Politics are getting in the way of developing and deploying important energy and environmental policies, media mogul Ted Turner said Tuesday.
In a discussion with Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, the billionaire environmentalist said he is worried by the fact that no legislation on climate change or energy has made its way through Congress.
“That’s not good, and the prospects right now are not that good for anything significant happening in the foreseeable future,” Turner said during the 10th annual fall luncheon of Colorado Conservation Voters.
“I’m fearful that we have so politicized the discussion that it actually has created added difficulty in solving these very important issues,” said Ritter, referring to a recent article by journalist Thomas Friedman about how the climate-science debate has turned the topic of climate change into a political football. “Candidates are backing off a discussion of it.”
In a conversation moderated by Reggie Rivers, Ritter and Turner agreed that there is no world leader in this area and that other countries are waiting for the United States to take an active leadership role.
“We really need to do more,” Turner said. “Hopefully we’ll get some members of the federal government off their behinds and get working on this, because it’s so important.”
One solution to the federal roadblock is for states to go it alone, as Colorado has, Turner said.
The state has passed 57 clean-energy bills in about four years, including House Bill 1001, which increased Colorado’s renewable energy standard to 30 percent by 2020.
“Quite a few states have come up with energy standards, and others are working on it,” Turner said. “It’s a good thing we have that, because if we get enough support at the state level, it becomes de facto a national policy.”
Ritter talked about forming partnerships across party lines, and between conservationists and business leaders, saying that much of Colorado’s recent success depended on that.
Gesturing toward the audience, he said that, “There are people in this room today who have fought me on this or that, but at the end of the day, if the natural-gas companies hadn’t been with us, we wouldn’t have gotten things done,” he said. “I think they are with us not just because it’s good for the natural-gas business, but because they understand our future depends on thinking differently than we thought in the ’60s and ’70s.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
