Newsweek interview with Frances Beinecke, president-elect of Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nation's largest environmental organizations, on environmental challenges the world is facing.

Date:   10/17/2005 11:37:31 PM ( 19 y ago)

THE FIGHT IS NEVER OVER
Frances Beinecke, the incoming head of the Natural Resources Defense
Council, shares her thoughts on new environmental solutions and challenges.

By Jerry Adler
NEWSWEEK
Oct. 17, 2005

At the Manhattan headquarters of the Natural Resources Defense Council,
one of the nation's largest environmental organizations, Frances Beinecke sits
in a corner office with not much space to spare; frugally, the lights are switched
off on a sunny afternoon, and the coffee served to visitors is barely
lukewarm.

Beinecke, 56, a Prius-driving graduate of Yale and the Yale School of
Forestry and Environmental Studies, has been with NRDC since 1973, the last
seven years as executive director. In January she will take over the presidency of
the organization from John Adams, who co-founded it in 1970 and helped
build it into what is often cited as the most influential and effective
environmental group in the nation, with about 650,000 members and 300 employees
working on energy, pollution, land-use and resource-conservation issues. She spoke
last week with NEWSWEEK's Jerry Adler:

ADLER: You're taking over at a critical time for the environmental
movement, when people are suddenly waking up to the threats of global warming and
the need for energy conservation. Were you surprised to hear President Bush
call for people to cut back their driving?

BEINECKE: Well, better late than never. It's good to have the president
recognize that we have an energy crisis, but the reality hasn't sunk in
yet that we can't drill ourselves out of this challenge. It's not going to
be oil and gas forever in this country.

ADLER: What will it be?

BEINECKE: We're putting a lot of our effort into promoting renewables.
It's very encouraging that 19 states, I think, have adopted renewable
portfolio standards, which require that a certain percentage of the state's power
be generated by renewable sources, ranging from a few percent to 20
percent.

ADLER: What do you include under the category of renewables?

BEINECKE: Solar, wind and hydropower, to some degree. Europe,
especially Northern Europe, has made a major commitment to wind power, and they're
generating a significant percentage of their power that way. Overall in
the United States, the amount of power we generate from renewables is still
less than 1 percent, so we think that there's a tremendous potential for
growth in these areas.

ADLER: You didn't mention nuclear. There have been calls by some in the
environmental movement to rethink opposition to nuclear power, in light
of the greater threat posed by greenhouse gases. Do you agree?

BEINECKE: We've looked at nuclear, but we continue to think it has
serious problems. One is economic. If nuclear power could compete in the
marketplace without major subsidies from Congress, it would be an interesting thing
to look at. But that's not what the industry is proposing. And the waste
problem is not solved. We haven't figured out what to do with the waste. Until they do that and can compete economically, we don't think it's a major part of the
equation.

ADLER: But you're not suggesting that we hold, say, solar power to the
same standard of competing economically without subsidies, are you?

BEINECKE: Solar power is a new source. We think subsidies or assistance
from the federal government should go to the new technologies that need to
come to the market. Nuclear has been around for a long time. When you and I
were in college, it was going to be the key to the future, but it hasn't turned
out that way.

ADLER: Another fuel of the future that's taken a while to catch on:
biofuels. Am I ever going to be able to fill up my gas guzzler with corn juice?

BEINECKE: Biofuels are definitely part of the renewables portfolio.
There's growing interest in the agricultural sector, because that way we could
have home-grown fuels. And it's not just corn: there's a lot of exploration
going on as to what is the right crop mix. Right now we're looking at biofuels
that use the entire plant, as opposed to just taking corn off the stalk.

ALDER: Of course, the way we use the energy also matters, regardless of
how it was produced.

BEINECKE: You know, it's interesting. California has the most efficient
per capita use of electricity in the country, because after their energy
crisis three years ago they made very large investments in efficiency and
conservation. It's really paid off, and we think that's a good model to
take to other states.

ADLER: What might that entail?

BEINECKE: We're looking at green buildings -- 30 percent of energy use
in the country is embedded in buildings, so how they're built is a major
factor in what our energy demand and use is. We're also looking for more
efficient cars, more efficient appliances. The quickest savings and benefits come from using more efficiently the power you're already generating.

ADLER: Other than energy, carbon and global warming, what are your top
priorities at this point?

BEINECKE: Well, another one is clearly our oceans, which basically are
completely in crisis. The fish stocks are considerably depleted: 90
percent of the large fish of the oceans are gone. And, you know, the oceans are
being harvested at an alarming rate and the technology that's being used is
exceedingly destructive. For example, bottom-trawling essentially
clear-cuts the ocean floor. It ruins the substrate, so you can't assume new fish
stocks are going to develop there.

ADLER: What's the solution?

BEINECKE: It requires major changes in ocean policy at the federal
level, setting aside parts of the ocean as protected areas where fish stocks
can resume. You've got to remember that the majority of the world's people
get major protein from fish, and so the depletion of fish is an ecological
problem but also a serious human problem. We need to feed 6-plus billion people
around the earth, so it's really important to take this issue very seriously.

ADLER: If it's such a big issue, why haven't we been hearing more about
it?

BEINECKE: This is a long-term challenge for us. Look at global warming
-- people are just now beginning to understand that global warming is a
threat, and polls are coming out showing that the majority of Americans think
global warming is a threat we have to address. Oceans policy hasn't reached
that level of public awareness. Maybe people who fish or surf or sail know, but
the general public doesn't. And you can't get policies adopted until you
have a constituency of people who care about them.

ADLER: And preserving fish stocks isn't the most charismatic cause
imaginable.

BEINECKE: If you look at the history of the environmental movement over
the last 35 years, much of what we've done in the United States is focus on
the issues -- clean air, clean water, land protection -- that we can see
and feel are immediately around us. But in the last five to 10 years we've
realized that the whole global system is at risk. The atmosphere is at risk from
global warming; the oceans are at risk from depletion and heavy overuse. And
we have a responsibility to manage the whole system.

ADLER: This administration has been accused of neglecting the
environment. Does that reflect a wider public apathy toward these issues?

BEINECKE: No. There's a complete disconnect between the way Congress
and the president treat these issues and the way they're looked at by people on
the ground. Everybody cares about the environment in his or her own way.
There isn't a person who doesn't want clean air to breathe and clean water to
drink. I think we have a nation of people who think they're entitled to this.
And that to me is a great success.

ADLER: So environmentalists are winning the battle?

BEINECKE: One thing about the environmental movement: our aim is to
safeguard the earth, and that's a continuing mission. You never succeed. The
fight is never over.

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
© 2005 MSNBC.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9629460/site/newsweek/


 

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