For those of you who thought I would be revealing the names of the SED’s Ten Year Energy and Environment Cooperation Framework Advisory Committee today, I apologize. Check back tomorrow. One more day to get your picks for the Committee in! If you want to cheat, you can go stand outside of the Treasury Department today (December 1) before 10:00AM, and watch the members arrive for their first meeting (I predict limousine grid lock).
I spent a large part of today with a delegation from US EPA including Administrator Johnson. The delegation is in Shanghai on the pre-SED leg of their journey to China (thank God someone with some environmental expertise will be attending the Dialogue), and they were kind enough to stop by for a breakfast meeting with AmCham Shanghai. I then accompanied the group to Tonji University where the Administrator gave a keynote speech (I gave a very short speech) and participated in a Q & A session with students from Tongji’s Environmental Science and Engineering College, and several other Tongji departments.
The students were very well-informed about US and global environmental issues. I’m afraid the Administrator was a bit surprised by some of the questions such as “The US has completely neglected the environment over the last 8 years, how do you think an Obama administration will change things?” He recovered nicely, however.
Regardless of what your take on the last 8 years has been, I think that there is no doubt that the EPA has been engaged with China and supportive of its efforts to improve environmental governance and technology. It should be applauded for those efforts; they help all of us. There is every reason to hope that this constructive exchange will be continued under the new administration.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Adam Minter // Dec 1, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Aw, c’mon! You can’t just leave us hanging like that … more details, please, on how Johnson handled the “eight years of neglect” question.
2 cmcelwee // Dec 1, 2008 at 6:18 pm
His first reaction was a stage whispered: “Jeez, I can tell I’m on a college campus.” Then he executed what I think they call a “pivot.” Well maybe it wasn’t a true “pivot,” more like a “let me correct the premise of your question” response: “first country to address mercury emissions from coal-fired powered plants; improved fuel efficiency standards, etc.” He ended by saying that he wanted to work as hard as he could to ensure a smooth transition with the environmental team of the new administration.
3 zhirui // Dec 2, 2008 at 7:17 am
Did he mention that the court threw out the mercury rule for coal-fired power plants?
4 Greg // Dec 2, 2008 at 11:59 am
How many of those questions were planted to stump the speaker?
8 years of neglect? Despite strong points in China’s basic science and math education, those kids need to take a class on getting clue. Heck, the BLM recently yanked drilling rights near national forests, which they just auctioned off. Bush was definitely not a “green” president, even Nixon was an environmental hero by comparison, but US states have the power and ability to ignore the White House.
5 cmcelwee // Dec 2, 2008 at 5:28 pm
@zhirui: no he didn’t, but he finessed his answer so that it was technically correct.
@Greg: the concept of federalism is a hard one to convey to Chinese students. Sort of like when I showed my class “A man for all seasons;” they just didn’t get the central plot element–the first question I got after the movie was: why couldn’t the king have as many wives as he wanted? A not unreasonable question, but it shows the differences in perspective.
6 zhirui // Dec 3, 2008 at 5:18 am
EPA Administrator Johnson’s speech is now posted on the US Consulate’s web site.
7 cmcelwee // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Thanks Zhirui. The folks at the US Consulate do a great job. Very professional group!
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