Transcript
BILL ANTHOLIS: We are really I think lucky to have a moment where both presidential candidates made energy among their top, if not for both, their top priority, so I do think we’re going to see forward action on the issue. That said, both candidates were committed to both energy security and to climate change, and I think privately all would agree that while there’s mostly confluence between the two, there are some potential conflicts. I think energy security for many people in the United States is defined, particularly in the short term, by increased supply of oil, and that was particularly the case four months ago when prices of energy were quite high. And so the effort to provide more security was providing more supply. And you could see in things like offshore oil drilling or taking coal and turning it into petroleum, which has – both of which potentially have real negative contributions to the climate change problem.
Some of the more hidden conflicts are in your international diplomacy. If part of the big picture of climate change is trying to bring countries like India and China into a global set of agreements, but you are the President of the United States and you have a relatively short list of asks and priorities in bilateral meetings or the broad bilateral relationship, a real question comes to what comes first, climate change or Pakistan’s nuclear - you know, with respect to India - relations with Pakistan on nuclear issues, or Iran’s drive to get nuclear weapons, or with respect to China, dealing with North Korea and its nuclear issues. So there’s an element of energy security that’s tied up in nuclear diplomacy that could undercut your efforts on climate change. That even drills back to domestic policy. If you are pushing hard for adding more nuclear at home and that leads to broader licensing, not just in the United States, but a renaissance of civilian nuclear overseas, making sure that you’re not contributing to proliferation issues and the like.
So there really is potential conflict and the incoming administration has to really watch and manage those in both directions.
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