Forward Oregon

One of the great things about being blogger that being a traditional activist doesn’t have is that you get to interview candidates.  Whether its getting quotes from Novick’s campaign manager, or chatting with Jeff Merkley, its the kind of access that the internet revolution has brought to many of us, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.  On Wednesday, I got the opportunity participated in a blogger conference call interview with Merkley. After a little background for the national bloggers we got down to the questions.  i wanted to focus on my two favorites.

First, after hearing about Jeff’s past as a weapons analyst for Congress, someone asked Merkley his thoughts on “how not to get blown up with nuclear weapons.”

Merkley said (paraphrasing from my notes):

There is a dichotomy between those who have them, and those who don’t. First, we need to limit the number of states that have them.  The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty expected a high level of involvement from the those who have them to limit their arsenals and that hasn’t happened. Those with large need to reduce their arsenals in good faith. Further we need to end testing world wide, not just those who don’t have them.

The US needs to show leadership to stop the production of new weapons.  How do we avoid avoid a first strike? Don’t develop bunker busting weapons.  It makes people like Richard Perle think that we should use them on Iran, which would be a disaster. It also makes people want to develop weapons that don’t currently have them.

I got a chance to ask a question so i went wonky asking about the minutia of cap and trade system (tradable permit markets) that Merkley is supporting.  I asked Merkley about Obama’s comments in the New Hampshire debate where Obama advocated for a full auction of permit rights. (This is a pet issue of mine as I wrote my thesis on it).

Merkley said (paraphrasing again):

First, I want to step back and talk about the big picture.  Rich people might be able to fly to safety or pay a lot of money to not feel the effects of global warming, but most people and especially poor people wont be able to pay to escape the devastating effects of global warming.  We cannot sustain the amount of carbon we are putting in to the atmosphere.  Therefore, I support a multidimensional approach to global warming, using carbon taxes, carbon limits with cap and trade systems, increase trees and carbon sequestering to take carbon out of the air, shifting to renewables and modernizing the electrical grid with wind, solar, wave power, especially in combination with plug in hybrids. We also need to examine the methane being put into the atmosphere, one example of which is permafrost that is currently melting and producing and deforestation.

The US needs to take world leadership reducing green house gases.  If we do, we can build a strong new green economy, with lots of good, high paying jobs.  Bush’s actions in New York at the UN while they were discussing climate change pained me. He basically let everyone know that he was only up there for dinner and if you wanted to talk about non binding targets you could go see him.  Thats not the kind of leadership we need.  We need to lead the world.

On the details of the Obama plan that I relayed to him (Merkley said he only got to catch the highlights of the New Hampshire debate)

I like using proceeds from the auction to help reduce the the burden to the poor and funnel some of the proceeds into research. I also like the absolute limit of the total amount of carbon put in the air with a cap and trade system but we must look at compliance and strong ensure strong monitoring to make sure everyone is playing by the rules.

I have always been impressed with Jeff’s wonky side and today was another opportunity to see it, but it was more than that.   The way Merkley interacts with the people that were asking the questions was really amazing.  He is clearly smart, but unlike many people of his intelligence, he comes off being really accessible and someone that you can connect with.  Often Merkley delves not only into the issue in great detail but honestly asks questions of those he is talking with, authentically caring about their opinion. I think this is a skill that makes him extraordinarily likable and will inspire both a lot of activists and a lot of regular people to get out on the campaign trail, building the kind of grassroots organization needed to take down Gordon Smith.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: OR-Sen, Jeff Merkley, Cap and Trade, Nuclear Weapons,