Blogging the Democratic Convention—Day 4

For the last day of the convention, we were going to spend much of it at Invesco Field, aka Mile High Stadium, to hear Barack Obama accept the nomination of the Democratic Party for president of the United States.

But prior to attending the convention festivities, I took some time to interview Ira Feldman, a member of Obama’s energy and environment team. As you can see in this YouTube clip, I asked him more about the 5 million green-collar jobs, the position of the campaign toward clean coal technology, and his thoughts about Al Gore’s 10-year, 100% renewable energy goal.

The convention floor itself was electric. Delegates to the convention were treated as VIPs, and we were directed through a special entry line to an area of the stadium usually reserved for football players. Along the way we were greeted by celebrities, news personalities, and the like through this cavernous space under the stadium seating.

The Maryland delegation sat stage left of the massive podium structure that resembled Greek columns. It was no doubt a massive undertaking, and a totally different feeling than being up in the seats of the Pepsi Center. With the sound system in place, most of the inexperienced politicians ended up shouting into the microphone, which was a bit jarring for us on the ground, but that was nothing compared with the soaring voice of Jennifer Hudson when she sang the Star-Spangled Banner. Someone could write a dissertation on those acoustics alone!

Energy featured prominently again Thursday, with Al Gore (make that Nobel Peace Prize recipient and former vice president Al Gore) discussing the climate crisis. His speech was really the only time during the event when the raucous crowd settled down. His connecting our national security concerns to energy policy and the threat of global warming was compelling.

And just when you thought the speeches of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Gore, Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, Brian Schweitzer, and Bill Richardson couldn’t be topped, it was clear Thursday night why Obama was receiving the nomination.

It was also clear that Obama approaches energy, science, and environmental issues with the full force of his convictions. And while I still don’t agree with him on the use of so-called clean coal, Obama himself makes the most forceful and pragmatic argument for this in one of the highest points of his oratory. I also didn’t recognize or expect it at the time, but a huge cry of applause came for the clean coal position, which surprised everyone around me, until we turned to find the source was the West Virginia delegation.

From his remarks:

Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last 30 years, and John McCain has been there for 26 of them. In that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.

Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.

As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced.

Of course, it’s always good to see such things on video as well:

Friday morning we learned that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice president. In terms of politics, that may have been a shrewd maneuver. However, she is a committed advocate of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and her husband is an oil production operator on Alaska’s North Slope. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/2 /palin.republican.vp.candidate/index.htm

The choice guarantees that science and especially energy will be major battlegrounds in the presidential campaign, and the Democrats have already framed the election as a fight they will win on the issues. Now we find out how the Republicans respond and how the American people judge our energy future.

Ryan Ewing