Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics And Public Policy Today 20160127

Manifest. And it was called soap operas because Soap Companies sponsored the shows. So thats how the soap opera title came about. Yeah. Durham, he also wrote for the chicago defender. Thats an interesting story, particularly his firing and how they had i dont know if they were the first also, when you talked about the black Insurance Company that couldnt get it couldnt get funding to there was a show that he did, and the script basically was about this Insurance Company in, i believe it was in philadelphia. Im not sure. But the bottom line was, when this gentleman went to get money to refinance the building this was during the depression they assessed the building that this Insurance Company was in. And this was one of the Major Insurance Companies for africanamericans at the time. And he thought he could get maybe a 50,000 loan to tide him over through the depression. And they assessed the building for like 5,000. 5,000. And it was like okay, never mind. Ill figure out something else. What he did was, he went to the community and really, really sold the product. Went back ten years later, or maybe it was five years later and they were surprised that he was still in business. And his durham script basically said that well, thats because all americans, whether theyre black or white are Good Investments if you invest in them. And that just because a company is black doesnt mean that you, you know, you dont assess them properly. So. Yeah. Certainly in this book and looking at Richard Durhams life, we found out that radio is certainly political. But journalism is political within itself. And he gosh. You know, it just, hes an artist first and then hes a journalist. And he wasnt going to compromise his principles, which meant that he didnt always have an economic means, because journalism wasnt necessarily is steady job because it was more like sort of working on contract almost. And in the midst of all of the things were talking about, he did get married to a really wonderful woman that we, you know, we get a chance to meet in these pages. And his family as well. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the economics of radio and journalism, you know, using Richard Durhams life as sort of a linchpin. Well, let me just kind of piggyback on the fact that he got married. He married cla reese davis durham, a chicagoan. Another woman whose family migrated to the north, to chicago from, in her case, from chattanooga, tennessee. Anyway, they meet in 1941 and hes, you know, just enthused. Shes this petite, pretty little thing. But she also is political and interested in the same kinds of things that hes interested in. And they get married in 1942. She had designs on becoming a teacher. And eventually goes back to school and does that. But she becomes really kind of, in their early marriage, part of their marriage, the stable breadwinner. Hes working but hes almost always getting paid script by script. Hes not hired full time in radio. When he gets to the chicago defender he finally finds a place where he can say, oh, okay now im going to get a regular paycheck. But the economics of black journ journalism or black newspapers or even newspapers in general, they were not paid whelp they were paid and paid on a regular basis, but there was always this whole idea that we should be making a little bit more in order to make a living. And thats kind of how he got into trouble at the defender. He was an excellent writer. And i need to say that over and over again. It gets into whats happening today, is that writers can be, if not political, they can tell the truth and go after the truth and do that to the best of their ability. But what happens is that, you know, sometimes you may anger some folks, either the readers or the publisher or whatever. So he is covers f covering stories about world war ii america and how word war ii america is affecting the black population in particular. So hes looking at discrimination, segregation in the military and writing about that. Hes looking at disparities in housing and economics. The whole idea of restrictive covenants and you know, kind of making sure that black americans stay in one place, in one section of the city, several sections of the city and not move out so that they can expand like anyone else in chicago or elsewhere. But also, he is starting to organize or work with people who are organizing within the chicago defender. There was a union called the American Newspaper Guild, and it was a union designed to represent workers in newspapers across america. And he along with others are, you know, lobbying or lobbied for the ability for the chicago defender to be part of that union so they can increase their wages and have ek wall pay and better working conditions. As a result of that he got fired. But he was another person, if he had a conviction, he would have followed that throughout despite whatever the consequences would be. And if he believed in something, he would work on it and fight for it and if it meant losing a job or whatever, that he would, he would deal with it. I hope this isnt a spoiler wu they hire him back. Hes so good with story telling. Hes a fabulous story teller. And he ends up writing these really beautiful expo says and they always get published on the front page. And one of the really interesting ones because he gets people to talk to him even when what theyre saying is not necessarily politically collect or you dont necessarily want to have this on the front page of the newspaper. And he interviewed this woman i dont remember who she said but she says all these things about black people, yeah, i remember one black american lived in my town. Remember that story . Yes. In 1944 hes covering the president ial election. It was about to be an election for the president. Roosevelt was running for an unprecedented fourth term. And so, you know, hes interviewing these folks and decides hes going to do a story about thomas dewey who was the gof of new york. And he was running as a republican against president roosevelt. So he goes to interview dyeys mother in her hometown, a small town, in wisconsin in michigan. And there was this whole thing that michigan or that particular town, like some other towns in the north had this rule that if you were black, once the sun went down, you could not be in the town. You had to leave. You had to be gone. So he goes in and interviews deweys mother and she says no, no, weve never had that. We welcome negros or africanamericans. And in fact there was one family that lived in the city. But what happened was he got into trouble before that article, not because of that. But near the end mrs. Dewey, governor deweys mort made some antisemantic statements and he printed what she said. And of course once that was printed in new york, the Jewish Community had a fit saying what is going on here. And mrs. Dewey denied that she actually said it. And he said, no, no, no, you did. So they went back and forth. But that brought him a little bit of notoriety. And it was really interesting that, you know, he wrote poetry, he wrote this great literal nonfiction. He got all of these awards for his i think he got the paper got awards for his front page news. And i think no, he actually got a front it was the American Newspaper Guild gave him a front page award. Right. Right. But he was one of the first, i think the defender or the first person to get recognition from a president. I think it was truman. Because what happened was he wrote for the defender and then he had a radio show called democracy usa. Thats too close. Do you think she took it . I dont know about that. Anyway. Could you talk a little bit about democracy usa . In 15 minutes he had to tell this whole story. It was just fantastic. The stories he told in democracy usa. The chicago defender decided they wanted to explore some other ways to market the paper. They figured radio is popular. Lets try to sponsor a radio program, a radio show that would come on once a week and would feature men and women, who through their accomplishments, really kind of epitomized the principles of democracy. So you had this range of folks that he focused on. And he was not the sole script writer. There was another writer. But they did this. And this show is the show that won all of these awards. And really did help to get the defenders name out there. The defender and other africanamerican newspaper at that time. That was the highest readership period. People really did read. The readership really went up and the circulation went up during that time because they wanted to know what was happening throughout america. But also with the military and, you know, jim crowe discrimination. You talk a little bit in the book about sort of the structure of the black newsroom. You know, we have the editor, and you mentioned the editor that sort of mentored a young durham. And when he and the editor of the defender at that time, i think hes haitian. He was the editor in chief. His name was max lashad. Right. Even today you probably find veteran newsmen and women who have worked in various fields whether theyre in print or broadcast. But they mentor the Younger Generation of reporters who are coming in and, you know, trying to make their way. And max lashard was highly educated. Got his ph. D. In paris. And he was the editor in chief of the chicago defender. But he mentored everyone who came in. And he recognized that durham was an excellent story teller. But he was slow. They didnt want him to do breaking stories and they put him on the feature this. And he became really a topnotch Investigative Reporter so he could take longer to develop the stories and go out and then write it. Yeah. Well we mentioned a little bit about some of the writers that were part of the illinois writers project. But it seems like the Writers Community was really tight and it was so interesting that im trying to remember. Ga wind lynn brooks they for a brief time went to high school school. But in terms of the writers in the writers group, durham, when he was part of the illinois writers project, he was in this really kind of warm and inviting and nourishing community over writers that included nelson algren, who was his supervisor. Who else. Katherine dunham. Even Richard Wright, although by the time durham joined the writers project, Richard Wright had moved to new york. So he wasnt there. But he influenced everyone. And durham said that wright was one of his mentors in terms of really checking out his writing. Right. And then going back to the newspaper, it was really interesting the way, the way the assignments went. Lacy hughes wrote for the chicago defender and he had the just be simple column. And occur ram would tease him about simple. And he had a real following. It was real interesting the way it worked. It was almost like the journalists were sort of issue driven and they have a niche as opposed to one person sort of having an idea of the way it should work. And i was wondering as a person in the profession how do you compare, like, black press today to black press then . And i know you were going to mention, you know, our star reporter woman, ida b. Wells. I wanted to give you an opportunity to wribring her int the story. She was a pioneer in the newspaper business and advocate of freedom and justice against lynching. She was a prolific writer. I wanted to play a clip or two from durham destination fre come where the character that plays her talks about what her mission and goal was. I think it is an excellent example of what some many reporters in the black press early on and maybe today think about their goal and mission. My mission was to resist tear any wherever i found it. And with this in mind, i took my savings one afternoon over to john fleming, the editor of the small memphis newspaper. He wanted to sell further in stock. Well i dont like the idea of doing newspaper business with a woman. No good will come of it. Youre superstitious. Perhaps. But ive got a notion that you intend to put into practice a good many of the principles that men around here only preach and if you do there will be trouble ill try and be ready for it. What are you printing . Id like to print the true story of memphis and tell the truth about segregation and the Education System here. Well, maybe you can get out the title of our newspaper, free speech. I can see with you on the staff well live up to every word of it, too. I tell you, when i play this for my students, theyre like, oh, that organ, thats oldti oldtimey. That comes from an episode about ida b. Wells that came from durhams destination freedom series. This next clip really tells the kinds of stories that ida b. Followed and really kind of championed. Theres a negro gross on beale street telling us reports hes forced to live in a negro neighborhood. Just an ordinary story, ida. I went into the store of the small groes tore buy bread and to find why he was not wanted in business. You wants my story, maam . Im from the free speech. Youve been writing to us. What is it . It wont do no good now. Trouble done started. What trouble . Trouble over whos to profit off the business here in the colored neighborhood. Try to tell the police about it, but theyre not on my side. Something is coming. What . Lynching. Ill stay until my last drop of blood was gone if anybody would stand with me. Ill stand where you. Youre a woman. What man will stand with you. You got a little small paper. Would be a lost voice in the wilderness. Sometimes one clear voice is worth 100 cloudy ones. Stick to your store, ill stick to my newspaper and every day i told the story of the growing pressure against him to abandon his business and how presumption was used against him like a weapon. The storm rose and i was in the center of it. I found trouble but i had found the truth and the circulation was rising faster than any of the local papers in the city. So i think that gives you a sense of, not only his philosophy but his poetic sense and the way he put these words in these characters mouths. The other thing is when you talk about ida b. Wells paper, the free speech, came out in 1980s, 1989. 50 years later durham is working for the black press. Hes in memphis. His first story was to go back to memphis and talk about the conditions there. And one of the conditions that he covered and tried to get the power broker, edward crump to talk about what was the poll tax and the voting restrictions. Now 15 years later were still talking about voting issues. So you can see that yes, theres been progress but there is also this kind of reoccurring continuing need to fight. And i think that one of the things that i found in doing the research about durham is that his philosophy, the thing that he told his reporters when he was an editor, the thing that he did as a writer himself was that you had to use your words as a weapon. But you also had to do it over and over again. Because you couldnt write about an issue once. You had to write about it several different times and in several different ways. And for durham it was not only just about writing several different ways say for print. But it was using all forms of media, whether it was television, because he did write for television, whether it was for print, whether it was for roller orally for radio. I think it speak to whats happening now with the black lives matter movement. Is that yes, were talking about black lives matter. He talked about it in his stories. But its also that, you know, you need to organize and to use that organization to deal with getting messages out in different formats. So social media, i think he would have been all over that. He would have found all kinds of creative way to deal with social media and use that as a way to say, black lives matter. Because and he said this several times in several different interviews and i include it in the book. That basically the story of africanamericans is the story that is recognizable to people around the world. Because many people are oppress oppressed, many people are undereducated or underemployed or have no access or limited access to Proper Health care. So if you look at our story here in this country and then you extrapolate to the world, youre going to find that people will be interested in our stories because it resonates with, you know oppressed masses. Yeah. Yeah, certainly, you know, the themes that his various stories and whether that was in print or radio certainly resonate. They are timeless themes. But he did it so artistically. He did. Its just so beautiful. I mean these stories. Particularly destination freedom because hes sort of looking at people of african dissent, americans who have done great things, you know, the doctors, you know, the freedom fighters, the actors and actresses. And even just regular folks that believe in justice. Exactly. Very nice. Youve almost covered all of my questions. Oh. I was wondering if you could talk about because he was he editor or just one of the writers for mohammed speaks . He was the editor. What year was that and when did that happen . Then segue into the mohammad ali friendship and the book that he wrote. Richard durham became the editor in 1962. Were talking about the early 60s. It was interesting because his brother and sister who were interviewed said they were like, why would you want to go work for the nation of islam, not because it was bad but because he wasnt religious. He did not convert to islam. But he saw it as a way of extending the reach. And reaching people in another fashion. The thing about Elijah Mohammad and the nation of islam is it was about getting information out to people so hopefully they would come into the nation but also to educate them. He also knew this is Elijah Mohammad, that because he wanted to reach masses of people, you had to have people who nknew ho to do that, people who could write, who would report, who knew what they were doing. And if you didnt have that kind of population or those kinds of people within the nation at that point, then you go to the folks who did it. Richard durham was one. His folks approached durham and another man named savage who eventually became a congressman in illinois for about 12 years. And he asked them if they would consider editing mohammed speaks. And they both kind of considered it. Durham decided to do it. And then he moved in and started hiring staff. So the thing that was pretty unique about it is that like, say, the Christian Science monitor on newspaper, durham decided im sure with okay from Elijah Mohammad that there would be some separation between the news of the world, whether were talking about chicago or United States or you know, international news, would be separate from news about the nation of islam. What was happening within the nation. And that seemed to resonate. Because the circulation continued to grow during his editorship. And the coverage of International Stories about freedom struggles, whether they were in south africa or in kenya or china or vietnam were all covered in mo hmo hhammad spe that was that. As a result of working as the editor, thats how he got a chance to meet and work with mohammad ali. Ali had become or was becoming a spokesperson for the nation. And when he was banned from fighting, there was a whole question about how he was going to be able to make a living. If he couldnt make a living at what he was great at. The nation then sent him out on lecture tours. So he went to College Campuses and all. But they said, you know, what about your out biography. Tell the story of your life and that would be, we hope, our best seller. Well mohammad ali was a great talker. He was not a writer. And so they aproechds Richard Durham because, again, they loved his work as an editor and asked him if he would be the credited ghost writer for alis book. And durham said yes. And thats how the great as my own story came about. He spent five years working on the greatest. And when it came out it was a top seller and translated into many, many different languages, german, spanish french. But the other thing about the greatest and that whole process was that for four years or so durham followed mohammed ali everywhere. All of the fights. You know, he interviewed him many times. Got him interacting with his first and second wives. Just, he was there and he really got to know and really liked mohammad ali. Durhams editor is a woman im sure people have heard of, tony morrison. Ms. Morrison loved working with durham because she was such a good writer and she also liked working with ali even though he flirted with her at first. Come on, im not going to be your momma. Back up. But the only problem she said she had with this whole project was that durham kept promising a manuscript but didnt deliver. He was traveling the world with ali. There was talk of getting another writer. But he was so good. And she said whenever he turned in, you know, copies of his work or you know, the manuscript chapters, they were so great that you know, they just stuck with it. The back came out in 75. And then the greatest the film based on the book starring ali came out two years later. Wow. Thats awesome. He obviously also got a chance to meet malcom x then too, right . He probably did. But i didnt find any evidence in my research that they interacted. But i know that given that he was the editor of their paper that, you know, he knew what was happening with malcom x. And i really was interested in finding out if he wrote anything about the whole dispute between malcom x and Elijah Mohammad right before malcolm left the nation. And he didnt. But he did say his brother told me that. His brother said right around that whole controversy, that once he left durham thought that malcom x really grew and he would see that he was, you know, expanding his world view and embracing a more traditional form of islam. And he thought that that was going to maybe happen more with some other members once the split happened. But in terms of what their relationship was like, i couldnt find, you know, anything. I was just thinking that for durham, it was almost as if his life had come full circle because he wanted to be the greatest, because he, you know, early on was a boxer. Yeah. And then for him to, you know, just vicariously be able to do this. So he was, ended up being the greatest. Hes a silent voice. Right. And he worked with the greatest. Right. Thats pretty cool. I was wondering for you want were there any moments like this for you where, you know, there was sort of things sort of came together in a way like wow, you know, in the work that you do because he was doing this work before you were born. And now youre doing the work and youre teaching others how to do the work of being, you know, giving stories life that might not have life if we didnt have, you know, the air waves or print media and things like that. So i was wondering, what sort of comes up for you around that . Thats good. One of the things that i learned and really feel blessed to have to be a part of is that in doing the research for the book and reading his writing, he was really a poetic writer. He was lyrical. And so my thing was for my writing for radio, i really want to try to continue that. Because it really does make a difference. It draws people in. Its not just, okay, heres point a, point b, point c. There are way to do it that are lyrical and poetic and interesting and hope in whether its on the page or again for the ear or the ear and the eye will keep the, you know, listeners attention. One of the things, one of the tests was just this past semester i had my students between we had a collaboration between my students in communications and our students in theater arts. And we took kun of his destination freedom plays, a play about Mary Church Terrell, the woman suffrage leader. I said okay, were going to really perform this as a live performance. And then my students would deal with the sound, any of the sound and music almosts and then the theater arts students became the actors. And so they had to read and analyze the script. And of course they dealt with the background of Mary Church Terrell and durham. And they really got into it. So it real will is now, okay, this was written in 1949, 1950, but here we have in 2015 and there is still something to be learned about how you write for the ear and or in this case, how you write a play that is still that still resonates about a historical figure but then its contemptiz rised and tunts really get into it. Were talking about 19 and 20yearolds who can relate. Right. I think im coming to the end of my list. Yeah. Because i think youve talked about this a little bit. However, ill give you an opportunity. You certainly, you know, without even saying it lift durham up as a hero but you dont present him as infallible. He has a disability which we already mentioned. Hes unsure of himself sometimes yet he keeps going. Where does this come from . You know, he desired to go to college and he ended up, you know, getting an opportunity to get this really great radio training, i think you mentioned, which is sort of like gives us some tools that really helps him hone his craft. But you know, he leaves his wife and he comes back, and he leaves his wife, you know, around that not being able to provide for the family. He has a son who is a great jazz musician. And again you start the book with a durj. I wanted if you could i dont know. I gave you a whole lot to talk about. Choose a moment. Yeah. Well mark durham is cla reese and richards son. And he was their only child. But yeah, great jazz musician. And hes also a fantastic writer. When durham was working on the greatest the book, he hired his son when they went over to zaire to work on capturing the whole lead up to alis fight with foreman against foreman for the championship. And so mark then goes out and hes getting color for whats going on and whats happening with ali and the training and all of that. Thats rally kind of unique. Because hes essentially passing on his, his method of writing and his thinking to his son. But i guess the thing is that even though durham died in 1984, and he was he worked in all mediums. In fact by the time he died, the last year of his life, or the year before he died, he became a speech writer and political strategist for Harold Washington who became the first black mayor of chicago. So here he is every morning just about, hes writing a Harold Washington on the campaign trail as washington is going around to his various campaign stops. And hes, you know, hes offering advice and hes also writing his speeches or suggesting speeches. Harold washington was very articulate and a Brilliant Writer himself but he couldnt do everything. So hes doing this. And its just amazing. It just shows you that you need to be flexible. He was versatile but he was flexible. And so if one path kind of closed down or wasnt quite available, then he would move on to something else. Some of it was necessity. He had to make a living. But a lot of it was you again, that whole idea that you can use your words as weapons and you can use them in the service of freedom, justice and equality. So if it meant that that was in the political sphere, cool. If it meant it was working for a newspaper, fine. If it meant it was working for television and writing television scripts, that was cool too. One of the things that i think that durham embodied, and it kind of happens today, we may maybe not all. But many of us who watch law and order their claim to fame was ripped from the headlines. Okay . Well he ripped from many headlines if he didnt write the headline himself. So that in 1969, if you know about the black Panther Party and you know, what was happening with the panthers in the 60s, in 1969, in december, there was a raid by the fbi agents and Chicago Police department and other special agents against the black panther apartment of fred hampton. Fred hampton and mark clark and they died in the raid that happened. The police claimed that it was a shootout between them and, you know, these young panthers at 3 00 or 4 00 in the morning. But actually what ended up coming out was that it was, as another investigator said, it was a shootin. That they did not shoot or didnt have the opportunity and the police just kind of went in to eliminate this threat of these radical black panthers. And what durham did in one of the shows for the Television Series he worked on, he dramatized that. It didnt get aired because they were like oh, no, this is a little bit too radical and it was only a few months after the actual, you know, hampton and clark murders. So it just shows you that, yes, you can take whats happening in the news and in life today. I think that if durham had been alive and still writing, he would look at whats happening with say, Police Brutality and the whole idea of Excessive Force in the black community by the police force and find ways to dramatize that and talk about that. Not just the surface that there are riots and people are upset. But the forces behind it. Where did this how did this relationship deteriorate so strongly. How why do some people in the black community not trust the police. And then how did that evolve into where we are now. And even back then. So i think that there are ways that you can creatively talk about issues but get past the surface and go back to the deeper issues that helped. And then talk about what are some solutions. So youre not just saying heres what happened, oh how terrible it was. No. How do we move forward from here. Great. So now perhaps we can take om questions from the audience. Do we have any questions from the audience . Good evening. Thank you so much for sharing your work with us. Thank you. I had the pleasure db or a few years ago i read a book and talked to him about the book. And i know that he was saying a lot of the work he did allowed the International Community to become aware of the racial tension happening during the civil rights movement. Did Richard Durham, any of his work in your resync, did any of his work have that International Visibility and how did that contribute to the International Community knowing about what was going on here in america. You mean in terms of being distributed into nationally . Not distributed internationally but did his work have reach internationally so where he contributed to people abroad knowing what was going on here when it came to race relations. I think just in terms of him working on various working in vary media and working on various subjects. For instance, in 1945 he was here in San Francisco because that was when there was this big all nations conference that led to the formation of the United Nations. We take for granted the United Nations is existing and has existed for many years. But there was a whole struggle about what this thing was going to be, what the United Nations would do to force the peace. And there was a coming together of all of the nations. So one of the things he did and this was for the chicago defender. He interviewed and wrote articles about smaller nations like liberia and haiti saying we need to talk about the equality of all nations, not just the United States. But tiny nations like those. And look at the relationship between what the charter of the United Nations was going to be and how that could include everyone. So he was, he was participating in an International Meeting that could have that not could. That did have major impact. The other thing was that in 1955 there was the van dune conference which was a meeting of the nations of color, asian and african, not the, you know, major entities, but you know, the other nations coming together to talk about what they could do hzcxto, you know, cooe and deal with issues. He participated in that. So i think in terms of your question, i dont know how much influence he had other than the fact that he covered these things, he was a participant in it and he was definitely all about worldwide or global integration and interaction. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions . Dont be shy. Maybe you can talk a little bit about your writing process and the time it took you to accomplish this great past and just how you approached the subject matter, you know, just sort of walk us through your process. You dont want to know about the time. It took too long. I started this even though i found out about durham in the 90s when i worked on the smithsonian series, i didnt get to it until the early 2000s because i was working on other projects and documentaries. But when i decided to do it i started research. And thank goodness you talked about the people i interviewed within folks who unfortunately are no longer with us, people like oscar brown jr. They were really good friends. Best friends. Another worked at the illinois writing project together. Vernon jarrett, syndicated journalist in chicago. These people are unfortunately no longer here. So in 2002, which is kind of when i started to research, i had the opportunity to start interviewing these folks and could go back to them several times when, you know, there were some holes or things i didnt ask the first time. And then i became head of my department at howard, and that meant i had even less time to concentrate on it. But i would work on it during breaks. And mrs. Durham was really, really key. She introduced me to some folks who i didnt know about, either his colleagues or friends, family members. And at one point in 2007 durham was induct into the National Radio hall of fame. And so were sitting in this great black tie event in chicago and she kind of leans up and says how is the book coming . I said its coming, its coming. She said he was in her 80s at that point, like 80something. And he said i really would like to see this before i go. Okay. I got it. No pressure here. Just get ito done. So again, by the time that happened, i had really started to work, spend more time in it. And then in terms of the process, i took a sabbatical from howard in 2010 and i would spend a year just really kind of shoring up my research and dealing with the writing, sending queries out to a publisher and really kro concentrating. The other thing was when i didnt get the publisher, they told me herebys your word limit. You to have so many words. And i had almost twice as many. They were like, okay, thats not going to work. Youve got to edit this down. Theres nothing to take out. Yes, there is. I kept whit ling and whittlinwh. It reminded me of work in radio and you have 58 minutes or 29 minutes or 15 minutes or 5 minutes. And i dont care how great someones interview is or how fantastic the information is, youve got to keep whittling down until its right there because you cant go over. It was the same kind of process with this. It was hard because with radio, my first drafts, i was writing as if i was writing for the ear. So i would write and say heres a chunk, this is a great quote. Let me throw it in here word for word. And people reading it, friends and colleagues are like, what is this . Why is this big chunk here. Nobody is going to read this. This is not radio. This is print. I had to go back and say okay, what do i do here. It was that kind of process. And there were a lot of things that didnt make it in that i had to i. D. It out but i could use u it on my website or, you know, in other fashion. So that was the process. But it was, it was hard. [ inaudible ] 14, 15 years, yes, maam. No joke. Labor of love, yes. Yes. Wow. How are you . Good. You . What do you think the person who writes herself, what do you think is the recipe what do you think are some of the common factors that you see that people have to become great writers, in terms of life experiences, in terms of perspectives. Its a random question. What are some of the things that many great writers have commonly in their pots . Thats a great question. One is perseverance. You dont, you dont become a good writer there are some people who have natural talent for the word. And but if youre writing for a particular media, even if youre just even if youre writing for the net, you, you have to know that just because you think it or someone tells you it or whatever that thats going to be interesting to someone else. Youve got to figure out how to craft it so that your mother, father, sister and brother may love it, but, you know, jo anne down the street who doesnt know you, you have to reach her and someone else. I think all writers, its about persevering and being willing and able to rewrite and rewrite again and take criticism. Thats probably one of the hardest things that i think all artists have sits great, what do you mean you dont understand. I think its but its not about you. Well, it is about you but its also about what youre writing about and trying to make sure its clear to someone else who doesnt know you and doesnt love you. The other thing is we talk about talent. Yes, some people are naturally gifted in certain ways. I think he was definitely gifted. But he had to work on his gift. One of the things they was really illustrated to me as a radio producer and writer was that when i read his earlier scripts, when he was with the illinois writers project, they were terrible. They were terrible. That was because she was writing these long soliloquies. Its not a play. Its radio. Youre only going to hear it. Thats when he had good characters. As you know, sometimes if you dont if you dont have a good sense for whos talking, you get lost because youre hearing this male character. How do we know this is a different male character. Now we hear this woman and then another. You have to condense the number of people that are going to be in a play. And you cant be didactic. You can say yes, freedom is this or that. But unless you find a way to illustrate it and draum timatiz its like im lecturing to you. Its not drama. All of those things determine what sfraeparates a good writer from someone who is putting their thoughts on paper or whatever, on a computer. So, yeah. I want to add something from your book that you shared with us about Richard Durham, the writers that he read. And two of them that come to mind are w. B. Boise and charles dickens. I was wondering if you could share with the audience, why these particular writers, the other two you can mention. Yeah. He was a voracious reader and i think thats the other thing about writing. In order to be a good writer you have to be a committed reader. Someone who loves the word. Because if you see what other writers who are excellent at what they do, how they write and how they express themselves, then it can inspire you. Not that you want to copy. But you can learn from. W. B. Boise. He read, even as a teenager he Read Everything du boise wrote. If you read du boise now youll see, not only was he a sociologist and someone who could look at a situation in the country and analyze it, but he was also a lyrical poetic writer in his own way. Charles dickens, he loved dickens because he said dickens was one of the best, if not the best story teller. He could grab you, grab the readers attention from the first word. It was the best of worlds. It was the worst. You know, all of that. The characters we still talk about today, tiny tim, scrooge. You name them and its because he found a way to get you into a story right at the top and then hopefully not hopefully. By the way he told a story, keep you there. Dickens was another. The other person was Langston Hughes. He loves langston. Said langston was like a chemist. He knew how to take the elements and put them together and create wonder not just poems but short stories. And Langston Hughes worked in radio for a minute or two or three, so his dramas were exciting as well. So he loved those three. But he read everyone. And whether he agreed with their philosophies or not, he read them to see how they expressed themselves so that when he did, he, you know, had a i dont want to say a guide. But he could synthesize the ideas and use it on his own. So, yeah. Theres a question right there. Last question. Hi, how are you doing. Hey. My question is being, you know, being a professor of journalism and media, how do you encourage or mentor younger writers at your university to channel their creative writing instead of just writing stories or Investigative Journalism but being able to write about solutions to whatever it is that theyre hoping to express and being able to using the story telling form capture into people into the solution that theyre hoping to see. Thats a good question. I think in our department, and our department combines students who are interested in radio, not so much radio now but audio, television and film, journalism broadcast and print. And so all of those elements, whether youre talking about narrative film or investigative news stories, in news stories, if its hard news, then you have to tell the story and you cant necessarily have a perspective. That whole objective thing. But if it is an interpretive story where youre looking at a situation and then you may try, you may need to interview people who can provide a broader perspective. So heres the situation but heres what this could mean in terms of possible solution, not necessarily the reporter, him or herself providing that. On the narrative creative side you can do that. You can write a film short or do something for television that looks at contemporary topics. But then deals with some kind of solution and ways to deal with it. So i think there are many different ways. And the great thing is that our department, many of the students take some classes together. So that at the beginning level when theyre juniors not juniors, im sorry, when theyre sophomores and freshmen, they may be some of the same kinds of stuff and then they branch off in their junior or senior year. But they can still take courses in film directing or script writing for a narrative film. And that gives them a broader sense of how to tell stories. Ive had plenty of students say theyre broadcast journalist majors who want to be anchors or journalists and yet theyll take the narrative coarurses so they understand what story telling can be and how they might incorporate some dramatic elements in their story telling. Thank you. Thank you both so much for this wonderful conversation. [ applause ] republican president ial candidate Mike Huckabee is campaigning in iowa today and cspan will be live as he stops at jeffs pizza shop at 1 30 p. M. Eastern. Just five day to the Iowa Caucuses and cspans road to the white house coverage republ senator ted cruz holding a prolife rally in des moines, former Texas Governor and president ial candidate rick perry is expected to attend. Thats at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. At 8 00 p. M. Live over on cspan2, senator Bernie Sanders holds a town hall meeting in mason city, about two hours from des moines. And back on cspan at 8 30 eastern Carly Fiorina talking to voters at rubes steakhouse in waukee, iowa. Cspans campaign 2016 is taking you on the road to the white house for the Iowa Caucuses. Monday february 1st our live coverage begins at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan and cspan2. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern well take you to a Republican Caucus on cspan. And a Democratic Caucus on cspan2. See the event live in its entirety. Be sure to stay with cspan and join in on the conversation on cspan radio and at cspan. Org. Thursday marks the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle challenger explosion. The disaster was viewed by millions of School Children who were watching the launch because the crew included the first schoolteacher to participate in a shuttle mission. Part of our programming starting at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2 includes president Ronald Reagans address to the nation after the accident. It included these comments. Theres a coincidence today, on this day 390 years ago the great explorer sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans and the historian later said he lived by the sea, died on it and was buried in it. But today we can say of the challenger crew, their dedication was like drakes, complete. The crew of the Space Shuttle challenger honored us for the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to face the touch of god. You can see all of president reagans remarks and tributes to the crew by members of congress on the house floor, part of our special programming tonight on the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle challenger explosion. Thats at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Epa Administrator Gina Mccarthy talks about her agencys Clean Power Plant for existing power plants and addresses the flint, michigan, contaminated water crisis. She said the epa would conduct a comprehensive audit of the administrative system. Administrator mccarthy spoke last week at the u. S. Of conference mayors meeting. [ applause ] thank you, mayor. Thank you for all of your tremendous leadership. And its great to see some of the mayors whose communities i have been to. Its a wonderful opportunity to share our experiences and talk about what is going on today and what the future might look like. So i will spend the bulk of my time talking about Environmental Issues because im joined by janet mccabe and mark rube. Theres a marriage in the work weve done in how weve been reaching out to local communities and really building on their successes. So my main message is thank you for all of the work that youve been doing. And lets see how we can do more together. But before we really start about talking of the issues of the future in the work that were doing together, i do want to just say a few words about the ongoing concerns that people are reading about and were all working on concerning flint, michigan. Because the entire federal government is responding to what is essentially a Serious Public Health crisis. Hhs, health and human services, is leading that coordinated effort. Epa is involved as well as fema, hud and other agencies. And our First Priority has to be and is to make sure that the water in flint is safe. Thats priority number one for all of us and every mayor here will recognize that that is all of our number one priorities. Epas ability to oversee the management of this situation was impacted. It was impacted by failures in resistance at the state and local levels to really work with us in what we know to be what is usually stan ard operating practice of acting in a forthright, transparent and proactive manner. So we need to return to that. And i think we are seeing certainly in the conversations ive had with mayor weaver an interest in making sure that we move as expeditiously as possible in with the governors statements to really move this issue and resolve it forward. But epa is conducting a comprehensive audit of the states Drinking Water program. Were really taking a hard look at what epa might have done differently so that we can prevent a situation like this from ever happening again. In addition, we have to all recognize that our cities are facing difficult resource challenges. We know that and weve always been facing those issues. But we want to make sure that in the face of those challenges that we maintain our ability to provide our Core Infrastructure services. That we actually have the ability and the resources to maintain what people have come to recognize is a core essential need, which is to maintain our Drinking Water systems in a way that does not place our communities at risk. So well Work Together. But we need to do that. And i wanted to mention this in front of the mayors because we have a history of working together on these issues. And i want to make sure that if you have concerns you can come to us because we all have to Work Together at the federal, state and local levels. But it was a pleasure to talk to mayor weaver yesterday. We are on a path forward. And we will address this issue as quickly as we possibly can. Now, let me return to the issues at hand, which is to talk a little bit about the Clean Power Plant. Because one of the reasons im here as i said before is to thank you. Because i dont know if youve been reading about this. Ill give you a little bit of a background, but the most important thing for you to know is that the conference has been remarkable in their commitment to the issue of Climate Change. They had a presence at paris made a difference. What you have said through our policies and your statements has made a remarkable difference. Because we would never be where we are today if it werent for the innovation and the investment and the drive and the energy that has happened with mayors all across. It is the local level that we are building on as states have touted their success and as the u. S. Has been able to tout its leadership. When we went to paris, it was all because for many years you have been looking at ways of decreasing your energy costs by looking at Energy Efficiency. Youve looked at why your local resources, Renewable Resources that you can build into those systems and how you grow jobs and keep a Community Safe and instead of wasting money on energy youve been investing in your teachers and in your police. This is what this is all about. So i am very excited to be here to first of all say thank you. And what were trying to do with the Clean Power Plan because we did so much outreach was to learn the lessons that youve learned in how we can marry an effort that is about driving Carbon Pollution down with an effort to provide you continued resources to manage fiscally in a more productive way. So there are ways in which youve married this before and were going to use the Clean Power Plan at a platform to continue those great efforts and investments moving forward. Let me stop and say a few things about the Clean Power Plan. Because it may not be apparent to all of you folks that have been at the local level, if you havent been involved in some of the state discussions. First of all, the Clean Power Plan really reflects a tremendous amount of outreach we did. And as a result of that there was lots of changes between proposal and final, but one thing didnt change and thats complete flexibility for the states to develop their own plans. In fact, we have provided ourselves an opportunity to look at how to develop a model rule that at the request of the states and local communities that reflects that flexibility is clearly as possible. So this is an opportunity for us to stand up and say if you want cooperative federalism you got it. The ability for the states to do what they need to do, thats best for them, is entirely there. And my chance today is to tell you that this is the time for mayors to get engaged at their state levels. Because you can make this work for you. And i will tell you the conversations and janet will confirm it have been with epa in the states incredibly productive. So if you havent been engaged in this, you got to step back a little bit, stop reading the headlines and Start Talking to folks at the state level and your own folks about how much there is positive momentum moving forward. And i am not talking about just environmental constituents. Im talking about the utilities themselves saying this is so flexible we can make this work and there is a transition in the energy world. And the more we run towards it, the more we are going to capture jobs and economic opportunities. So i would love to be able to continue to work with you. Janet, every time we have an issue that comes up, janet is setting up a webinar, going to a state, going to a local community. We are not going to stop now that the rule is finalized. Were doubling down in terms of the outreach and engagement were doing so that states are looking for the most creative ways to do this that will maintain reliability, keep those energy costs low, that we provide them resources and help in Technical Assistance to be able to get it done in a way that they can meet their obligations but also continue to drive our shared economy moving forward. That is what this is all about. So i think i should stop there. We can provide you more information if you want it at a more detailed level. But the important thing is is now is the time for engagement. Stakeholders are going out doing meetings, most states are doing this. We have 15 stakeholder meetings going on at the same time because states really want to know how to do this. Nobody is sitting on the sidelines right now. So if youre hearing that were getting sued, just think to yourself theres nothing new in this. It happens every time. But below that there is a level of engagement that is really positive, really interactive and that i think indicates everybodys willingness to take advantage of Climate Action as a way to keep costs down and a way to continue to grow our clean energy economy. So let me stop there and well continue. All right. [ applause ] thank you very much, administrator mccarthy, on your comments on the Clean Power Plan and of course your comments on the ongoing tragedy were seeing happening in flint, michigan. I think every mayor in this room sends our most positive thoughts to the mayor of flint and most importantly the people of flint as they deal with this very, very challenging issue. Not only the opportunity for mayors to ask questions, i think the best thing is well ask mayors to raise your hand and opportunity to stand up and ask a question. Ill take the chairs prerogative and ask the first one. You mention all of the headlines that youre dealing with. Sometimes that provide misinformation regarding the Clean Power Plan. If there is one piece of misinformation that you would like to just correct get off the record, change that headline, what is the biggest piece of misinformation you think that the American People are getting as it relates to the Clean Power Plan . That there are this is factually correct get that mike closer. All right. The fact is that a number of states are suing us. The lesser advertised fact is were working with every one of those states. Because, i mean, they have every right to protect their own interests, but i think they know that in the end their best interest is to make sure that they follow the law and the rule of law and that we are willing to work with them to provide them opportunities to turn this into a significant win for them. It really is in their hands to steer, but theyre asking our advice and were willing to provide it. And well do that to any mayor who wants to ask for that advice as well. Thank you very much. Okay, now, mayors, please stand up and ask your question. Obviously the request and i know youll follow it, but questions, not speeches. We have limited amount of time, so please. First of all, were here to help. So im glad you said that. Were here to help and mayors want to help because we are dealing with this every day. So the first question is, and you may not be able to answer but the first question is how can we directly work with the epa if our states are not willing to work with us. How can we directly work with the epa on these issues because we work in region 5, and susan is amazing, and the second question ill ask of your staff offline we have a number mix up and theyve literally stopped major redevelopment in its tracks so weve got to fix that. But the real big question is, how do we work directly with you to do this . Because we will get it done because we have to for our kids. Thanks, mayor. Thats a great question. And we get lots of conversations with cities on this. First off, you should know, everybody should know that each epa Regional Office has a person that is identified as a liaison for anybody that wants to get engaged on the Clean Power Plan. Its alexis cane i happen to know in region 5. And he is backed by a huge group of people at headquarters and at the Regional Offices who are taking questions and thinking through these things. As the administrator said, the beauty of the Clean Power Plan is that it does provide the states and all the stakeholders within the states with the ability to craft the plan that makes sense for them. And because it is pushing towards and following along this move towards greener and cleaner energy, and thats where the cities really shine, theres almost in parallel to the work that the states are doing, standard work theyre doing to develop their plans is all the work to develop these resources and provide information on how to develop these resources. When it comes to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, we already have a working relationship with cities and towns on these issues through our Energy Conservation parts of epa. So contact your regional contact, or contact me. Well make sure you get put in the right place. And we want to hear your ideas because then as were working across with the states we can make sure that were saying, hey, you know, the mayor of racine is really interested in this too and lets make sure everybody is included in the conversation. Other mayors . I wondered if you were involved with the negotiations or structuring of complete elimination of coal fired plants that serve 80 of the state population that was announced last week. Wondered if you had anything to do with that, and if you did, thank you. But both our major utilities have agreed to eliminate coal by 2035. I didnt know if you were part of that. No. Actually, probably the well, there are many great things about being epa administrator. One of them is that we track pollution. We dont provide direction on what Energy Sources folks want to use. So even if you look at the Clean Power Plan our Analysis Shows coal will still be a significant part of the system. But there will be opportunities between now and then to find out how we can continue to work to make sure that the coal that is generated is as clean as possible. Thats sort of my lane and im sticking to it. Other mayors, questions . Im wondering if you might be able to speak to coal that is being shipped out of the country, and traveling by open rail through very dense communities, especially where i live. Yeah. There are many ongoing discussions at the federal level and with states about rail safety issues in general, which i think people know. And thats both coal and oil and other things because of problems that have arisen. And theres a lot of investment thats being discussed to make sure that the rails are safe and how we address that issue. Relative to the theres a number of facilities i think many of you know being proposed to transport coal along the western seaboard. Epas role in that is to make sure we provide opportunities for a complete disclosure of what that means in terms of environmental impact. And we have done that. Weve engaged in those discussions and i know that ongoing discussion will continue. Theres a lot of arguments being raised and frank concerns on many sides. I cant tell you what direction those decisions are going to be heading because theyre not epas to resolve, but well certainly continue to be at the table to make sure that the environmental impacts are well considered and well analyzed. Mayor, from the city east of pennsylvania. I served with the coalition, the mayors conference. Yes. We had some good discussions. What is the final resolution . We appreciate the fact epa is more willing to understand affordability from our point of view even though were all for better environment. What is the status of your environmental of the affordability resolution . Yeah. My understanding is that the affordabili affordability resolution was finalized. There were changes made as a result of those conversations. But like everything else, mayor, that doesnt mean that the conversations stop. And i think a lot of the mayors really appreciate the dialogue in the final outcome, but nothings final in my book. You know, we have to continue. Part of this is very much related to the resource struggles that many cities are going in and how much you can demand under the law or under common sense as youre moving forward to make sure that you can keep your cities running while we recognize that theres a lot of Infrastructure Investments that need to be made. That conversation is not stopped and it should never be stopped. Because i think epa does recognize that we are but one consideration in terms of the needs that you have to meet for your constituencies in your city. As flint told us, we have to have honest dialogues about that and figure out how to get at those issues in a way that doesnt put our citizenry at risk. Thank you, other mayors, please. Hi. Pat, mountain view, california. One of the things i work on is the restoration of San Francisco bay. And we need to build our marshlands up to protect our areas from rising sea levels and also just to provide a much better habitat. And one of the ways what we need is a lot of dirt. And one of the sources can anyone donate . Thats right. One of the sources could be drudge materials used to clean out our harbors and channels. And we are in conversations with the corps of engineers to do that, but right now the conversation i mean, the rules are all based on cost benefit. And, you know, it turns out by just a very slight margin were hoping to figure out more things to put into the equation, its actually cheaper to barge that stuff out to the where it has no real environmental benefit than it is to use it locally. And it just seems like thats not the way it should be. You know, the environmental benefit should be a very important component of that equation, not just raw money. So anything you could do to help us figure out how to make that happen would be greatly appreciated. Well, i will certainly take that back to the leadership at the army corps, which you probably know joellen dar si, the irony of that is i spent five years in connecticut. And the big deal was stop dumping it in long island sound. How do we find a place for this dirt . I dont know whether its worth sending it to you, but we ought to figure that out. But there are other issues, i know there are some mayors here from the great lakes area, thats become an issue about whether or not you want to continue to put dredge materials in certainly in western lake erie which is shallow, getting warmer, contributing to harmful algae blooms contributing to toxins shutting down the system in toledo. So i think the answer to your question is we really need to as a federal government be open. And i think the army corps is. Is conversations that connect these dots. Because you really need to think wholistically about solutions that arent confined by any one law. That need to be developed and changed as the issues see if theres opportunities to have what is essentially the direct opposite conversation she had before. So i want you to know that one of the fun things i said i realized yesterday is i got to ask my ag adviser, whats going on on that task force on dirt, because the Farming Community is Agricultural Community is very invested in how to keep dirt in its place. So dirts become a very common thing to talk about. Its a good subject matter. Well see if we cant contribute to it. Other questions from mayors in the audience . I have one. Many cities represented here, certainly city of phoenix developing very ambitious sustainability plans. Were dealing with issues like Climate Resiliency and the need to plan for Climate Resiliency. The Administration Just signed on very ambitious plans in paris and cities and mayors were well represented in paris at the same time. It appears were heading into a long period of cheap oil across our globe. What are your thoughts about the impact of cheap oil on our very ambitious and important Climate Change and sustainability plans both at the federal level as well as at local level . Thats a you know, mayor, thats a terrific question. I want to start by saying ive been to phoenix, with you, mayor, and i know the leadership you provide. Last time we got together we were basically revealing a solar ray that was going to basically cut the third of your energy cost. So this leadership has been tremendous in pointing the way. And frankly in your states and many others now solar energy is competing against fossil. I dont see that changing. In fact, i just left a solar, one of the Largest Solar Companies and manufacturing operation i visited last week and theyre getting solar to be cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. So i do not know how quickly these low Energy Prices are actually going to reflect in the Energy Market in a way that wouldnt continue the advance towards cleaner energy systems. In fact i think that advance will continue no matter what for many reasons. But i also would encourage you because we didnt talk at all about Climate Adaptation and we should, there are a variety of resources that our agency has to help you at the local level to understand the resilience you need to build into your systems, where your vulnerabilities may be, how you can think through those. We actually have great local tool boxes. So theres two ways in which we Work Together and one is how do we advance mitigation and reduce Carbon Pollution, but the sektd second is recognizing adaptation is critical. Many communities sitting here and mayor who is have provided leadership i want to thank them for that, but also remind the others that its really important for us to not forget that we are at risk from climate impacts already. Theyre being felt. And if epa can provide assistance or advice, we are here to serve you in that regard. We do have expertise. We have tools we have developed. We would be happy to work with you on that. Because while were trying to make it not worse, we know we have challenges today were not prepared for. Our congress the way its currently set up is not going to pass anything in furtherance of what happened in paris. So its going to be up to cities across the United States to make sure the United States meets its commitments under that Paris Agreement. Any final questions for mayors for administrative mccarthy . I know she has a very busy schedule. Kind enough to spend a little extra time with us but has to move on. Any final questions for mayors in the audience. Got one right here and this will be the last one. Tom, california. We have climate act vaigs activists, what is the Environmental Protection Agency Policy on carbon tax . Thats a lovely part of my job. I work with my own tools. I think the president when he unveiled his climate plan and i think the situation hasnt changed is he indicated the need to take action on climate right away. And hes looked at what Authorities Congress gave him to do that. And epa is really just responsible for looking at our authorities and our tools. Now, he also left open the door that if Congress Wants to create, the u. S. Congress wants to create another more flexible tool that folks think is advisable to pursue, then go at it. Lets do it. But we just dont see that happening. I dont want to confine any state from any resolution they want to bring to the table to address Climate Change. If they want to look at different types of compliance trat strategies under the Clean Power Plan, were here to help. Epa itself is not in the business of creating those types of taxes or fees. Were in the business of really following the Clean Air Act and what authorities we have. Thats what the Clean Power Plan represents. Okay. Thank you very much. Everything we wanted to know about the Clean Power Plan but were afraid to ask. Administrator mccarthy, thank you for taking time. [ applause ] thats only half our agenda for todays environment committee. Thank you administrator mccarthy for being here. Now we have individuals, representatives who used to be with the epa who are going to talk about what they are doing to help states across the country adopt their Clean Power Plan and the Important Role that mayors need to play in that process. So next im going to bring up to the podium Bob Perciasepe, hes moved onto a very important job serves as president for the center of climate and Energy Solutions which is the successor to the pugh center for global Climate Change. His role and responsibility is to help cities, help states adopt their climate plans with the government, with the private sector, with universities and others at the table doing so. The center is an independent nonpartisan Nonprofit Organization that works to advance strong policy and actions to address the twin challenges of energy and Climate Change. The conference and the center have been discussing how we can potentially Work Together as it relates to the Clean Power Plan. In essence were trying to create a more formal relationship between bob and his center and the u. S. Conference of mayors. A more official role so that he can act as an adviser, a friend and help to draft these plans around the country. So first were going to hear from bob. Then were going to hear from brendan shane. Brendan shane is regional director for north america at c40. In his role he supports c40 cities in the United States and canada in their Climate Action and sustainability planning and measurement implementation. Prior to joining c40 brendan served as chief of policy and sustainability for the District Department of the environment in washington, d. C. So i want to thank both bob and brendan for joining us today. Each will speak for about five to seven minutes, one right after the other. And then well take any questions. And then for the closer we have our friend mayor francis slay from the city of st. Louis a good friend of the conference. And hes going to talk about an Awesome Program that he has been working on and demonstrated some leadership on. And that is the restoration of the Monarch Butterfly to his region. Real good Success Story. Want to end on a high note. So without further ado, bob, the podium is yours. Thank you, mayor. What a pleasure to be here with all of you today. Ill try to speak as fast as i can without becoming like a blurred sense of words like i did live in brooklyn for a while and i can say forget about it as one word but i dont think i can do the whole thing as one word. Mayor, thank you for that introduction and all your leadership. You know, last year we now know was the hottest year since recorded temperatures for the earth 2015. And that comes on the heels of 2014 which was the hottest year before that. I know its hard to believe that this might be another hot year given whats going on outside, but remember boston was substantially cold last year as well. So you have to think of these temperatures Global Temperatures and whats going on. So we know that the climate is changing. And we are starting to see the effects of it. Many cities are already being effected by it whether its summer heat, cold, disproportionately distributed cold and precipitation as well as we already heard from the San Francisco bay concerns about rising sea levels. And sea levels rise not just because icecaps are melting because the ocean gets hotter and its water and it expands. So 70 of the earths surface covered with water expands because its warmer. Youll obviously take up more space, which is a scientific way of saying theyll be rising sea level. Gina was terrific in laying out why the mayors should be keeping an eye on the Clean Power Plan. And i want to emphasize that a little bit more. Also, havent been in paris with gina and some of you, 300 mayors were there at the summit of mayors that mayor hidalgo from paris ran. It was awe inspiring. It really did and since we have a relationship with many of the negotiators from many of the countries, it was an inspiration to them and pushed them forward to see such support. Not only from mayors but also from the Business Community. And this leadership has demonstrated now worldwide not just here in the u. S. Climate mitigation programs, adaptation and resilience issues, livability, sustainability, economic competitiveness that is driven by the work that mayors are doing. And so what are the opportunities to leverage that . And to leverage that leadership beyond the city itself. Obviously working with each other is really important, but one of the things mayor stanton mentioned is how can mayors start to influence the states and maybe even participate in how the United States meets its global commitments. Because certainly that was a big emphasis in paris. So when you look at the Clean Power Plants, what are things that are in there that will affect the Clean Power Plan that gina was talking about mayors are doing, building codes, rebates, Renewable Energy, mayors preparing for Renewable Energy, building Renewable Energy, doing land use reviews to see how they can accommodate things from batteries to photo solar rays. Key point, water and energy, looking at those two things together. In arizona i believe, mayor, one of the Largest Energy uses in the state is pumping water. I think california would not be too different from that. Most families get a ton of water a day. If you have a family of four and each one has a hundred gallons, thats about a ton of water. Think of delivering a ton of anything to your family in every city, a ton of gravel every day to your family. Think of the energy you would have to use to do it. We do this now with our Drinking Water plants and our pumping. So lots of opportunities mayors have that states dont have to look at how that works right on the ground in their home. The clean energy Senate Program which gina didnt cover in detail in her comments but part of the Clean Power Plan which is an Incentive Program for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in cities and in particular targeted to low income communities, where is that going to happen . Mostly, not exclusively, but mostly its going to happen in cities. Revenue potential if you have Market Mechanisms which was talked about, whether its a tax or cap and trade, how does the state accomplish its plan, how do the companies trade with each other, all of that is going to have revenue moving around. And where did the mayors play a role in that. So just to give you a quick example of why this is important, if i look at just two of those things i just mentioned, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and i look at the gap that the United States has to meet its 2025 goal for the Paris Agreement with 26 to 28 reduction from 2005, the gap is between 300 Million Metric Tons of carbon equivalent to 700 Million Metric Tons. If the work of mayors aggregately in the United States can accelerate the Energy Efficiency and the Renewable Energy implementation of the Clean Power Plant by just five instead of 15 years to 2030, they can do it by 2025, its 210 Million Metric Tons. Thats not a small amount of 300 to 700. But right now how to capture that, how to get that to be there is something that we dont really have a good handle on. So its important for mayors to participate in these state programs because they dont want to have the state have to reinvent the wheel on something youve already done. They want you want your programs to become part of what the state is thinking about. And if market approaches are used by the state, mayors need to play in that revenue decision. And you will have much of the advantages of any low income incentives, not all because i dont want to dismiss the fact that we have significant poverty in some of our rural areas. And at the national level, you know, mayors are there and they were center stage we have that goal of 26 to 28 , the recent white house report that came out, i know this was for high visibility on new years eve showed how the current thinking about how to meet the 26 to 28 , there was no mention in there about cities. They just had policy gaps and how do they do it. All this combined energy, no pun intended, can be harnessed and measured and somehow modeled, maybe we cant measure it because theres so many cities and so many things, but maybe we can model it. That would be really important. So those are pretty important. So as the mayor mentioned and ill stop with this, you know, we have been around for almost 20 years our center. Were one of the top ranked think tanks, but we also have very strong and trust relationships with most of the Business Community in the country. Particularly we have ten Power Companies that are on our Business Advisory council. We have trust relationships with states. And we have, i believe, including myself has a trust relationship with mayors. And so we want to use and have started to use that relationship to bring cities and states and businesses together to talk about the things i just mentioned. And what we want to be able to do is more of that and be more out front about it with the conference of mayors. We think the conference of mayors has a tremendous opportunity as a well respected institution to play a pivotal role in moving the city input to Clean Power Plans and to play a role in the United States commitment globally. So were looking forward to that. And im looking forward to some questions. Ill just say quickly we do have a meeting with states and cities coming up in phoenix in february. And mayor i think were going to be in anchorage on resilience in march, i want to say. So were looking forward to that too getting some of the lower 48 up to anchorage and give Alaska Airlines a little bit of business. So thank you all for this opportunity. Im looking forward to questions. [ applause ] good morning everyone. Thanks very much, mayor, for having me. And such a good executive hes already advancing my slides to keep me on time here. Ill just go back quickly to the first to the heading here. This is just continuing the line of thinking that youve heard already. From the administrator and from bob about cities as actors, cities as innovators and really key whether youre looking at numbers for Greenhouse Gases or whether youre looking at quality of life or all these different indicators. C40 is a Global Network of cities and we are very much focused on that fact that were not going to solve the worlds problems without cities taking serious action around climate and being these engines for growth, for innovation and for change. Just quickly, right now c40 is actually more than 40, were 82 or 38 cities now. This drives home the point that when you put cities together and its true in the United States and true globally, youre looking at large numbers of people. Obviously were at 11 of the global population. But an outsized percentage of gdp, right . And if you look at quarter of the world represented at the conference of cities. If you look at gdp the amount of economy you all are moving you well understand the impact that mayors can have. Cities are engines of change. Cities are where the future often and some, you know, often happens first and in climate and in action and response to natural disaster, Climate Change cities are acting first. But cities are essentially the problem. When youre looking at current demographics, were at half the worlds population in cities it will be threequarters by 2050. So where the problem which then puts you in the position of also having to be the solution. If you cant solve climate, transportation, energy, food, Livability Solutions for cities, youre just not going to fix it for the planet. So thats where we come at it and i think thats very much the kind of leadership you see from the conference of mayors and many ive seen walking the halls here today truly national and Global Leaders on these issues. So we say that the battle to tackle Climate Change will be won and lost in cities. It wont be won or lost only by cities, its cities and states and nations working together very clear ly, but when it come down to it the solutions we need are going to have to be implemented by you. So if you decide to implement solutions for transportation congestion globally or nationally, its going to come down to cities that have to implement that. Really streettostreet level. What we find in the way were organized is the best way to get anything done is mayortomayor. Were very much a mayorled organization. Our Steering Committee is made up of mayors. They set our policy. They set our direction. And then we turn around and work with other organizations of mayors. Really best inspiration when youre looking at any of these tools, trying to transform the market, trying to provide trusted allies and better communications, the best answer is usually coming from up here, another mayor whos tackled a problem and has a solution to offer. So working together is pretty much and collaboration is a core of c40s mission. Its a core of our effort working with u. S. Conference of mayors, other organizations with the epa and departments of energy, the white house, going to paris. None of us can solve these problems together. And so a number of the solutions we focus very strongly on across cities in the United States and then globally were bringing mayors together to provide leadership and then to learn from each other. We had a reception the other night, a good number of folks in the room were there for the compact of mayors. A number of you has anyone here signed on . I know a number of you are signed on at the compact of mayors. For those of you who arent, i actually have the form right here where you can sign on to the compact of mayors. So this is a global effort. This is a leadership effort but also one that provides a path and provides collective leadership of cities to demonstrate their leadership locally but then roll that up nationally, roll that up to Global Leadership. Cities there taking action and mayors that are taking action to help build the community to provide support to each other. What can mayors do collectively that they cant do individually . And thats i think particularly true in the United States as we look at implementing really Ambitious Goals coming out of paris. We can do much more together collaboratively than we could individually. Theres also opportunities through the compact of mayors to recognize your efforts and to let us compare apples to apples. To be transparent about how were doing. And looking for tools and Technical Assistance to get there. So the compact of mayors was started about a year ago. Its an effort of the United Nations with organizations like c40 and other Global Entities to bring mayors together. So this was very much a focus of what happened at paris. We have over 700 local governments represented at this one meeting. Unprecedented really. And brought together by mayor hidalgo of paris, United Nations and Mike Bloomberg in his special role as u. N. Envoy for climates and cities. So at this point 450 cities signed up and over 120 in the United States we were very lucky to have support from the white house in this effort in the fall. President obama actually put a charge out. We want 100 cities on this compact before paris. We exceeded that and have since grown to 122. And this is a process of committing, acting, planning for mitigation, planning for adapting to Climate Change, and then you actually get to the end. And you get compliant, which means you have done Greenhouse Gas inventories. And youve made a plan for how youre going to bring these solutions to your local community. And its doable. At this point there are already 45 global and seven u. S. Citys that are fully compliant with the compact. So i think its important to sign on, and when youre signing onto know this is something thats beneficial and doable. Its not an empty pledge. So back to the collaboration, i wanted to focus on a couple of specific best practices and then finish up. The ideas that youve heard today around Clean Power Plan, you know, theres all sorts of policies moving, all sorts of trends in the market, Oil Prices Going down, all these things moving, but on the ground the cities need to be delivering new Solutions Day today. This is not just climate at large, this is climate as transportation congestion. This is open space management. This is health and welfare of citizens. So one of our efforts across the globe and with u. S. Cities included is called clean bus declaration. This is using the collect ever power of cities, they sign on, they say we want cleaner buses with these specifications, were going to buy 20,000 of them globally in the next ten years. What can the market deliver . In the last year its driven the price delivered price down by 15 for the cities participating. This is a declaration c40 started out in latin america but is now open to any city. I would love to talk with folks here if youre interested in signing on. Another one is to highlight the fact that cities are, you know, we give awards each year focused on d. C. For this one since were local and a comment thats already been brought up with phoen phoenix. The ability of cities to collectively use your purchasing power is really untapped resource. You see cities like d. C. Getting awards because theyre moving 40 and 50 megawatts of wind power or solar power or in the southwest hundreds of megawatts of solar power. Moving the citys purchase as leader in the market and then communities and businesses follow. Theres a great opportunity there to talk about what cities can collectively do to move renewable and clean technology. So a major study came out last year new climate economy. Basically said theres about 17 trillion out there to be saved in the coming years. And much of it as you well know the less money you send out, the less money you export, spending on fossil fuels and it pretty much all is exported, there are very few communities or cities in the United States that dont send almost all of their fossil fuel money out of the community. The more of that you retain, and it is big money, the more of that you retain, it stays local. And so there are huge opportunities in that new economy. One of them is capturing the value of fossil fuel in particular. And translating that to local services that create compact connected coordinated cities that are lower carbon. We know i dont want to run on too long so im going to just go through these last slides really quickly. The keystone locking further action, youve seen these Capital Access legislative solutions effective governance. So were working with a variety of partners, very open to working with the conference of mayors something called the cities solution platform, which brings business together with cities and technical experts to try to deliver solutions to your staff, to the people executing policy at the city level. Whats the best new District Energy system . How do you know . These are hard questions. So how can we provide a safe space across industry, ngos, researchers to deliver those to cities . The next is unlocking the money. Leave this to the last because it all comes down to the money. But there is a movement, a whole number of actors that are working on this. In our case we have a tool called the finance facility which is working globally to bring money for Technical Assistance grants to unlock private capital. And i wont go into it more now but happy to do that later. We know we need a lot more money. We also know that theres investment particularly today if youre looking for an investment as your portfolio slides, theres clean investments out there that are indeed going to be the future. So thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you, bob and brendan. Excellent comments. Little short on time, maybe one or two questions for bob and brendan. Quick one for you, i asked the same one i asked administrator mccarthy. The availability of cheap oil looks like its going to be around for a while. Is that a help or a hindrance for cities in their trying to adopt strong sustainability and or climate adoption, Climate Change plans . Well, i dont think theres any question it complicates the transportation scenario, right . Which is hard. Especially when you have some cities that are and the biggest cities maybe only 20 of your missions and many other cities maybe its 40 , 45 . That being said a huge percentage of the energy that the cities are using the majority almost everywhere is buildin buildings, electricity driven, open to new finance and not really affected. So the solutions with solar, wind, i think it gets harder on the transportation side, but technology is delivering solutions there as well. Heres where theres a real opportunity for another marriage. The epa, gina didnt talk about it, but has put in place regulations between now and 2025 that each year the automobiles sold in the United States have to be more fuel efficient until 2025 where theyre going to be 54 miles to the gallon. And theres been a lot written about people buying more suvs because the price of oil is lower. It really is blind to what kind of cars people buy. General motors, ford, toyota, honda, they all still have to meet those goals as an average in their fleet. So if they sell more of the big ones, theyre going to have to sell more of the little ones. The big killer on this is vehicle miles traveled. So the mix of cars is problematic, but the Automobile Industry is going to have to deal with that to comply. So youll keep getting better, better, better cars showing up in your cities. But you cant compensate the epa rules cant compensate for the fact that some of the car people might drive more. But who has best control over traffic management, Transportation Systems management, transit alternatives, et cetera, et cetera . Cities. So you have the ability to make an impact on vehicle miles traveled by working with your metropolitan transit authorities and others so that, you know, were talking about a long window here. So theres a real opportunity for a marriage between Transportation Systems management and the technologies in the car. So i wouldnt throw out that its a hopeless situation, but nonetheless it is a challenge. No city better represents probably the city i represent phoenix which has traditionally been a very suburban sprawl type city, were going urban in a big way and voters of phoenix just paz e passed a few months ago the largest infrastructure transportation they dial a ride, all that great stuff, were trying to follow all of that. Mayor slay is going to be our closer. But before mayor slay comes up, there are many talented staff people working for the United States conference of mayors, but we got the best one, julie sheen is our professional staff person. Lets give a round of applause. Thank you. [ applause ] tom cochran, i know youre watching. Give her a raise, please. Mayor slay, i said were going to end on a high note. Mayor slay has a Great Success story hes been showing leadership on as mayor of st. Louis preserving the Monarch Butterfly. Mayor slay, give us words of wisdom. All right. Thank you, mayor stanton, appreciate your leadership on this committee. Good morning everyone. I am going to be very brief. I know were running out of time. But this is something im going to talk about that engages our residents on a city wide basis and even beyond for that matter. It helps the environment, it connects people with nature which is really important. And its a fun project. We call it milkweeds for monarchs, the st. Louis butterfly project. This is a project that really addresses the issue of the tremendous drop in the Monarch Butterfly population. It has dropped by over 90 in the last 20 years. These are beautiful pieces of nature, these butterflies. If you noticed Bob Perciasepe had a butterfly tie on. This is something that really impacts our nature, impacts our communities in a big way. And theres a real easy way to deal with it, its planting milkweed. The 90 drop, over 90 drop is attributed largely to reduction in habitat and misuse of chemicals. So what were doing is getting people engaged, as you see here. We have planted Community Gardens in city and government places like schools and our fire departments, city hall has one as well, our parks. And ive challenged the rest of the community to plan hundreds of monarch or Butterfly Gardens at their homes all over the city. And you can even go online and register your butterfly garden. Theres little butterflies everywhere in the city where somebody has one. So we can follow all that. So it does engage everys and it truly has a big impact. This is something that is working. Were already in our second year noticing a lot more monarch butterflies in our city. And people are really enjoying that. But studies have shown time again that by connecting people with nature, by improving the amount of green space and accessibility to that really does have a lot of social, economic and environmental positive impacts as well. It lowers stress and anxiety, reduces blood pressure, improves overall happiness, believe it or not. And it also in children reduces symptoms of adhd. It ruresults in higher academic achievement and better fitness and also it has an impact on increasing Property Values where you have green spaces, more green spaces in neighborhoods. So these are all the reasons why were doing it. And to learn more about it we have a flash drive that we have passed out here. Kathrine warner, whos our sustainability director who this was the brainchild of hers. She brought this idea to me. I thought it would be great. My wife and i are enjoying it. Kp if you look at the board here, this is the cycle of a Monarch Butterfly. And the photos you see there are of my butterfly garden at my home. So i was you could actually see it firsthand. I actually have a video of a monarch coming out of the chrysallys. Thank you, mayor slay. A great local Success Story to end our meeting here today. A big round of applause to all our outstanding speakers here today. We had good ones. Thank you for participating in the environment committee, u. S. Conference of mayors. Well see you next time in indianapolis. Thanks for coming today. Were back on capitol hill. The senate has gavelled into session. They are in their party lunches. Theyll gavel back in at 2 15 eastern. One of the issues addressed by the minority leader harry reed this morning dealing with the financial situation in puerto rico, the hill reports that Senate Democrats have united to push for puerto rico to get bankruptcy protections to help it get out from its massive debt burden. Every Senate Democrat signed onto a letter wednesday pushing Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell to act quickly on the legislation allowing the island territory to declare bankruptcy. Read more at thehill. Com. Five days to the Iowa Caucuses. Loads of road to the white house coverage on the cspan networks. Tonight, three events from iowa. First, republican president ial candidate senator ted cruz in a pro life rally in des moines. Hell be joined by former Texas Governor, former candidate rick perry. And thats at 7 00 eastern on cspan. On cspan2 its senator Bernie Sanders holding a town hall meeting in mason city, about two hours from des moines. And still hours from des moines. At 8 30, Carly Fiorina will be talking to people at r ruchltub steakhouse. Des moines, iowa, simulcasting with cspan. Here in the state of iowa. Here in iowa. God bless the great state of iowa. Hello, iowa the Republican Party of iowa. Iowa. In iowa. In iowa. In iowa. In iowa. Here in iowa. In iowa. Im so pleased to do this with wonderful friends in iowa today. If you had told us one year ago that we were going to come in third in iowa we would have given anything for that. Well, it is good to be back in iowa. People didnt know much about the Iowa Caucuses. Was this an average caucus . Its hard to say. It is the third one ive been to. Theyre all different. Thank you, iowa, for the great sendoff youre giving to us. You got to show respect for iowans. Theyre discerning voters. I want to thank the people of iowa. I want to thank all the people of iowa. Iowa is the first. I love you all. If i lose iowa, i will never speak to you people again. Ahh thursday marks the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle. Challenger explosion. Pt disaster was viewed by millions of School Children who were watching the launch that morning because the crew included the first schoolteacher to participate in a shuttle mission. Part of our programming includes president Ronald Reagans address to the nation after the accident. It included these comments. Theres a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago the great explorer sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans and an historian later said he lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it. Well, today we can say of the challenger crew, their dedication was, like drakes, complete. The crew of the Space Shuttle challenger honored us with the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this