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John Daley ReportingJim Sims, Western Business Roundtable: "I think it reflects a sea change you're seeing across the country. People are worried."
It was a landmark meeting of top Utah business, political and environmental leaders with the goal to figure out how to adjust to a warming world. Governor Huntsman convened the first meeting of an Advisory Council on Climate Change aimed at coming up with state strategy to address global warming.
Worries are rising about impacts from wildfires to water. 70 percent of the water in the West comes from mountain runoff, but what will happen to that water in a warmer world? What about the ski industry or agriculture? No one is quite sure, but the Governor wants the state to start getting ready for changes ahead.
For years the debate was over whether the Earth was warming, and were humans to blame? But with more research, and stories of polar bears in trouble, and heat waves on the march, that debate is mostly over.
The latest sign is this first meeting of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Climate Change. Earlier this year the governor pledged to make the state a leader in energy efficiency and cited global warming as one reason.
Gov. Jon Huntsman, 2006: "I think we can all contribute to that which goes into the environment that somehow impacts what many of the experts believe to be a changing climate. And I think this policy speaks to that issue pretty well."
The governor's group aims to take it a step further, beyond debate and into action.
Dr. Laura Nelson, Governor's Energy Advisor: "He recognizes that this is a key issue, that this is something that we can't wait until we are forced to act, to act. That it does seem that the climate is changing."
Making changes won't be easy. Utah gets the vast majority of its electric power from burning coal, a chief source of globe-warming greenhouse gases. Solutions will range from alternative energy to cleaner burning coal plants. On that, there's consensus and not just from conservationists.
Sarah Wright, Utah Clean Energy: "I think that the governor sees the writing on the wall. He knows that he has to look at new energy technologies, where the ball is going."
Rocky Anderson, Salt Lake City Mayor: "I think it's historic. I think we'll look back on this day and this initial meeting and recognize that this was the beginning of something so important."
Jim Sims, Western Business Roundtable: "I think the consensus and the sea change is that there is a broad agreement that we need to address the public's concerns about the future variability of climate."
One debate ahead is whether to use incentives or mandates to encourage change. That issue was not resolved today, but conservationists and industry alike see the meeting itself as a milestone.
