Reid feels heat from global warming

Despite what you might glean from the majority of writers in this section, the overwhelming majority of scientists and world leaders realize something must be done to try to lessen human-caused warming of the Earth.

Now that it’s finally fashionable to wear green on your sleeves, and that the (compact fluorescent) lightbulb literally went on at Nevada Power marketing, it’s politically OK for elected officials to stray into Sierra Club territory.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has accepted an invitation to join other Western mayors in a delegation to the United Kingdom next month to examine steps Great Britain has taken to reduce emissions.

Even “independent like Nevada” Harry Reid is joining the mix. Reid usually reaches out to the environmental community when he’s up for re-election.

To be fair, Reid has his share of enviro bona fides — voting against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and working procedural miracles to gut funding for the Department of Energy’s planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

But the nation’s top Democrat has taken his good ol’ time acknowledging global warming as a political issue.

If the House and Senate can compromise on their different energy bills, you can be sure the finished product (which could contain both strict renewable portfolio standards for power companies and vastly increased mileage standards for car manufacturers) is likely to draw a presidential veto.

And while global warming is still trumped by the war in Iraq and health care as a national issue, it’s near the point that Reid can’t ignore it back home.

“I sat around, I believe, far too long and did nothing about it,” Reid told Review-Journal business reporter John Edwards after an event in Pahrump last Wednesday. “I just couldn’t in good conscience keep my mouth shut.”

A lot of people have sat on their collective consciences for way too long.

Back in 1997, the state Legislature set a very modest portfolio standard goal for Sierra Pacific and Nevada Power. At the time, the hope was that 1 percent of the energy used by the state’s two power companies would be derived from green sources such as wind, geothermal and solar.

The companies have complained each time lawmakers have increased the standard. And they don’t just whine about it — they fail to meet the requirements.

If you or I break a law, we’d suffer the consequences for our actions. When Nevada Power didn’t meet the solar requirement, everyone just decided the law wasn’t working.

Reid is finally playing hardball with the Sierra Pacific Resources, Nevada Power’s parent company. Last month, he wrote a letter to the chief executive officers of Sierra Pacific and three out-of-state companies that are planning to build three coal-fired power plants in Eastern Nevada.

“Because I believe that developing renewable energy in Nevada is far preferable to coal for the sake of our economy, public health and the environment, I will use every means at my disposal to prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants in Nevada that do not capture and permanently store greenhouse gas emissions,” Reid wrote in his letter.

Last week, he reiterated he will do anything to stop the construction of the coal-fired plants.

On Thursday, in an interview on “Face to Face with Jon Ralston,” Reid declared the plants dead.

“They will never be built,” Reid said on the show.

Clearly, Reid doesn’t want to markedly increase Nevada’s greenhouse emissions while he’s in Washington trying to pass green energy policy. Nothing like a little pollution over Great Basin National Park to rain on the annual Lake Tahoe summit lovefest.

And, of course, with Reid there aren’t just nifty sunsets on the horizon, but political opponents.

If Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., does choose to run for Reid’s Senate seat in 2010, Reid will be able to pull those Northern Nevada environmentalists of both parties into his corner.

Porter is sticking to his guns on Iraq and energy. In the past, he routinely sided with House Republicans on energy bills. Now that Democrats are in the majority and voting to end tax breaks for oil companies and to expand renewable energy, Porter is a reliable nay.

No one knows what will happen in Iraq next month after Gen. David Petraeus’ much-anticipated report, let alone what the political landscape holds in 2010 when Reid is up for election. But global warming ain’t going anywhere but higher on the political radar.

And if there’s someone who knows what’s registering high on that scale, it’s Reid.

Gov. Jim Gibbons, who would rather import even more coal to Nevada to burn it and convert it to fuel, is stuck to the Sierra Pacific line that the Ely plant uses the latest technology to reduce emissions.

When Kenny Guinn was governor, he signed what was at the time the nation’s most aggressive alternative energy portfolio standard. Gibbons is hardly carrying the baton.

Reid may have done too little for too long on global warming. But the environment couldn’t have a more powerful ally now that he’s feeling the heat.

Erin Neff’s column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.