Lisa Jackson Speaks At Atlantic’s Green Intelligence Forum

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

By Norris McDonald

The Atlantic held a very exciting Green Intelligence Forum (videos) yesterday that was cosponsored by Constellation Energy, Shell Oil and Siemens. I decided to attend because of the panelist list and EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson was the keynote speaker. The New Yorker has an interesting review, but I received interesting feedback about the question I asked the administrator: "Should Blacks own coal mines in a global warming world?" I knew she could not answer it directly (it was a loaded question), but I felt compelled to ask it anyway. Moreover, the question was not really aimed at her but at many of the people sitting in the audience (electric utilities, oil companies, environmentalists and media). Administrator Jackson gave a general answer. She playfully swiped her program at me as she was leaving.

Todd Stern, U.S. State Department Special Envoy on Climate Change, opened the forum and other panelists included: Smart Markets: Jonathan Lash, Fred Krupp and David Hawkins represented mainstream environmental groups. Jim Rogers of Duke Energy and Jim Connaughton of Constellation represented utilities, among several other panelists.