We are going to leave the last few minutes of this so we can take you to washington during four look at Energy Policies during the democratic candidate campaigns. You can find of our coverage online at www. Cspan. Org. Animosityident trumps is one of the reasons why Climate Change has become a top priority in the president ial race. Its also the coverage of increased climate problems. Boehner demands for candidates to formalize plans. On climate town hall was precedented in the seriousness in addressing the issue. The devil is in the details. As details emerge in various plants, a number of questions have emerged. Two frack or not to frack . To nuke or not to nuke . The list goes on and on. We have to ask ourselves what the implications of Climate Energy policy is for, our health and International Relations and we gathered a group of speakers from across the political spectrum who have different views. Lauren is a legislative coordinator for the sunrise movement. She lost her voice and cannot do with us. That wouldve been another interesting voice here. I want to remind everyone that the discussion is on the record. It is streaming live and will be archived. Dont say anything to your parents or children would be embarrassed about. You can join the conversation on twitter. U can use the hash tag acenergy. A seriousing for discussion and we hope sparks fly. We hope there is a q a portion at the end. Be sure to ask a question. I will turn it over to our moderator to introduce the panelists and get the discussion started. Anyway, i am getting stage direction live. I will be moderating the panel. Font from the rainy center. Theave Charles Smith and Atlantic Council. We are just going to get into it. I know you will have a lot of questions i dont ask. You are all smart people and i want to give you a chance. This is climate and energy in 2020. We will start with kristy. The Green New Deal would require a Massive Energy structure. You are game to answer this. Both parties have complained that permitting takes too long. Can candidates accomplish the Green New Deal infrastructure goals with our current laws . Which clients have a viable plan . Thank you. I want to say when you say the Green New Deal, its hard to know what you were talking about. There is a resolution in congress. There is senator sanderss plan. We should be specific and we are talking about plans who has a Green New Deal and which proposal. Your question about permitting and how we will achieve the extraordinary goal every one of the major candidates has laid out, what is consistent across their plans is an embrace of this concept of net zero by the middle of this century. Thats an extraordinarily fast timeline. Thats what we were looking at during the Obama Administration. We were talking about reducing Carbon Pollution 80 by 2050. Thats very significant. We are looking at how to get to the difficult sectors. . Ow do we build all of this i believe that is your question regarding permitting. That is a secondary question and something the president will need to address if we are going to achieve these goals. It is really about funding the experts and the people who need to do this work and investing in the technology to make sure the permitting process is as stateoftheart as it can possibly be. There is a federal permitting counsel from several years ago that is staffed by the trump administration. A have a budget and will be able to collect fees from projects to make sure the environmental reviews go quickly. If you look at what is happened to the staff and the agencies responsible for conducting these reviews, they have been decimated. The budget is not there to conduct the work. Priorities as a president , you have to fund those priorities. That will be the key to how quickly they can go. You are talking about a massive buildout of energy infrastructure. The timelines are realistic . It depends on which one you were talking about. They are not universally the same. Every one of them will require a full approach from an executive and administrative standpoint. What is the responsibility of congress to help change the laws if we cant get there through the existing structure we have right now . Through the existing structure we have right now . Candidates like Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris would prosecute fossil fuel companies for Climate Change. As a representative from the energy industry, what do you make of these calls . Fun effect might that have producers have on producers . That, i wantet to to continue what christie just talked about. We have to make a lot of assumptions. President , run for. Hey dont run with the plan they assume they assume the have the legislative authority. They make the assumption that congress will be on their side. They will be able to pass that. Thats not unique on Climate Change or this primary versus a republican primary or any election. Challenge and say i have the authority to do these things. Your question is right as far as assuming todays legislative reality and Legal Framework and regulatory framework. You are comparing apples and oranges. Plan that issing a based on a change Regulatory Environment and a changed Legal Authority with a reality that is not. Its important to put that into perspective. When it comes to your question, i should start stating this is the democratic primary. People are articulating a vision rather than a detailed plan of how do you get from point a to point b. About,ristie just talked changing the vision of what 2050 will look like is more radical than it sounds and a lot harder to get to. When you talk about the fossil fuel industry, the Energy Sector as a whole is looking at the situation through a primary lens where we will see the ultimate withee says in that debate President Trump. I suspect it will be a nuanced approach compared to where the nominees are now. If itst matter senators sanders or worn or Vice President biden. About potential voters at that point. The industry does not look at these plans right now as realistic. Change ofne through a how the industry views Climate Change. It used to be you would go to a fossil fuel conference in they would talk about climate and how nice it is. That would be huge. At the end of the day, it is 5 . You would get the numbers from 1980, what was the ratio of oil in the energy mix and its the same as it is 40 years later. Those with a favorite talking points. Billsuld go to renewal and it would be renewables and it would be 2050. Everything is going to be great if we just had the right tax incentives. That has changed a bit. I dont think it has changed him as much of the clean interstate clean energy side. Fossil Energy Companies becoming huge investors in the clean Energy Sector. That is not led by the americans, by europeans. They are viewing this debate in the primary to early to take seriously. We will see what happens later. Heavy dose of skepticism if these goals are actually attainable and lets wait and see and some of this is going to happen, most of this is not going to happen. Saying id with just care more where shareholder pressure is coming rather than the Political Landscape in the democratic primary. Im going to move on to sarah. Ou have seen the numbers we are talking about trillions of dollars in spending. Do to thecan we federal purse to encourage these transitions . First of all, i would like to thank randy for having me here today. This is my first time speaking. Im very excited. Numbers, i would echo what christie said. Specificsot a lot of did many of the plans. Its a stab in the dark. Its concerning to see these plans that are written as though they were written by no one involved in the process. They have never sat around the Kitchen Table thinking about how were going to make anze meet. Ends meet. Companies families will still need to afford gas to put in their car. We are having these conversations around climate plans that will strike at the heart of the voters they are trying to reach. What i would like to see and i agree, this is a primary contest. We are seeing democrats develop. Hese plans i dont begrudge them the chance to do that. I hope they are careful. Eventually, they will be smacked with general election politics. If they politicize the issue even more, you see it being wrapped around these conversations in terms of big spending and socialism, criticism or not, the strikes a fear in certain parts of the electorate. I would hate to see the nominee paint themselves into a corner in the primary and have to walk back a bunch of this later. Care aboutut Climate Change. I have three nieces and nephew. We need to have a Serious National Conversation about Climate Policy. Have got to be realistic that no matter who is president in 2021, wed to be moving ahead in the energy space in a smart rate way. At the its looking plans charles has worked on, the Green New Deal. Looking at some of the things that can be done that appealed to people on both sides of the aisle. Regardless of elect oral politics, we need a plan that can win republican votes in the house and senate, even if you have a trifecta for the democrats. We had a democratic house, senate, president , we couldnt pass the big climate bill. I hope the candidates and the speak carefully about the low hanging fruit we can go after. Senator Elizabeth Warren talks about her plan. That would be very expensive. Not every middle american in the rust belt was trying to make ends meet can afford a new car. Thedoesnt talk about electrifying industry. , this will be a large part of the tracking industry. We can make sure amazon is running those nice little cranes in their distribution warehouses on electric powered vehicles. Those are things we can do that are low hanging fruit that are easier and more affordable that could be appropriately incentivized through policy. I hope both democrats and republicans will continue to talk about that. There are different investment approaches that range from 1 trillion to 16. 3 trillion. There is a wide range. What has happened with the Green New Deal coming onto the scene the way it has in the past year is the shift in how people think about it. Who benefits as result of that spending . There are lots of ways if you look at california who will in fit invest in infrastructure. That is something people can see in their communities now. When we talk about appropriate incentives, each sector is going to be different. When it comes to the Elizabeth Warren plan, she has a green manufacturing plant. She is looking at the appropriate incentives. Some are in favor of carbon taxes, others are not. There are a combination of approaches. Spending is part of the conversation away that it wasnt. At some of thed issues from senator warren. There is a lot of focus on individual people worse is the things we can do on a private sector level. What i would say as a conservative, this is my big concern, aside from the money and how we are going to afford it. Its going to be the middle class. They always pay for everything. I dont understand why in this age we are having conversations about expanding the power of the centralized federal government and the executive. There is a phrase you all know. It speaks for itself. Terms of looking at who may or may not win the next election, what that means for Climate Policy, even democrats should be talking about what the states can do and what can be done in the private sector in partnership. I am very concerned about continuing to expand federal power and the power of the president. Let me jump to charles on that. I think he would like to address this as well. Bernie sanders has proposed a green pba to expand Renewable Power. Senator warren has proposed an forstrial policy, mobilization. We are starting to see interest in these big programs. Ideas sounde outside of the context . The proposals i am seeing from the democratic side are big proposals, ambitious, these are the avenues Many Democrats have been successful talking about and want to work on in the near term. Thank you for the question. Thank you for including me in this panel. This is a timely conversation. Me ising that concerns the relaxed its a primary mantra. We live in an era where we have the Green New Deal because an establishment democrat was challenged in a primary and that congresswoman went on to win and introduce a revolution, that is driving this. We live in an era where candidates and elected officials are being held to Campaign Promises an unprecedented way. ,o the point that the president i dont understand how it surprises people, all of his promises in terms of what he has done and said were promises that he made to win the republican primary and soundly defeat a dozen, wellestablished, mainstream republicans. Primaryed its a should be taken with a grain of sand. The politics have changed. When twitter and information can move so quickly. Frackingmises to van or thefracking availability on public lands has dampened market and enthusiasm and raised actions about what is the proper u. S. Role in Something Like gas and where will those export markets beheaded. The spending is a big issue. The other thing that observers he is the way that of the Democratic Candidates are talking about Climate Solutions upends the way business has been done for over 100 years in the as it relates to the delivery and production of energy. States have primary authority over their energy mixes. Any proposal that asks to do Something Different is likely to see challenges by attorney generals across the United States. Thatwe look at policies have all of the eggs in one federal basket, we are going to spend our way out, we are leverned on whether the of federal investing will crowd in investment or crowd out investment in the Energy Sector. Will these federal policies get tied up in lawsuits . Climate case the solution is not that actionable that quick because we are taking away power from state and taking away one of the primary avenues we have been for Emissions Reductions in the u. S. Because of federal tax credits and because of state action. Renewable portfolio standards, subsidies, however you want to we can achieve these midcentury five goals but only we are playing with the. Federal and state. If it is all up to federal we have challenges. I dont think relaxed its a primary policy goal area the is more about how is industry look at it. Industry does not looking at you carefully as far as vision for investments so on. I dot perspective believe that we will not see ,uch change in talking points once one of these candidates becomes the nominee i dont think they will walk back any of the proposals that they are presenting today. I want to make sure that was not misunderstood. Are proposing today will be there position in , maybe evenelection becoming more progressive. Prioritizationof that the nuance will change in how this is addressed. That is normal for our policy. I believe the democratic party, Climate Change has risen to be the top two, maybe three, in many places number one issue, defining issue in how you evaluate a candidate, not just for president but for any office. Nuance ofence is the what that means in different parts of the country. You allude to that that these are largelys largely state decisions. We have a number of issues that in theandidates opening we talked about fracking or no fracking and some of these issues are you this goes to the how we will have to balance as a party and the next president will have to balance. Some of these things can be done on executive order. You can ban fracking on public and public lands. There is very little fracking on federal land. The Obama Administration banned drilling on federal land and it had almost no impact if we are looking today at anyng if we would make kind of executive order that would discuss these issues on federal land, the impact on the actual fossil fuel industry would relatively be mute. If you look at where most of the drilling is happening it would have some impact. It will have i think a greater impact on exports, people willing to trust whether you are ,oing to van lng exports reinstate the embargo on crude oil exports that was removed during the Obama Administration. These are questions that some are discussing in the context of a Green New Deal, i have seen many versions of what people believe a Green New Deal is. These are where i think they will be much more contentious issues. I think there will be a lot of democrats that have issues with some of these ideas and how they are discussed and how we move toward on those will have a great impact. When you talk about electrifying fleet,et, the automobile i think there is less argument if that could be achieved it would be great. There are issues in getting to not seen aand i have roadmap of how you get to a fully electrified fleet in such a short period of time. I dont think anybody is oppo