NW Quad

Woke up today later than I planned to, but a few extra hours of sleep is always nice. Got ready around 9 and got ready for some interview hunting by doing a little research on the organizations before going over to the NW quadrant of DC where most of their offices are. I met up with one of the program advisors to get an idea of what to ask in the interview since I need to incorporate these interviews into a paper that's due March 6.

So I set out about noon, walked over to the Senate office buildings to find a staff member in Sen. Jim Inhofe's (R-OK) office. He was the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee before the Democrats won the Senate in November. Now Dianne Feinstein is chair and he is ranking member (which is polite language for second in line because your party isnt in control anymore). However, and this is a side note but an important one, Joe Liberman might consider joining the Republican party and that would change control of the Senate and really upset things. Anywho, this Inhofe guy is a huge anti-environmentalist guy. He doesnt believe in global warming, not saying I do completely either - I need to do more research, but its obvious that Inhofe has Big Oklahoma Oil in his pocket telling him how to think.

I thought it would be good to talk to someone in his office about it since he is on the committee, but I got refered to the committee offices since the guy in Inhofe's office really is just a liason to the committee and not "the guy" on the subject... all of them work in the committee offices. So I had to leave the Russell building and go next door to the Dirksen building for them, and got a business card and was told to come back on Monday. Apparently no one works when Congress is on recess, although I would think the staffers would be gearing up for the next round, especially on a Friday, but O well. So I went on to find Senator Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez and get something out of their staff members. Got names of who I need to see, and business cards, but no interviews. I was going to go to the House office buildings but decided against it since I need to get interviews from interest groups and federal agencies as well.

It was not about 1 pm so I headed over to Farragut North on the subway which is a nice business side of town. Stopped by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and was told the man I need to speak with was not in, and to come back Monday. Well, I know that going on Friday to get interviews is not the wisest thing to do but since it is my only day off in the week I had no other choice. You also probably figured out my paper I need to write about is on energy and the environment. So yes I am writing a paper on the subject of government incentives and mandates for the construction of "green" buildings, and I need to assess the viewpoints of differnt stakeholder groups. Hence the interviews.

So I go to the next group on the list, which is supposed to be next door but I see a not on the door that they moved one block south and three blocks west. Get over there and actually finally get to meet someone! YAY, i know right! So she isnt really an expert on the subject but offers to answer any questions to the best of her ability and get a guy who is an expert on their policies in New York on the phone. So it was sort of like an in person, and phone interview all in one. Tha interview went well and I think I got a good quote out of it, and some good stuff to paraphrase.

By the time I was done with that it was time to go to class, and so I called some people to figure out where class was today since today was one of those classes where we go out and meet with a group and they present to us. Today was the American Petroleum Institute. And if you think they had a lot of propaganda and things were really shady, try figuring out from their website what API stands for...

I didn't like the presentation, though it was VERY educational. For example I learned how grown men and women can lie outright to a group of 30 college students and 7 professors/staff and feel perfectly fine about it... and amazingly go to sleep at night. I need to follow up with the people who presented because there are some things I truely dont understand their reasoning. For example, one ssaid that if the US were completely self reliant on energy production we would still be affected by global prices of oil... ... ... ... really??? I mean, did he just say that? You know that don't make no sense right? I mean I'm sure someone can find some indirect way in which that affects our economy, but the cars we drive, even if some are still using gasoline, and we will certainly be using oil products for airplanes, but if the US is the provider to the US... how does a war or global prices of oil affect us if we're not importing it??? I REALLY need someone to explain that to me.

I can also understand the argument that we need to protect our current oil industries because they employ a lot of people. A lot of pension funds for state and federal employees have stock in oil and other energy companies. A lot of Americans are invested in oil, and they aren't just billion dollar CEOs. So we need our oil industries, but at the same time we need to dramatically get "green" industries up and running. All sorts of advantages are in this: job, a technological lead over asian countries begining to compete with Americas traditionally strong industries, and decreased pollution, whether ot not you think global warming exists - its good to cut back on pollution and increase efficiency. But these people presenting today didn't REALLY come out and say that. I think they hinted at it just to make us jump to the conclusion that they support it, but they really wanted to get access to the continental shelves around the continent to do deep sea drilling. They make it sound like we need to invest in this because oil is going to be the dominant energy source for the next 50 years and we all just need to learn that fact and anybody who wants to develope green industries has plenty of time to do so but dont interfere with Big Oil because its your best friend and you dont want to upset it. And all I had to say about the subject was sribbled on my note pad, "This presentation is bull shit."

SO, anyway, some of went afterwards to see if we could find anything interesting and we went to the National Geographic center and saw somw cool pictures of animals, and a nice display about Japanese gardens. We went to dinner ate a local sandwich maker that was really good. Apparently DC's best sandwhich joint cause a sign on the door said so. :-)

We went back to the National Geo center because there was a jazz group playing in an auditorium they had there. A lot of cool things like that here in DC. You would think this place we were at was a museum, and possibly they use the auditorium for other educational purposes but like any venue in a big city it has dual purposes. So we listened to some good jaz for about an hour and left to go back home and that brings me to this post.

Tomorrow is pancakes at the resident directors appartment, right outside my door across the hall. And in the afternoon I am going to Phillidelphia to see a play and then coming back home Sunday. I will give a full report Sunday. But now I am tired and am going to bed.