Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich discuss climate and energy: Live webcast at 2 pm

In just five hours, hear Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich talk energy and global warming via live webcast!

It all starts today, Sat., Nov. 17, at 2 PST with a little welcome from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Then each of the candidates will talk for a half-hour about their energy solutions and answer questions on their enviro-related policies in a series of interviews with journalists and experts in the field.

The forum's at the Wadsworth Theatre in L.A., but that theater only holds about a thousand people. Thus, the webcast. I'd totally be in front of the computer, except I need to be at Opportunity Green, which I'm already horribly late to...

Although just 3 candidates are confirmed, all candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties were invited to the event, which is sponsored by Grist. For a primer on where all the candidates stand, check out Grist's special election coverage.

Image courtesy of Grist

Comments

[Lisa]

I'll share a comment, the sentiments I share, from a colleague of mine in the Green Party, writing on the gristmill blog after the event:

What was missing.

When I looked at the format for the meeting, I was surprised to see that there was no mention of a Green Party candidate, not even Cynthia McKinney, the most well known. If there is one party where you would think that everyone would have a well thought out position on this issue, it is the Green Party.

Just to start, candidate Kent Mesplay is eminently qualified to respond. He holds a Ph.D. in the sciences (wouldn't that be original) and works with the Air Quality Control Board in San Diego.

In the discussion of "centrist" positions that you had with Andrew Revkin, there was an concern over inside the beltway, policy wonk thinking. Was that the reason why the choices were exclusionary, that the only people invited were those that the major parities deemed to be worth?

Wes Rolley
CoChair - EcoAction Committee Green Party US
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/11/18/2121/8387

[James]

Hey Lisa,

Yea, they're still trying to kill off The Green Party.

It's funny though, if you look at the Democratic platform today, it sure looks a lot like the Green Party platform did seven years ago.

The Dems are pushing the same issues today, that they claimed had no merit, seven years ago.

[Alex Walker]

All politics is local.

The Green fight is going to play out in every city, every suburb, and every rural county. It's easy for "good Democrats" like Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to go after the "low-hanging fruit" like talking about planting trees in the city. The real crunch comes when a conflict arises between Green values and "development" interests with ties to the politicians.

For example, Mark Ridley-Thomas is my state senator from inner-city L.A. He is the new chairperson of the Black legislative caucus and a solid liberal. Nevertheless, he recently carried a last-minute midnight bill opening up Proposition 1C bond money to business improvement districts like one controlled by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), a major political contributor and owner of Los Angeles' Staples Center.

Ridley-Thomas is one of our better legislators. But he's a Democrat who must go along to get along with the likes of Oakland Sen. Don Parata, Senate President Pro Tem. By an amazing "coincidence" a $10,000 check from AEG arrived at the office of one of Parata's fundraising committees the very day the legislation passed!

This is the kind of thing that goes on all the time among Democratic and Republican politicians. In poor inner-city neighborhoods they can always say that playing political ball in this way is the "lesser evil" to urban "blight" and chronic high unemployment.

The "Green For All' campaign is an initiative out of Oakland, California working to get federal, state, and local governments to allocate money to train 30,000 young people a year in green trades.

Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland says:

"If we can get these youth in on the ground floor of the solar industry now, where they can be installers today, they'll become managers in five years and owners in 10. And then they become inventors... The green economy has the power to deliver new sources of work, wealth and health to low-income people - while honoring the Earth. If you can do that, you just wiped out a whole bunch of problems. We can make what is good for poor black kids good for the polar bears and good for the country."

That's a fabulous idea but it will be a hard sell to Republican "conservatives" who think poor kids are only good for the military or jail and also a hard sell to Democratic "liberals" who think poor kids are only good for the military, welfare clients, and a source of unearned votes.