"Economic Choices 2008" -The Issue of Climate Change
Thursday, April 17, 2008SUZANNE PRATT: In western Pennsylvania, it's the environment that's the big issue. All three major presidential candidates favor faster, more aggressive action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There's no question the climate change debate is heating up, and Pennsylvania is a good place to examine the economic stakes as the state prepares for next Tuesday's presidential primary.
As our "Economic Choices '08" coverage continues, Darren Gersh heads to Pittsburgh, a city weighing the costs and benefits of capping greenhouse gas emissions.
DARREN GERSH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Glass and chemical giant PPG Industries (PPG) is a good place to visit to get a sense of how the politics of climate change are evolving. Caps on greenhouse gas emissions may be a big election-year issue, but after pouring over the science and, more importantly, market trends, Senior Vice President Vicki Holt says PPG decided the time for talk was over, even if some PPG employees did not agree.
VICKI HOLT, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PPG INDUSTRIES: If we have a few people that think global climate change isn't happening, it's a Democratic plot, there are a few people who probably believe that, it is irrelevant. The momentum is moving so rapidly in that direction, we've got to be ready.
GERSH: PPG is planning to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent over the next five years. This is one of Pittsburgh's oldest and biggest companies, and when a manufacturer like this says it is going green, voters here take notice.
HOLT: The sense of urgency is there, and we believe we will be in an environment where carbon will be constrained and we will be paying for carbon, so let's prepare for that.
GERSH: That's the cost side. On the revenue side, demand for carbon- friendly products is soaring. Demand for fiberglass used in windmills is expanding 26 percent a year; glass for solar panels is growing 45 percent a year. That's a small indication of the kind of business opportunities available, as the political leaders in the United States and the rest of the world prepare to cut back on carbon emissions.
Analysts say the climate change legislation backed by John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could lead to massive shifts in wealth from companies that generate carbon emissions to companies that control them. For western Pennsylvania, that is both an enormous economic challenge and an opportunity.
The opportunity is making headlines in Pittsburgh. Westinghouse is headquartered here and just got a big order for new nuclear reactors. Economic development consultant Janet Lauer says news like that is changing the politics of climate change in the state.
JANET LAUER, ECONOMIC DEV. CONSULTANT, LAUER CONSULTING: People see job opportunities coming now, people see investment coming here, and I think that that's helping, that's moving attitudes.
GERSH: With universities like Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh to draw on, the region is also emerging as a center for clean- coal technology.
LAUER: We have an opportunity to provide the solutions related to carbon for the rest of the world. We have the assets here. We also have the need, because we are a coal economy.
GERSH: And that's the challenge. As the billboards remind the presidential candidates shuttling in and out of Pittsburgh, this is still coal country. Half the region's power is generated by coal, and 250,000 people make their living off the industry.
Peter Lilly is Consol Coal Group (CNX) president. He wants to make sure the candidates address the crucial economic question of how much emission controls will cost.
PETER LILLY, PRESIDENT, CONSOL ENERGY: I think the public, at this point, has become interested in seeing controls on CO2, and I don't think the public understands the implications of that yet.
GERSH: McCain, Obama, and Clinton are all likely to back caps on greenhouse gas emissions beginning around 2012. But Consol argues emissions caps should be tied to the development of clean coal technology.
LILLY: We can have that technology researched and developed and ready to be deployed probably by the order of magnitude of 2020, the early third decade of this century.
GERSH: The details of plans to cap carbon emissions and create markets for carbon credits are almost as mind-numbingly complex as the research into climate change itself.
Peter Adams should know. He studies atmospheric chemistry: "cloud formation," to non-scientists.
PETER ADAMS, CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: These are the cloud condensation nuclei.
GERSH: Adams says he's excited about the upcoming primaries, not because of any specific plan, but because all the top candidates want to make action on climate change mandatory, and Adams says that's what matters.
ADAMS: I think by taking this first step, and especially if we take a responsible, gradual, incrementalist kind of approach, what we'll see is that while there will be significant cost, they are not going to be economy breaking, bank-breaking kinds of costs.
GERSH: In past elections, talk of caps on greenhouses gases would probably have sunk a promising presidential campaign here. But this year, even those in coal country hope to be part of the solution to climate change. Darren Gersh, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Pittsburgh.
PRATT: Our look at issues impacting Pennsylvania voters continues tomorrow with the state's take on the national housing crisis.
