2008 NGA Centennial Meeting
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 1 2 3 4 5 NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION 6 2008 CENTENNIAL MEETING 7 PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 8 9 - - - 10 11 PLENARY SESSION 12 JULY 13, 2008 13 CREATING A DIVERSE ENERGY PORTFOLIO 14 15 - - - 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 VERITEXT NATIONAL COURT REPORTING COMPANY 24 KNIPES COHEN 1801 Market Street - Suite 1800 25 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 2 1 - - - I N D E X 2 - - - 3 PAGE 4 Governor Tim Pawlenty, Chair 3 5 6 Robert A. Malone, 18 Chairman and President, BP America, Inc. 7 8 Vijay V. Vaitheeswatan, 53 Award-Winning Correspondent, The Economist 9 10 Distinguished Service Awards 91 11 Corporate Fellows Tenure Awards 109 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 2 CHAIRMAN PAWLENTY: Good morning, 3 everybody; good morning, distinguished guests. 4 I now call to order the 100th 5 Annual Meeting of the National Governors 6 Association. I would like to begin by saying 7 what a privilege it has been to serve as the 8 National Governors Association Chair over these 9 past 12 months. 10 We also want to welcome all of 11 our governors here. We would like to have one 12 of our new governors here this morning as well, 13 Governor Paterson from New York, but I think he 14 was called back to New York on state business, 15 but we certainly welcome him and are excited to 16 get to know him better and work with him as one 17 of our colleagues. 18 At this session, along with 19 hearing from two notable speakers on creating a 20 diverse energy portfolio, we will recognize our 21 Distinguished Service Award winners and our 15- 22 and 20-year Corporate Fellows, but first we 23 need to do a little housekeeping and procedural 24 business, and I need to have a motion to adopt 25 the Rules of Procedure for the meeting, and I 4 1 2 understand Governor Rendell has been carefully 3 studying this motion and is prepared to make 4 a . 5 GOVERNOR RENDELL: So moved. 6 CHAIRMAN PAWLENTY: All right. 7 The motion has been made. 8 Just as a quick reminder, part of 9 the rules require that any governor who wants 10 to submit a new policy or resolution for 11 adoption at this meeting will need a 12 three-fourths vote to suspend the rules, and 13 please submit any proposal to that effect to 14 David Quam by 5:00 p.m. today. 15 Now we will vote on Governor 16 Rendell's inspiring motion. All those in favor 17 say aye. 18 GOVERNORS: Aye. 19 CHAIRMAN PAWLENTY: Opposed say 20 no. 21 (No response.) 22 CHAIRMAN PAWLENTY: The motion 23 prevails, and the rules are adopted. 24 Now I'll announce the appointment 25 of the following governors to the Nominating 5 1 2 Committee for the 2008-2009 NGA Executive 3 Committee. The Nominating Committee will 4 consist of Governor Rounds, Governor Henry, 5 Governor Rell, Governor Gregoire and Governor 6 Minner, who will serve as the Chair. 7 I also want to announce the 8 presence today of some distinguished guests we 9 have, from, first of all, the National 10 U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, the Japan Global 11 Government Center, as well as Dean Del Mastro, 12 a member of the Canadian Parliament, Senator 13 Jeramiehl Grafstein, and the British Ambassador 14 to the U.S., Sir Nigel Sheinwald. We also have 15 with us Mr. Kuse, who is a former member of the 16 Japan House of Counsillors. 17 Please join me in welcoming all 18 of our special and distinguished foreign 19 guests. 20 I also think it's important that 21 we recognize and appreciate the incredible and 22 really spectacular hospitality of Governor 23 Rendell and the Honorable Judge Midge Rendell. 24 I think you have all enjoyed their hospitality, 25 and I know behind the scenes how hard Ed worked 6 1 2 to make this a reality, both in terms of the 3 planning and the fundraising and the like. An 4 event of this magnitude doesn't happen easily. 5 Let's once again thank Governor Rendell for his 6 tremendous hospitality. 7 We will hear from our speakers in 8 just a moment, but I want to just share a few 9 overview thoughts and reflections about the 10 initiative for this year, which is Securing a 11 Clean Energy Future. We kicked this off at 12 last year's summer meeting in Traverse City, 13 Michigan, which Governor Granholm graciously 14 hosted. It had four and continues to have four 15 areas of focus. The first is recognizing the 16 notion that the cheapest and cleanest energy we 17 have is the energy we don't use, and while we 18 are all anxious to move on to the important 19 topics of technology breakthroughs and 20 fundamental shifts in the current energy 21 platform, we shouldn't overlook the low-hanging 22 fruit and relatively easy-to-obtain success and 23 progress we can make in energy conservation and 24 efficiency. Second, we want to make sure the 25 initiative focused on promoting and encouraging 7 1 2 a movement towards alternative fuel and 3 alternative energy more broadly. The third area 4 was to try to clean up our emissions, and the 5 fourth was to try to encourage best practices 6 as it related to research and development. 7 The activities surrounding the 8 initiative included a series of summits across 9 the country. We had one in Florida hosted by 10 Governor Crist regarding alternative fuels and 11 next generation vehicles. Governor Gregoire 12 hosted a summit in the State of Washington 13 relating to research and development and 14 technological breakthroughs. Governor Sebelius 15 hosted a power generation summit in Kansas, and 16 we are grateful for that. 17 This initiative also focused on a 18 series of public-private partnerships, 19 including a partnership with Google and Intel 20 on climate savers, which related to energy 21 efficiency and conservation, particularly as it 22 related to technological appliances like 23 computers. We partnered with the Discovery 24 Channel and many of their sister outlets and 25 channels to promote these issues across their 8 1 2 airwaves, and they have been tremendous 3 partners with us. WalMart stepped up as part 4 of a public-private partnership to offer energy 5 audits for state capitals across the country, 6 and in just a moment we will be saying more 7 about a new partnership with General Motors as 8 it relates to their willingness to help us 9 promote alternative fuels and E-85 pumps. 10 I also want to remind you that 11 there are a series of publications that have 12 been finalized and now are available to you in 13 front of the governors, and to our guests and 14 members of the press here, these are available 15 to you as well. The initiative started out 16 last year with a call to action, which kind of 17 framed the initiative and the challenge and the 18 opportunity that we are facing. There was also 19 an earlier publication on biofuels and greener 20 fuels. 21 Today in front of you are four 22 more publications that I hope that you or your 23 staff will find to be of interest and 24 beneficial. One relates to research and 25 development best practices from around the 9 1 2 country, another relates to power generation, a 3 third relates to the best practices of the 4 states and activities of the states over the 5 last year--that's the thicker one, I think you 6 will find interesting materials in there--and 7 last is a conservation and efficiency 8 publication that we think will be of help to 9 you also. 10 I also want to thank the 11 Secretary of Energy, Secretary Bodman, and his 12 staff, Assistant Secretary Andrew Karsner, who 13 is with us here this morning. They have been 14 generous partners with us in the interest of a 15 federal-state partnership, providing an 16 $850,000 grant over the past year to fund some 17 of these activities and the grants that will be 18 part of the follow-on activities of this 19 initiative. 20 Assistant Secretary Karsner 21 announced this morning that they are going to 22 double down that amount for the next year for 23 another $850,000, and he also announced this 24 morning at an earlier press conference that the 25 department is going to sign up for an up to 10 1 2 $5 million commitment to sustain these 3 activities through the NGA over the next five 4 years, and they view that as binding regardless 5 of who wins the office of presidency and which 6 administration will come forward. They feel 7 it's that important from a structural and 8 sustainability standpoint. 9 Then before we introduce our 10 speakers this morning, in terms of kind of the 11 tone and attitude of this nationally, 12 obviously, when this started a year ago in 13 Traverse City, Michigan, I think oil was about 14 $80 a barrel, maybe a little less, and as we 15 gather here today just one year later oil has 16 increased to nearly . well, it bounces around a 17 little bit but say $140 a barrel on average.