about the costs of curbing fossil fuel use.

“There’s a lifestyle issue involved in this, about our penchant for consumerism and consumption,” Mr. Kulongowski told Ms. Galbraith, 

“Other than taxes,” he added, “the hardest thing I find to talk with my constituents and my citizens about is about changing lifestyles.” He singled out the car companies for their production of sport-utility vehicles...Mr. Kulongoski acknowledged that capping carbon and making a transition from fossil fuels would cost people money — a notion that has roused opposition in Oregon, especially in the economic downturn (Oregon’s unemployment rate is second only to Michigan’s). But politicians ought to “start talking to the public about this idea that you can’t continue to consume 25 to 30 percent of the world’s natural resources,” he said. “It isn’t possible.”

The environmental predilections in a state like Oregon cost money and constrain decisions, the governor continued, and “you are going to have to do some things you don’t like.”

Without finally engaging in some straight talking about the (excessive consumption + greenwashed rhetoric) = (global climate crisis / soaring emissions) equation, Mr. Kulongowski suggests, the U.S. will continue to fall behind Europe in making the crucial transition to low-carbon power generation.

Oregon is a striking example of this clash of message and substance.  The state prides itself on its green-and-clean image, but forestry, mining, and ranching interests have long been among the state's major power brokers.  Gov. Kulongowski's current struggle with the legislature is a case in point: his bill doesn't even set up a carbon market or emissions caps in 2009; it directs the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission to create a plan for cap, trade, and cuts, and present it to the state legislature in two years. 

Ms. Galbraith spoke with the governor while reporting her great article about SolarWorld, a German solar cell manufacturer.  Despite the recession, SolarWorld sees enough promise in the U.S. clean energy market that it's continuing to establish its factory in Hillsboro, Oregon (especially striking as companies like GE and BP slash their investments in clean energy).

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Image: Ocean dead zone off the coast of Oregon, 2006.  "Off the coast of Oregon, a large dead zone—an area of water where the oxygen concentration is so low that little to no marine life can survive—has been appearing each summer since 2002. The dead zones appear to be linked to an unusually persistent northerly wind that pushes surface waters away from the coast. The cool waters that well up from deeper in the ocean to replace them are rich in nutrients but low in oxygen...Scientists are studying the change in wind patterns and the response of the marine ecosystem to determine whether the changes are an interlude in a natural cycle or whether they signal a more permanent shift in the regional climate and the health of the ecosystem."  Source: NASA Earth Observatory