Matt Bennett - Before co-founding Third Way, Mr. Bennett was Director of Communications for the Clark for President Campaign, where he served as the campaign’s principal spokesman and managed the press, speechwriting, research and rapid response operations. Mr. Bennett was Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Americans for Gun Safety for three years. He went to AGS after serving for the entire second Clinton term in the White House, where he was Deputy Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs, the leading White House liaison to the nation’s governors. Before that, Mr. Bennett was Trip Director and Assistant Counsel to the Vice President, where he traveled with Vice President Gore and managed the traveling staff. Mr. Bennett has served in various capacities on the Dukakis, Clinton ‘92 and Clinton ‘96 campaigns.
Jesse Bingaman - BINGAMAN, Jesse Francis, Jr. (Jeff), a Senator from New Mexico; born in El Paso, Tex., October 3, 1943; attended public schools of Silver City, N.Mex.; graduated, Harvard College 1965 and Stanford Law School 1968; served in the United States Army Reserve 1968-1974; admitted to the New Mexico bar 1968; assistant New Mexico attorney general 1969; counsel to State constitutional convention 1969; commenced private practice in 1970; elected New Mexico attorney general 1979-1982; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1982 for the term commencing January 3, 1983; reelected in 1988, 1994, 2000, and again in 2006 for the term ending January 3, 2013; chairman, Senate Impeachment Trial Committee (1989-1991), Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (One Hundred Seventh Congress [January 3-20, 2001; June 6, 2001-January 3, 2003], One Hundred Tenth Congress).
Franklin Foer - Franklin Foer is an American political journalist and the editor of The New Republic.
Foer graduated from Columbia in 1996. Before joining The New Republic, Foer was a frequent contributor to the online magazine Slate.
His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Spin, U.S. News & World Report, Lingua Franca, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, New York and Foreign Policy. In 2004 he published his first book, How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization.
Ed Markey - Ed Markey is a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Malden, Middlesex County, Mass., July 11, 1946; attended Immaculate Conception Grammar School, Malden, Mass.; graduated from Malden Catholic High School, Malden, Mass., 1964; B.A., Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass., 1968; J.D., Boston College Law School, Chestnut Hill, Mass., 1972; lawyer, private practice; United States Army Reserve, 1968-1973; member of the Massachusetts state house of representatives, 1973-1976; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-fourth Congress by special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative Torbert H. Macdonald, reelected to the sixteen succeeding Congresses (November 2, 1976-present).
Rep. George Miller - Congressman George Miller is a leading advocate in Congress on education, labor, the economy, and the environment. He has represented the 7th District of California in the East Bay of San Francisco since 1975. His district includes portions of Contra Costa and Solano counties, including Richmond, Concord, Martinez, Pittsburg, Vallejo, Benicia and Vacaville. He is a life-long Democrat and Californian.
Carl Pope - Carl Pope is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist pioneer John Muir in 1892.
Pope was appointed to his position as Executive Director in 1992, the club's centennial.
David Sandalow - Energy and Environment Scholar, Foreign Policy Studies
David Sandalow, is a Guest Scholar at The Brookings Institution, where he writes on conservation and global environment issues.
Prior to his appointment at Brookings, Mr. Sandalow was Executive Vice President at World Wildlife Fund, where he helped manage World Wildlife Fund's conservation, advocacy and research programs around the world.
During the Clinton administration, Mr. Sandalow served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment and Science and served jointly as Senior Director for Environmental Affairs, National Security Council and Associate Director for the Global Environment, White House Council on Environmental Quality. In these positions, areas of emphasis included global warming, marine conservation, biotechnology, environmental standards of export credit agencies, and environmental events in connection with the President's foreign travel (including Africa, China, India and Latin America).
Prior to his work at the White House, Mr. Sandalow was with the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Before working at EPA, Mr. Sandalow was in the private practice of law. Mr. Sandalow has been a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Environmental Law, and co-chair of the ABA's Annual Conference on Environmental Law, a member of the Sustainable Development Roundtable at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and a Stimson Fellow at Yale University. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School (JD 1982) and Yale College (BA Philosophy 1978).
Cass Sunstein - Cass R. Sunstein graduated in 1975 from Harvard College and in 1978 from Harvard Law School magna cum laude. After graduation, he clerked for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. Before joining the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School, he worked as an attorney-advisor in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mr. Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has been involved in constitution-making and law reform activities in a number of nations, including Ukraine, Poland, China, South Africa, and Russia.
A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Mr. Sunstein has been Samuel Rubin Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia, visiting professor of law at Harvard, vice-chair of the ABA Committee on Separation of Powers and Governmental Organizations, chair of the Administrative Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools, a member of the ABA Committee on the future of the FTC, and a member of the President's Advisory Committee on the Public Service Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.
In conjunction with the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, The New Republic hosted a panel discussion on environmental issues featuring leaders in Congress and from NGOs who talked about the energy and environmental policy of the next administration.
Hmm, would have been nice to get a perspective from the McCain side too. On the nuclear aversion towards the end, one point left unsaid to those who are uneasy with it is the issue of baseline power. Solar and wind are volatile power sources, if there is a lull in the wind for days, or storms for days, that can dramatically reduce power levels. Their NEEDS to be a source of BASEline power independent on environmental fluctuations, and right now there are 3 choices. Coal, hydro, nuclear. Some environmentalists are opposed to all 3, but that last 2 are the least harmful by FAR. To those set against it, all I can say is get over it, nuclear is the only game in town for those not near hydro capable areas for baseline power that does not shoot tons of carbon into the air. They need to be challenged on this and confront it.
The problem is the energy equation has many variables. Politicians will ignore the variables that don't cater to their talking points and voter base. That's because it's a game of perceptions; it's not a matter of truth. This discussion had far too much politics interjected.
As an environmental scientist I can honestly say everyone should be very scared. Please check out 350.org or wecansolveit.org for more info on climate change. Or Audubon Society, GreenPeace, Sierra Club, the Pew Center, etc. etc, etc. Get involved and use your voices any way you can to catch the ear of the new administration. Also, please push for the President to attend the upcoming climate change conference in Poland. What good for the environment is good for America. Thanks from Western PA.
