Kitzhaber and Hayes: “Greens” Vs
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GREEN WATCH BANNER TO BE INSERTED HERE Kitzhaber and Hayes: “Greens” vs. Transparency How do environmentalist politicians protect themselves from being held accountable? By Steven J. Allen Summary: In Parts 1 and 2, we reported on the tangled web of power-hungry and greedy special interests—environmental- ists, business people, and government officials (including White House advisors and governors of other states)—that was exposed in the scandal that forced the governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber (D), to resign. In this final installment on the Kitzhaber-Hayes affair, we examine the ways the scandal is tied to key goals of the environmental Left. One key goal: making it much, much harder for voters to hold “green” politicians accountable for the disastrous results of their policies. In 2013, British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, Wash- ington Gov. Jay Inslee, and California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a pact on “climate change.” his month, in Part 3 of our look at the scandals that forced Oregon Some background: To the “green” Left, ruary 2014, Anne C. Mulkern of E&E TGov. Kitzhaber to resign, we ex- cost-benefit analysis is a problem. Even [Energy and Environment] reported: amine a trip to Shangri-La (well, Bhutan) some environmentalists admit that many High-profile billionaire and envi- ... the ways in which billionaires want to supposed anti-Warming measures would ronmental activist Tom Steyer held measure your happiness ... how British do real harm to the economy, especially center stage at an event here [in Columbia took a “climate” stand, along to poor and working-class people— Santa Barbara, California] . In with Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia ... greater harm than the Warming itself. To his final minutes, Steyer announced how Walmart cashed in on paper-drying ... get around that problem, activists have that he planned to launch an effort and how Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes, worked to build up the current and future to quantify what inaction on climate after being advised on how to avoid the threat of Warming. It’s been blamed for change could cost the country. appearance of impropriety, just couldn’t everything from the spread of AIDS to When a reporter afterward raced take a hint. the future extinction of coffee beans and for Steyer, he begged off questions, red-headed humans, from bumpy plane waving for his aide, Kate Gordon. Warming is coming. Run! rides to the loss of people’s sex drives to a rise in the pitch of the croak of the In last month’s issue of Green Watch, we January 2016 were introduced to Kate Gordon, who coqui frog of Puerto Rico. [See Green was listed as a board member of the Clean Watch August 2014.] Sen. Bernie Sand- Economy Development Center (the shad- ers (I-Vt.) said in a recent Democratic Kitzhaber and Hayes: owy group that provided a “fellowship” to presidential debate that “In fact, climate “Greens” vs. Transparency Oregon’s then-First Lady Cylvia Hayes). change is directly related to the growth Page 1 Gordon links billionaire environmentalist of terrorism.” Tom Steyer to the concept of the Genuine Summing up all the Warming harm is Green Notes Progress Indicator (GPI), which we’ll get hard work, and work to which billionaire Page 10 to in a moment. Steyer has turned his attention. In Feb- Sitting in the near-empty auditorium the 2014 election cycle, citing her tion” of the Paulson Institute, founded by after the event, Gordon explained the role in the Risky Business study on former Treasury Secretary and Goldman plan. The study was her idea, one climate change costs. “She under- Sachs CEO Hank Paulson. she had long waited to put into ac- stands how the game is played, how tion. “I’ve wanted to do this for five power is exerted and how to pull the Demos, GPI, and that trip to Bhutan years, and I never felt like I was in right levers,” said Adam Browning, If you exaggerate the Global Warming the right place to do it until working co-founder of advocacy group Vote threat sufficiently, any measure to prevent with Tom,” Gordon said. Solar and an activist who has worked Warming can be made to appear reason- Steyer’s San Francisco-based non- with Gordon on green issues. able and, as the President likes to say, profit policy shop, Next Generation, Gordon helped recruit the effort’s “common sense.” In the grand scheme of offered the perfect perch to launch new Risk Committee, which features things, how much should we care about the effort, she said, because “we’re several well-known names. There some lost economic growth, considering not in Washington. We’re not an en- are three people from former Presi- what’s at stake? Besides: If government vironmental group. We’re not identi- dent Clinton’s Cabinet: Secretary of policies can be judged as failures merely fied as having a particular dog in the Housing and Urban Development because they have negative effects on the fight.” That study on climate inac- Henry Cisneros, Treasury Secretary economy, then—as the Left sees it—it’s tion now is underway. Called Risky Robert Rubin, and Secretary of time to change how we measure the ef- Business, it’s headed by Steyer, for- Health and Human Services Donna fects of government policies. mer New York City Mayor Michael Shalala. Two Republicans are on board: former Sen. Olympia Snowe Thus, the Genuine Progress Indicator Bloomberg (I) and George W. Bush (GPI). As defined by various environ- administration Treasury Secretary of Maine and Reagan administration Secretary of State George Shultz. mental groups, “GPI is designed to take Henry Paulson. Gordon, 40, is the fuller account of the health of a nation’s Risky Business executive director. In addition, she’s now part of a group of advocates conferring on ways economy by incorporating environmental . Before joining Steyer’s nonprofit, California, Oregon, Washington and and social factors which are not measured she spent a decade crafting reports British Columbia will move forward by GDP [Gross Domestic Product]. and analyses that several people said together on actions to combat climate . The GPI is used in green economics, influenced state and federal policies, change [i.e., the Pacific Coast Collab- sustainability and more inclusive types of including the green jobs movement orative; more on this project below]. economics by factoring in environmental and elements of President Obama’s and carbon footprints that businesses stimulus package, the American Gordon, who served as co-director of produce or eliminate.” Recovery and Reinvestment Act. the Apollo Alliance [about which, see Over the past 20 months, Gordon Green Watch November 2012 and our Thus, using GPI, the cost of Global has guided Steyer as he’s emerged as sister publication Foundation Watch, Warming policies can be waved away, a political force. The magazine October 2009], is considered one of the offset by the amount of supposed dam- Campaigns & Elections in Novem- leaders of the “green jobs” movement and age from Warming that environmentalists ber included Gordon on its list of was highly influential in the creation of speculate has been or will be prevented. the 50 influencers to watch ahead of President Obama’s disastrous “stimulus” And a tax on the use of natural resources program. (Apollo Alliance, by the way, might not be considered a tax at all, but merely an effort to “internalize externali- Editor: Steven J. Allen later merged with the BlueGreen Alli- ties,” to make companies compensate the Publisher: Terrence Scanlon ance, a union/environmentalist partner- government for what environmentalists Address: 1513 16th Street, NW ship started by the United Steelworkers call “negative eco-impacts.” A similar Washington, DC 20036-1480 and the Sierra Club, which now includes proposed measure of well-being is called Phone: (202) 483-6900 the Service Employees International HPI, for “Happy Planet Index.” E-mail: [email protected] Union (SEIU), the Union of Concerned Website: CapitalResearch.org Scientists, the American Federation of Left-wing economist Zachary Karabell Teachers, and other organizations.) Gor- ridiculed GDP in a 2014 interview on don met Steyer in 2011 when she was the Green Watch is published by Capital PBS: “GDP is extremely good at measur- vice president in charge of the energy pro- Research Center, a non-partisan education ing how much stuff we make, and how gram at the Center for American Progress, and research organization classified by the much stuff we consume, full stop. It’s an headed by John Podesta, who is currently IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Reprints extremely good number to measure out- campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton. are available for $2.50 prepaid to Capital put, and in that sense, it’s a good number Research Center. Last May, Gordon was named “Vice for 1950s economies, when you had more Chair, Climate and Sustainable Urbaniza- closed systems, high trade barriers, local Page 2 Green Watch January 2016 manufacturing, particularly for the United show a woody, high-end establish- In a dozen emails spanning April States, where most of the stuff the U.S. ment high in the mountains. 2013 to April 2014 . [Hayes] or- consumed in 1950 was made in America.” chestrates work on the new policy, The German government paid for the an alternative economic measure “The GDP is a truly terrible measure trip as a leading supporter of the GPI called the Genuine Progress Indi- of things that really matter,” said Gus or “Beyond GDP” campaign. Backers cator. Hayes sets the agenda for Speth, a distinguished senior fellow at include the European Parliament, the meetings with top state officials.