The Climate Institute offers the following explanation of a rise in sea levels: "The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects an increase of temperature ranging between 1.1 and 6.40 C over the next century, necessarily entailing a reduction of the amount of ice. As a result, sea levels could rise 10 to 23 inches by 2100... In addition, the IPCC suggests that by 2080, sea level rise could convert as much as 33 percent of the world's coastal wetlands to open water (IPCC 2007)." Because many of the world's largest cities, including American cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Seattle, Boston, and even Portland, are either directly on the coastline or connected via river channel, a significant sea level change would indicate large population dislocation.

Whether such impacts and dislocations occur depends greatly on what we do in the next 2 decades, the very years the Bush Administration would like to allow business as usual, with climbing emissions: "Unmitigated climate change would, in the long term, be likely to exceed the capacity of natural, managed and human systems to adapt... Early mitigation actions would avoid further locking in carbon intensive infrastructure and reduce climate change and associated adaptation needs... Many impacts can be reduced, delayed or avoided by mitigation. Mitigation efforts and investments over the next two to three decades will have a large impact on opportunities to achieve lower stabilisation levels. Delayed emission reductions significantly constrain the opportunities to achieve lower stabilisation levels and increase the risk of more severe climate change impacts." ( IPCC 2007, p. 19.)

Offering no specific policies or regulatory regimes leading to greenhouse gas emissions, and instead speaking of "accelerating the development and deployment of new technologies," Bush's speech comes just weeks before Congress expects to debate climate change legislation which would introduce real mandatory emissions reductions. While we found Bush's lack of action regarding global warming extremely disappointing, we find this charade meant to resemble genuine action even more so. Perhaps we are supposed to take heart that the President finally sees climate change as a problem; however, it is discouraging that having recognized the problem, the President doesn't actually want to do anything about it.

Meanwhile, back in Oregon, utilities are working hard to incorporate carbon-neutral power sources such as wind and solar so that they can meet the Renewable Energy Standard passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2007. Under the RES, 25% of Oregon's electricity will come from new renewable sources by the year 2025, the same year Bush would only begin to make a reduction in emissions. In addition, Oregon has the highest percentage nationwide of voluntary participants in the renewable energy programs offered to residential customers by Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp. Not to mention the fact that Oregon's Public Utility Commission has rejected the last several utility requests to build new coal plants (the highest-emissions electrical power source), rejections for which CUB led the charge.

CUB continues to advocate for actions and policies which would mitigate the worst effects of climate change in Oregon. We are working with the Western Climate Initiative to craft a realistic and meaningful limit on carbon emissions, a so-called "cap-and-trade regime." (Another member of the WCI, British Columbia, has already instituted a carbon tax to reduce its own emissions.) It is clear to us, as it does not seem to be clear to the Bush Administration, that an earlier start on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not only helpful, it is essential.

Under Qwest's proposal, rates for basic local phone service would be allowed to increase immediately by $2/month or 15.6%. Rates for Extended Area Service would remain where they are and all other retail services would be deregulated, allowing unlimited rate increases.

The purpose of cap-and-trade is to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, the most common pollutant being carbon dioxide. And although carbon emissions do occur in nature, human emissions of carbon dioxide have increased astronomically in the past 150 years, due to fossil fuel use in our vehicles, our businesses, and our homes. A cap-and-trade would put a cap on greenhouse gas emissions that result from the burning of fossil fuels, at some agreed-upon level, and then gradually reduce that cap until we reach a sustainable level of carbon emissions that does not endanger the ecosystems we rely on. The State of Oregon has set a goal for itself of reducing carbon emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by the year 2050. As of yet, this goal has no teeth. But the legal enforcement of some carbon reduction goal cannot be far off, if the message of scientists, the interest of political leaders, and the level of general public awareness, are all taken as indications.

The number of bills that were allowed to be introduced was limited so CUB had a very narrow agenda. There was opportunity to work on a global warming bill, an energy efficiency bill and we monitored the bill to give OMSI money and a bill to upgrade the business energy tax credit. Here's what passed and what went by the wayside:

Jeff went on to a career in community organizing around the country, returning to Oregon in 1998 to become CUB's Organizing Director. Kevin went on to work at Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality, and served 2 terms on CUB's Board of Governors, including one term as Board Chair. Eric, an honors college graduate, interned at EcoNorthwest and then accepted a job at Bonneville Power Administration. All three, as well as others who worked on the original CUB campaign, continued to be active in politics and energy issues.

In 1991, at the age of 27, Eric Shaich died of Hodgkin's disease. He is remembered as a person with an unusual combination of determination, idealism, intellectual accomplishment, and easygoing humility. Soon after Eric's death, his parents, Harry and Gloria Shaich, approached Bob Jenks of CUB about setting up an endowment out of the proceeds of Eric's estate to work on some of the things he cared most about: energy, environmental advocacy, and education.

For some customers, this is about to change, thanks to the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates. NASUCA, an organization to which CUB belongs, won the court battle against the big wireless companies, who have been told they can no longer hide certain fees in separate line items.

As 2008 approaches, we here at CUB hope that you and your family have plenty of the light, the warmth, and the connection with family and friends that we all need during the cold winter months. We also hope that the New Year brings us more opportunities to work with you in achieving the goals we share for fair and clean energy, and affordable (and privacy-protected) telecommunications.

A very happy holiday season from all of us here at CUB to all of you.

Bob, Jason, Jeff, Karen, Shannon & Lowrey

He reiterated a basic principle under which CUB has long operated: "Oregon agrees that conservation and renewable resources are the foundation of our energy and economic future." He spoke about the Renewable Energy Standard of 2007, which he first proposed last year, and on which CUB took a leading role, in bringing it to fruition as SB 838.

He went on to talk for several minutes about "one of my greatest frustrations: the sharing of the benefits of the Columbia hydroelectric system." He said that the issue is often discussed in terms of "public vs. private power." But as the Governor said, there is another way to look at it: "The reality is that families have little discretion in who they buy their power from. And currently some families are not getting a fair share of the Columbia hydro system benefits and as a result are paying significantly higher electric bills. As you know, I am referring to the BPA residential exchange program..."

Both utilities have requested keeping a certain amount of money to facilitate enrollment in energy efficiency programs managed by the Energy Trust of Oregon, and the low-income weatherization programs managed by the State's Community Action Partnership organizations. This makes sense, due to the fact that most customers have regular contact with their utility but don't necessarily know about all the great programs they might be eligible for to save energy. Account managers and customer service representatives at PGE and PacifiCorp can help connect residential and business customers with programs that will both save them money and reduce our overall energy usage. PGE, however, has requested an amount beyond what we feel is necessary to achieve energy efficiency goals.