By Mary Alice Murphy

The Western Institute of Lifelong Learning, with Ted Pressler at the program helm, brought former U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman back to his hometown of Silver City to give a talk on meeting the challenges of climate change.

Before Bingaman spoke, the four women of Gleemaiden performed folk songs for the audience.

Pressler gave an overview of WILL, including 160 courses, 360 members, and partnerships with The Continental Divide Trail Gateway City, the artists' lecture series along with Western New Mexico University and Mimbres Region Arts Council, the Silver City Arts & Cultural District Clay Festival, and the Southwest Festival of the Written Word to take place in October this year.

He presented quotes and images, including a short portion of Bingaman's farewell speech in the U.S. Senate.

"When I became president of Western, I got a call: 'This is Jeff.' He told me I would meet Pep Parotti who would tell me to bring back music. Well, Jeff, we did bring back music," WNMU President Joseph Shepard said.

"Bingaman in his 30 years of his tenure in the Senate was about taking care of the people, especially the lowly of us," Shepard said. "His legacy is of laying the groundwork for future generations. In our midst is a person equally as passionate about the people and education." He introduced New Mexico Senator Howie Morales.

Morales thanked Shepard for making the university open to the community. "We're here to continue to learn and to pay tribute to a person you know well." He read quotes of praise from those who served alongside and for Bingaman. One said that that some senators are show horses and some are workhorses. "Jeff is a work horse."

Bingaman was the long-time chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. He also served as a member on other committees, including Finance. "He focused on other issues besides energy," Morales said, "such as the health care law, which he supported. According to a staff member, Jeff had a 'low ego quotient.'"

Bingaman said southwest New Mexico is well served by Morales in the state senate. "He's young, He had a future to look forward to. Dr. Shepard, you're doing a great job at Western. And Ted is the reason I'm here. I would like to introduce my wife, Ann, who traveled down with me today from Santa Fe." He also recognized Melanie Goodman, his former staffer, who "does a great job. Tom Udall had the good sense to transition her to his office. She did a great job for me."

He said he would focus his talk on energy from four points:
€¢ Where have we been?
€¢ Where are we today?
€¢ Policy options?
€¢ Where are we headed?

Bingaman showed a chart of global energy consumption from 1800-2008. The Industrial Revolution started a sharp upward trend. Crude oil, coal and natural gas continue to be by far the largest providers of energy, with biofuels, wood, charcoal, nuclear and hydro showing smaller upward trends.

Another chart showed energy-related CO2 from 1900-2035. "The U.S. is responsible for a significant amount, but most of the growth in use is expected to be in other parts of the world. China is the largest user of energy today. There continue to be increases in greenhouse gases. There is disagreement on whether temperatures are increasing. Most scientists say they are."

He also showed a graph of projected Gila Gage flow from a study done for the ISC by David Gutzler of UNM. "What is disturbing to me is the winter and spring reduction in flow and that the spring snowmelt runoff peak is eliminated by the end of the 21st Century. The conclusion I read is the current energy production and use lead to increased greenhouse gases, which lead to warming of the climate."

Bingaman said in the 1970s into the '80s and '90s, energy policy and environmental policies were separate from one another. Energy policy was focused on supply, which was dependent on foreign sources. "When I got to the Senate, national policy began to recognize we couldn't make energy policy without considering environmental policies. Many still don't buy into this."

"If you are concerned about less adverse effects," he said, then there are three categories of policy:
1) Policies to increase energy efficiency. You can get bipartisan support on this because it saves money.
2) Policies to improve the performance and reduce the cost of less-emitting sources of energy. This is somewhat more difficult to pass. It involves electrical power generation and transportation. The government should be supporting research and development for more efficient solar panels, for example.
3) And the policies to have the full cost of energy reflected in the price of energy. This has great difficulty to pass. Putting out emissions from coal-powered plants should be reflected in the cost of energy and it will raise prices.

He also proposed three ways to put a price on carbon. They include a tax on carbon, the cap-and-trade system in California and nine eastern states and third to adopt a clean energy standard, which has no serious consideration in Congress.

More charts and graphs related to the future. "Global progress drives demand," Bingaman said. "The first is from ExxonMobil, and I would agree that the company has a capable set of strategists looking at the future. In the first chart you will see an increase in population. The middle chart is for gross domestic product for the world. You will see an increase partly in the developed work and more in the developing world between now and 2040. The last chart is energy demand, which projects demand will increase slightly, not in the developed world, but in emerging economies."

He them presented International Energy Agency projections, which, using the new policies scenario based on policies countries have adopted, shows oil, coal and natural gas with slight increases, but leveling off. Most of the growth in oil, coal and natural gas will be by 2035. Biomass, nuclear, other renewables and hydro are up, but renewables surpass hydro before 2035. CO2 rises to 2020 and then flattens, with the U.S. flat in the ExxonMobil charts.

"We, as a country, and the global economy are in transition," Bingaman said. "We are in the early stage of transitioning from an economy dependent on fossil fuels to one reducing emissions. The real question is can we make the transition in time to make a difference in a warming climate?"

He then took questions from the audience. Mary Burton Riseley of Cliff-Gila asked about a co-authored report by Bingaman and George Schultz. Bingaman replied they had written a joint report about 12 policies on the state level encouraging the use of renewables called "The State Clean Energy Cookbook."

Fred Fox asked about methane, which is a more powerful greenhouse gas. Bingaman agreed and said about 12 percent of adverse greenhouse gases result from methane, but CO2 still surpasses it in amount. He said the government has been slow to put into place regulations to reduce the release of methane, which is often released as part of natural gas production when wells are vented or flared.

Another man in the audience said he sees a lot of flaring in eastern New Mexico. Bingaman said it probably has adverse environmental effects and is very wasteful, although Russian and Nigeria are much worse than the U.S.

A man said he was curious about pulling out carbon by photosynthesis.

"There are ways to do that, but we need more research," Bingaman said. "Once the greenhouse gas is in the atmosphere, it's still there 100 years from now."

Another audience member said there used to be Republican environmentalists in Congress, but now there are none. Now they are anti-environmentalist.

Bingaman suggested people watch the "great movie," Merchants of Doubt, which talks about the organized efforts not to get involved in the climate change issue.

Nick Sussillo talked about the book This Changes Everything, in which the author says the world is running out of time and that no non-radical methods will work in the time left.

"I still hold to the view that reasonable minds can come together to resolve the issue," Bingaman said. "I hope we will see climate change as a priority issue in 2016."

A woman asked about how a bill gets passed. Bingaman explained the process of getting through committees, passing the House and Senate and going to the President for signing.

Gerald Schultz said he has seen within the past few days that a body of scientists have confirmed that fracking is the cause of earthquakes. "Do you think we need a moratorium on fracking?"

Bingaman said most of the seismic activity is caused by the infusion of water after the fracking process. "It would be unusual to see the federal government put a blanket moratorium on the process."

A woman said she saw many activists in the room. "The most common frustration is that as long as huge corporate money is in politics, fossil fuel extraction will continue. Udall has proposed a constitutional amendment to change that. We have to make members of Congress or those who want to be member held accountable for the money."

A man asked Bingaman to comment on subsidies for oil, gas and coal, versus solar or wind.

Bingaman said an international agency had recommended governments should eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels. "I favor subsidies for alternative energy. It is appropriate for making the transition."

A woman said she would in 30 days have solar panels put on her roof. "Will it be a step toward helping the problem?"

Bingaman replied it would be a step in the right direction, "but the problem is too big for us to affect it individually."

Silver City Mayor Michael Morones then presented a proclamation and a key to the city to Bingaman, who said he was honored to receive it.