Accelerating Energy Innovation to Mitigate Climate Change
Free enterprise is best equipped to generate the innovations and breakthroughs needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the position of our guest on this edition of Path to Zero. Tucker talks to Drew Bond, former Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush at the Department of Energy and co-founder of C3 Solutions, a non-profit organization committed to free market solutions for climate change.
About Drew Bond and C3 Solutions
In addition to serving in the Bush White House, Bond was Chief of Staff at The Heritage Foundation and worked under former U.S. Senator Don Nickles from Oklahoma. Bond also started a solar company called Powerfield. He founded C3 Solutions with John Hart, a fellow Republican who served as Communications Director for another Oklahoma Senator, Tom Coburn. C3 Solutions stands for Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions.
Bond talks to Tucker about how two conservatives got involved in climate change solutions. “We believe climate change is real. We think the debate on the issue has become too politicized and we have to build coalitions and fundamentally focus on solutions,” says Bond.
C3 Solutions is primarily focused on energy policy. The organization identifies policies, analyzes policies and works to educate policymakers working with groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Heritage Foundation. “C3 Solutions tries not to be dogmatic and very practical. But given that we come from this from a free market perspective, we don’t hide our conservative credentials,” says Bond.
Innovation
C3 Solutions believes promoting innovation and empowering entrepreneurs are the best ways to deploy new technologies that will create a healthy natural and economic environment. Bond says we need to create an economic environment that lowers barriers and encourages research and development. When new technologies are developed, in areas such as nuclear energy, we need to lower political barriers to their deployment.
Bond says the best role for government is to invest in energy innovation where the private industry can’t. He points to the good things the Department of Energy is doing and the U.S. National Laboratory system.
C3 Solutions studies and promote sustainable agricultural and forestry practices that can have positive impacts on our natural environment, encourage economic growth and create a more durable, flexible and resilient food supply.
Bond says natural climate solutions are important to reducing the risks of climate change, but their efforts are often hamstrung by regulatory and funding challenges. The America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration (ARCs) Act makes key investments into revegetation efforts, forest management practices, and research activities.
While key funding is needed to accelerate conservation and forest management practices in the United States, establishing a more efficient permitting process and creating greater protections against costly litigation would bolster healthier management of federal forests.
Free Economies are Clean Economies
Bond talks with Tucker about one of C3 Solutions key policy efforts to focus on how free economies tend to be the world’s cleanest countries.
C3 Solutions analyzed two different indices: The Heritage Foundation’s index of economic freedom and Yale university’s environmental performance index. “When you put the data together, what you see is as economies become freer, they also become cleaner,” says Bond. “That’s a message that we fundamentally believe in and think should really be the foundation of policymakers as they think about addressing climate change.”
Resources
C3 Solutions Website
Drew Bond Bio
Real Clear Energy – America’s Coming Conservative Climate Offensive
Morning Consult – ‘Eco-Right’ Groups Are Working to Change the Conversation