What Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. had to say in Seattle this morning
This morning, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. keynoted the BuiltGreen Conference 2009 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. It was not your typical green conference keynote.
Most talks focus on one topic and explore it. At green events, that talk is usually centered around a project, a theory or a problem that we need to fix. This talk was mostly political and discussed everything from the benefits of “true free market capitalism” (many), to how the Bush administration tore down environmental rules and tenets (disastrously), to who was who in Washington, D.C. politics (lobbyists), to how much mercury human beings have in their bodies (a lot), to how the press has covered these issues (very poorly).
Honestly, he spoke about so many different things I don’t really know what to tell you, dear reader. So I’ll start with energy.
Kennedy spoke a lot about the energy grid. The largest technical problem in weaning ourselves off oil, he said, is that we don’t have a grid that can handle new sources of energy like wind or solar. Developing a system that would reach every American home would cost $1 million per mile, he said, or $150 billion. It’s a one-time expenditure, he said, and would benefit national security. He said we’ve done it before with computers and the Internet; all we have to do is make the commitment.
He also said we need to change the way the energy business works. Utilities today, he said, benefit by creating and selling more energy. We need to redevelop it to focus on conservation. “We have to change that incentivized system,” he said, “So that they can make the same money by getting people to conserve, not consume.”
He also spoke a lot about a business he is a part of called Better Place. Better Place is a venture-backed company that seeks to build an electric car network based on today’s technology. Kennedy said the company is beginning with Israel, where it hopes to transform the market over the next three years. The company will give electric cars away for free - made by Renault and Nissan - to anyone who signs a contract with the company. Under the contract, the person owns the car while Better Place owns the car battery (which costs $20,000). The company pays itself back by charging a premium on the power the car needs to run, outlined in the contract. He said the company has similar contracts with Denmark, Australia, Hawaii and north California, and would love for all of North America to follow suit.
“The electric car is the way this country is going to go,” he said.
Kennedy also took a hit at the mainstream media, calling it “negligent” in reporting important stories over the past decade. Instead, he said the media has become entertainment rather than information, which appeals to the prurient interests in the reptilian parts of our brains. Ouch.
Were you there? If so, what did you think was the most interesting thing he said and how would you rate his speech?
P.S. The information Kennedy shared about his personal levels of mercury (if he were a woman, he said a doctor told him his children would have cognitive impairment) was pretty frightening. If you want to test your mercury levels, visit the Waterkeeper Alliance, another organization Kennedy is affiliated with, here.
Tags: Cars, Energy, Energy information, Famous speakers, green building, Green events, Smart Energy
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March 7th, 2009 at 10:05 am
too bad nobody -apparently- recorded his speech. A good MP3 recorder costs $30.
March 9th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Too bad the key note speaker missed an opportunity to unite both liberals and conservatives in the audience behind a worthy movement supporting Green and Sustainable building practices. Instead, his rambling speech rapidly digressed into a mostly self-serving, divisive and extreme left-wing content, most of which was not relevant to the conference. He also spent too much time promoting his wife’s design practice. I want a refund.
March 30th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I recorded RFK Jr’s canned talk to Whistler, BC. I will be posting excerpts of it on our site shortly pending permission requests from his organization. Here is a recap of the evening: http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/4CD8B2C0-02FE-469C-B6FADAE2444551D9/index.cfm
April 7th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I like Kennedy a lot, the work he does and has done for NRDC is invaluable, and unlike most, he goes for the jugular, which I can appreciate.
Still, I’m blown away with all of this talk about hybrid and electric cars. As most of our electric grid is now fueled by coal, the dirtiest of all resources, why do the “environmental” and “sustainability” leaders keep suggesting this as a solution? The action of switching to electric cars would create more environmental filth than keeping cars on gas does now. Simply astounded that this is touted as an answer.
Unless these cars will be plugged into a grid that is powered by alternative, sustainable energies, the idea is moot.
April 10th, 2009 at 11:11 am
[...] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered the keynote address last month at the annual BuiltGreen conference here in Seattle, a dinner was held in his honor on [...]