News

Sestak talks environment, students lobby legislation

In print | April 16, 2009

On Monday, April 13, Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak, whose constituency includes Swarthmore College, led a town hall meeting in the Scheuer Room of Kohlberg Hall on environmental policy. The talk was sponsored by Earthlust, Environmental Justice, Good Food Project and the College Democrats. Sestak has a perfect environmental voting record from both PennEnvironment and the League of Conservation Voters.

Though Sestak announced that he would give a 10-minute speech followed by 20 minutes to answer questions, he stayed for over an hour, talking with students even after the event was officially over.

According to Blaine O’Neill ’11, co-president of Earthlust, the town hall meeting with Sestak was part of a larger effort to lobby for new environmental legislation. “Because of the impending climate legislation … this semester’s really focused on lobbying and meeting with representatives,” O’Neill said.

On this front, Jacob Socolar ’11, another co-president of Earthlust, thought that the night was a success. Noting that Sestak has spoken to audiences in the Scheuer room before on “more mainstream issues,” Socolar thought that it was significant that a talk on the environment managed to fill the room. “That’s showing him that he’s got a constituency that’s interested in the environment,” he said.

Adriana Popa ’12 thought that the meeting had an effect on Sestak. “I thought it was good that they had him here,” Popa said. “I thought he was genuinely interested in our opinions and our suggestions.”

In addition, Popa thought that Sestak’s appearance was good for Swarthmore students as well, who benefited from the Congressman’s insight into Washington. “He made us understand a lot about policy and the political environment and how things work … the whole trajectory of the bill,” she said.

In his speech, Sestak focused on Obama’s cap and trade program while emphasizing that “what’s good for the environment can and should be good for business.” Sestak mentioned that when he was endorsed by the Sierra Club in his 2006 congressional run, he announced the endorsement with a representative of the Sierra Club on one side, and a businessman from a clean energy investment company on the other.

Sestak showed support for Obama’s proposal, calling it a “radical change,” and saying in an interview that he “strongly believe[s] that a holistic approach, that this president appears to be taking, is the right choice.”

However, he warned that “the devil’s in the details … this bill does not address the most contentious issue.” At this point in the speech, Sestak was referring to the difficult issue of rewarding businesses that do not pollute even without the incentive of a cap and trade program.

Those in attendance included citizens of Chester, with some who traveled to PowerShift in Washington, D.C. with students from Swarthmore. During the question- and-answer portion of the meeting, a Chester resident asked Sestak about issues of environmental justice, including healthcare for those living in areas afflicted with pollution and bad air.

While Sestak said that the environmental legislation that was being discussed did not address these issues, he mentioned that parts of President Obama’s healthcare initiative were meant to tackle issues of environmental injustice.

While discussing the intersections of healthcare and the environment, Sestak mentioned that President Obama’s “transformative vision” included his ability to “thread together” different issues, showing the public how problems in one area, such as the environment, can have a huge impact on other aspects of society.

Perhaps the most contentious issue that Sestak discussed was carbon capture and storage (CCS), a process that hopes to drastically reduce the emissions of fossil-fueled power plants by sequestering admitted carbon dioxide, usually in deep geological formations. According to Socolar, “The reason clean coal technology is contentious is because … there’s a large faction among the environmental movement that wants to get rid of coal entirely and there are a couple of good reasons for that.”

For Socolar, these reasons included sustainability. He said that “coal, whatever it is, it isn’t sustainable,” and that “in order to get rid of coal, the amount of investment in renewables will have to be huge and that money should go straight into renewables.” However, Socolar also said, “Sestak presented the best argument I’ve ever heard in favor of CCS.”

Sestak argued that, while lowering admissions in the United States is important, lowering global admissions is critical to combating global warming, and that cannot be done without addressing the heavy use of coal in countries like China and India. While Socolar thought that this was a strong argument, he said that it’s “a pretty scary thought if [CCS] is our best option.”

Another member of Earthlust, Zein Nakhoda ’12, found the argument less convincing. “Solving the justice issues surrounding the extraction of coal and use of coal and storage of coal seems to me like an unforeseen bag of more problems.” In addition, Nakhoda thought that other sources of energy could compete economically with coal. “Renewables such as wind are becoming increasingly cost-effective and productive in their implementation in comparison to dirty fuels.”

Marc Engel ’09 also took issue with Sestak’s “enthusiastic endorsement of so-called ‘clean coal.’” He said in an e-mail, “There is a strong and unequivocal consensus in the environmental community that there is no such thing as environmentally sound, economically viable clean coal. The technology isn’t out there.”

In an interview, Sestak emphasized the important role of academic institutions in governmental policy. “Henry Kissinger said it best … he said, when you’re in government, by and large all you do is spend your intellectual capital every day, you have to reach outside to get the fresh ideas. You’re in there working the process to get the ideas through … ivory towers truly help give you some of the best ideas.”

And while Sestak said that organizing efforts and rallies have an effect, he said that what influences him the most is “when someone comes forward with a developed idea.” Specifically, Sestak said that he was “moved” by a Swarthmore study on environmental injustice in Chester that he read three years ago.

Throughout the night, Sestak emphasized his support for a cap and trade system, “for our economy, for our health and for the survival of this planet.”