Blogging the Democratic Convention—Day 2

Maryland delegate Ryan Ewing reports for Physics Today Online on the science-related events at this week’s Democratic National Convention.

Energy Night
Energy was the theme of Tuesday evening, starting with the nightly “America’s Town Hall,” which aired late in the 6:00pm session during prime-time viewing hours.

Looking at the CSPAN video, the session actually plays much better to the television-watching audience then it did to the convention hall. There was a similar town-hall-style session the first night of the convention, and I recall thinking how awkward it was, since hardly anyone in the convention hall could focus on the discussion with all the background noise.

However, during one portion of the discussion, with Jerome Ringo, the head of the Apollo Alliance —a coalition of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze interest and investment in clean energy—I suddenly realized why Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was leading this session:

“When we talk about the turbine and wind industry, someone must design a turbine, that is a job; someone must build that turbine, that is a job; somebody has to maintain that turbine, that is a job.”

This was all about creating US-based energy in a new energy economy that would replace jobs lost in manufacturing as production moves overseas. It is a clear winner in the party platform, and likely to have strong appeal for the public, as well as bond the labor and environmental wings of the Democratic Party with a common goal.

It soon became evident during the evening that the Democrats would use this issue of energy both to draw a clear distinction between the political parties in this election and as a bludgeon against Senator John McCain: The speakers who addressed the economy and clean energy got some of the largest applause.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who supports investing in renewable energy from the heartland (wind and ethanol), has a great quip about McCain and renewables:

The actual keynote speaker for the evening was former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, but surprisingly, applause was muted for his speech compared with the speech made by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. Schweitzer’s speech highlighted the energy issue and received some of the most thunderous applause of the night, short of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s speech. To get the complete effect this speech had on the convention, it should be viewed in its entirety. Schweitzer comes across as a jovial and entertaining man to watch; it looks like he is really enjoying himself up there, and I can’t believe we haven’t seen more of him before.

One of the only no-applause parts of Schweitzer’s speech was his suggestion that coal is part of an energy solution for America, which landed with a thud. But he quickly picked it up again, outlining each type of renewable energy that McCain has voted against.

Highlights of Schweitzer’s speech include the following: “We cannot drill our way to energy independence, if you drill everywhere, if you drill in all of John McCain’s backyards, even the ones he doesn’t know he has.”

“$4 billion in tax breaks for big oil: that’s a lot of change, but not the change we need.”

“Barack Obama understands the most important barrel of oil is the one you do not use.”

“America needs energy independence: the petrol-dictators will never own American wind and sunshine. And we should never again be beheld to their barrels of crude.”

And the theme reiterated is that the new renewable energy economy will create 5 million new green jobs. How these 5 million jobs will be created was not explained at the forum, but I hope to find out more details at a later date. Clearly new jobs in a growing industry is the message the party is trying to hammer home.

A green evening

After the convention proceedings, the Maryland Delegation met together for our second evening reception, this time at Gumbo’s restaurant. The reception was hosted by Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, a decidedly green elected official who has been working on various environmental issues in Maryland, particularly river and water quality. Greeting us at the door was US Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, who was a leading contender for the vice-presidency, and whose father, the retired senator Birch Bayh, now lives in my hometown of Easton, Maryland.

But the real treat of the evening was Gansler’s connection to our special guest speaker, chairman of the Waterkeeper Alliance, Robert Kennedy Jr. While Kennedy did not speak specifically on science or environmental issues (he said he was shying away from that after a controversial recent appearance at a Poultry Summit on Maryland’s Eastern Shore), he was a compelling speaker nonetheless and continued the green theme for the evening.

Leaving the party early, a friend and I took the free shuttle service on Denver’s mile-long 16th Street pedestrian mall from one end to the other to see the band Death Cab for Cutie at the League of Conservation Voters’ “Concert for a Cool Climate.” This was at the Sherman Center, which appeared to be a large old church converted into a four-story venue. Since I work with the Maryland League, we got in with VIP passes to enjoy some local Denver microbrews and eats. Quite the nice way to wrap up such a green-oriented day at the convention.

Ryan Ewing