NEAL CONAN, HOST:
That is TALK OF THE NATION. I am Neal Conan, in Washington. On daily basis on this program, we attempt to tackle the speak of the nation, an important, probably the most compelling tales, like landmark Supreme Courtroom selections, civil struggle in Syria, local weather change, politics and hard instances.
On our final day, we expect it is applicable so that you can set the agenda. Name, inform us: What is the speak of the nation? It may be a giant worldwide story you have been following for weeks, or an area information occasion that has your neighborhood abuzz. We have additionally invited just a few of our favorites right here at NPR to affix us. And later in this system: What’s the greatest goodbye card you ever received? You may electronic mail us on that now: speak@npr.org.
And if you wish to inform us what is the speak of the nation, our telephone quantity is 800-989-8255. E-mail us: speak@npr.org. You may as well be part of the dialog on our web site. That is at npr.org, and click on on TALK OF THE NATION.
And let’s examine if we will get Heather on the road. Heather’s with us from Tampa.
HEATHER: Hello, sure. I feel one of the crucial essential issues that is happening proper now is definitely the particular session in Texas to attempt to push by abortion restrictions.
CONAN: And the filibuster the opposite day by State Senator Wendy Davis.
HEATHER: Proper, which is completely unimaginable. She deserves unimaginable help and simply recognition for that effort. I feel that was a extremely fantastic stand for ladies’s rights.
CONAN: And you recognize that the governor plans to name one other session, I feel, as quickly as subsequent week, to carry again the invoice. And I feel the good expectation is that it’ll cross fairly simply.
HEATHER: I do know that, and I am extremely disenchanted in Governor Perry’s determination to try this.
CONAN: I’m wondering additionally, there’s been some allegations of hypocrisy. Democrats and folks on the left have generally been impatient with Republican filibusters, notably in america Senate.
HEATHER: Proper, and I can perceive that, however I feel there is a distinction to be made. It is one factor to face up and truly speak for 11 hours. It is one other factor to place by form of a procedural filibuster that does not in any manner take any braveness. It is basically a option to simply form of weasel out of getting to have a dialogue on the subjects of debate.
CONAN: Heather, thanks very a lot for the decision.
HEATHER: Thanks.
CONAN: And because it occurs, we have now NPR senior Washington editor Ron Elving with us right here in Studio 42. And Ron, good to have you ever again, as at all times.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Neal. You are one in all my favorites.
(LAUGHTER)
CONAN: Oh, effectively, thanks very a lot for that. And Heather’s level, the procedural filibuster, this has turn out to be an establishment in america Senate, the place any individual merely has to threaten a filibuster, then abruptly you want 60 votes to get something handed.
ELVING: Heather makes a classy distinction right here about completely different sorts of filibusters – refined, however one I feel we will all relate to, and that’s the distinction between truly getting up Jimmy Stewart-style and holding the ground for prolonged durations of time. Wendy Davis did this for, I imagine, 11 hours, with out the good thing about having the ability to contact a bit of furnishings to lean on, as a result of that was forbidden by the principles, denied a again brace and so forth, and compelled to make her stand on her ft.
And that form of bodily braveness I feel folks do respect. Additionally they see that there is a sure bodily restrict to it, whereas the form of digital filibuster that we have now at present in america Senate is an excuse, actually, for folks to only put the kibosh on something that they do not like and put such an unimaginable penalty when it comes to time on making an attempt to take care of it that the Senate will again off. And we see that on a regular basis.
CONAN: Do we expect Rand Paul goes to put on pink sneakers the subsequent time he tries it?
ELVING: And I ought to say Rand Paul is the final man we have seen rise up and do a multi-hour filibuster within the fashion that Wendy Davis did down in Austin, Texas. He did it as a Republican senator against a number of the makes use of we’re seeing of automated tools, drone, NSA form of surveillance and points which have turn out to be actually fairly salient since he did it.
CONAN: And I’ve to ask you, the speak of the nation at present in Washington, D.C. appears to be in america Senate, the place it seems to be as if the immigration invoice might cross as quickly as at present.
ELVING: It is a week of historic days. And the historic day within the Senate, with respect to immigration, already at present they’ve invoked cloture, ending a filibuster try – or at the very least the specter of a filibuster – with 68 votes, greater than the 60 which might be required to chop off debate. In order that makes it fairly clear the invoice goes to cross.
And afterward at present, the Senate can have its closing vote on its immigration overhaul. That is one thing kind of that is been within the works for a decade or extra, again to the final invoice of its variety in 1986. It’s fairly momentous. It might imply an important deal to a large number of Individuals and potential, potential Individuals. And it is also going to be an enormous controversy when it will get to the Home.
CONAN: The place one of many Home members of the management, the Republican management, stated at present this invoice is useless on arrival.
ELVING: As written by the Senate it’s, at this stage of the method. The query is: Will the Home cross something in any respect? If the Home passes some form of an immigration invoice of its personal, one thing it likes higher, that the Republican majority likes higher because the speaker says he will not carry the rest to the ground, then can that invoice go to a convention with the Senate? That might produce a convention report. That might come again to the Senate and – excuse me, come again to each the Senate and the Home and conceivably be handed in a bipartisan trend by each chambers.
CONAN: Within the meantime, there isn’t any option to keep away from these different historic days, the place the Voting Rights Act was basically gutted by america Supreme Courtroom, after which yesterday, momentous selections on homosexual marriage.
ELVING: That is appropriate. And curiously, for all these individuals who watch the Supreme Courtroom – notably those that watch it with some jaundiced eye – we heard a lot the identical objection to every of these selections by these whose ox had been gored.
We noticed the conservative bloc of justices – that’s to say Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy – all collectively in voting on the Voting Rights Act. And we noticed all of them collectively opposing the transfer on homosexual marriage, aside from Justice Kennedy, who simply 10 years earlier, on the exact same day – this was the tenth anniversary – had written the historic Lawrence case opinion, by which he struck down legal guidelines that banned homosexual intercourse.
That was a giant, watershed second, and at the moment, Justice Scalia stated that was an overreach and that in 10 years, we would be taking a look at legalizing homosexual marriage. Folks thought on the time Scalia was being hyperbolic. He was not solely being predictive, he was exactly predictive, to the day.
CONAN: And it is fascinating: He additionally predicted in yesterday’s dissent on the Protection of Marriage Act that it is a false entrance, and we’re simply establishing for the opposite shoe to drop and for this majority on the court docket to ban – ban bans on homosexual marriage, to legalize homosexual marriage throughout the board.
ELVING: Effectively, David Boies – who was one of many attorneys for the plaintiffs on this case, who have been making an attempt to determine a proper to marriage for homosexual {couples} – has stated that this actually does give them the chance to evaluate legal guidelines in opposition to homosexual marriage in these states which have them. I imagine it is 31 states have handed bans on homosexual marriage.
CONAN: Thirty-eight, I feel.
ELVING: Effectively, the completely different…
CONAN: Completely different ranges of ban.
ELVING: …completely different definitions of what is a ban, however an outright ban in 31. And take a look at these, and put them in opposition to the ideas that have been laid out by the court docket on this determination yesterday and say, gee, this does not appear to cross constitutional muster, in accordance with Justice Kennedy and his different 4 voters on the liberal aspect.
CONAN: And let’s get Bambi(ph) on the road, Bambi with us from Charleston.
BAMBI: Hello. Thanks a lot for taking my name on the air. So many issues within the information. I like the present, will actually miss and need I had – weren’t so many essential issues, so we might categorical sentiments alongside these traces. However I did wish to elevate the problem of the change in Voters Rights Act. As a born and raised Southerner, I’ve had the chance to stay all around the United States, and thus I garnered my liberal tendencies.
I’ve to say that till these justices stand in a voting line in states resembling South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, they’re clearly clueless. I’ve seen voters denied directions on casting provisional ballots. I’ve seen African-American voters turned away and informed they must drive to headquarters within the night – which is clearly closed – in different to get these provisional directions.
And I’ve stood ahead many instances, given directions myself or reprimanded people who find themselves not permitting legitimate IDs. It is unreal, simply blows my thoughts. Till they stand in these traces and see black voters turned away, they’re clueless as to what is going on to occur with this new deal.
CONAN: Ron, it is fascinating: To return to the opinion there – and this was, once more, Chief Justice Roberts writing for almost all, saying it isn’t a query, in fact there’s nonetheless racial discrimination on voting. He stated that may be a truth. The opposite query, although, is whether or not the idea on which this legislation is being held – and he talked in regards to the areas that had been chosen for enforcement, that had not been up to date for 40 years. And he stated that is merely now not the case if you happen to take a look at turnout figures, if you happen to take a look at the variety of African-American and minority officers who’ve been elected.
ELVING: That is proper. There was change. No query that there was change. The query is: Does that imply that the mechanism by which a lot of that change has been achieved needs to be eliminated? Or does it imply that that mechanism needs to be, in some sense or one other, altered? What does it imply? If the change that we have now seen within the final 40 years is one thing that the court docket approves and Congress approves – and Congress reauthorized this legislation again in 2006, unanimously within the Senate, and virtually unanimously within the Senate, 90 % of the Senate voted…
CONAN: Within the Home, you imply.
ELVING: Within the Home, they voted 90 % for this. So there does appear to be some approval of the change that is taken place, largely due to the Voting Rights Act. So does that imply that we should always not want the Voting Rights Act anymore, or does it imply that it is accomplished job and it needs to be retained? That is, I feel, an argument that is going to go ahead.
The opposite query is: Is it honest to only take a look at the 9 states that have been totally beneath this explicit onus of getting to take all their voting legal guidelines to the Justice Division? Elements of a number of different states needed to do it, as effectively. Is it honest to solely put them within the penalty field? Or wouldn’t it make extra sense to plot a broader system? Or probably simply say that every one 50 states must have their voting rights pre-cleared by some authority that retains the Structure of america in thoughts?
CONAN: It was fascinating, additionally, to listen to John Lewis – in fact, the member of Congress from Georgia and the civil rights pioneer – to speak about what makes us suppose that rights given can’t be taken away, take a stroll in my footwear. Bambi, thanks very a lot for the decision.
BAMBI: Thanks. I respect you addressing it.
CONAN: And a few emails on that topic. That is from Scott: As we speak, I can not assist excited about the Supreme Courtroom, which overturned key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – unspeakably unhappy. And that is from Maroila(ph) – Mavoila(ph), excuse me. It’s wonderful to me the Supreme Courtroom might really feel race is now not essential in voting points the identical week that TV meals icon Paula Deen is beneath a microscope for being a Southern belle who used racial slurs. How might there be such completely different views of the state of affairs?
We get the purpose. It isn’t fairly what the court docket dominated, however we get the purpose. It is fascinating, Ron, as we go forward, it appears to me the court docket has already determined it isn’t going to take up one other homosexual marriage case. It at present dominated there have been two potentialities on the docket, not subsequent yr.
ELVING: Not subsequent yr, though we can be taking a look at affirmative motion once more subsequent yr due to a case coming from the state of Michigan. That may give the court docket a possibility to weigh in once more on a problem that it additionally dominated on this week, sending an affirmative motion plan from the state of Texas again all the way down to an appellate court docket for one more evaluation.
There’s nonetheless some roiling on the court docket with respect to their perspective in the direction of affirmative motion.
CONAN: Ron Elving, as at all times, thanks very a lot.
ELVING: And Neal, let me simply say the moments I’ve spent talking with you in your present have been a number of the happiest moments of my working life.
CONAN: Thanks for that, Ron. We respect it.
ELVING: Going to overlook it.
CONAN: Senior Washington editor Ron Elving, right here with us in Studio 42. Once we come again, effectively, we’ll examine in with two extra NPR reporters, however extra of your calls, as effectively. What is the speak of the nation at present? 800-989-8255. E-mail us: speak@npr.org. Stick with us. I am Neal Conan. It is the TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR Information.
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CONAN: That is TALK OF THE NATION. I am Neal Conan. As we speak, for the final time on this system, we’re doing – effectively, we’re doing what we do. We’re speaking about you are speaking about round your dinner desk, within the automotive with the youngsters, as you stand in line on the grocery retailer or examine in on Twitter. It’s possible you’ll not notice it, however you have at all times helped set out agenda on daily basis. Once we refill our planning board with the subjects we’ll cowl at 2 PM Jap Time, your voices rang in our ears.
So inform us, yet another time, what is the speak of the nation? 800-989-8255. E-mail us: speak@npr.org. You may as well discover us on Twitter. That is @totn. And let’s go to Bob, Bob with us from Gainesville.
BOB: Thanks, Neal. I discover that the Edward Snowden case has definitely been the speak of the nation. However the underlying points behind this are very a lot fascinating to me and lots of others, the concept as as to if or not – what the federal government is doing encroaching on our civil liberties and studying into our telephone traces and whatnot. Whether or not or not that’s accomplished within the identify of safety is a really fascinating dialogue.
I really feel that we should always not commerce our liberties for safety, and, in fact, the precedent for this was 9/11. Many would possibly worry that we would have one other 9/11 assault, and 9/11 being the falsified assault that it was, with Constructing Seven being a constructing 47 tales tall that fell in freefall velocity in a matter of seconds, was not hit by every other airplane…
CONAN: Ah, I see we have now a truther with us.
BOB: Sure, effectively I feel that is a really derogatory time period, and maybe in your final present…
CONAN: It is derogatory since you’re speaking scientific nonsense. I’ve to – I am sorry I’ve to upbraid you – I am sorry to upbraid you. I’m sorry to upbraid you. Please, I attempt to pay attention with respect to callers, besides after they have their information flat unsuitable.
BOB: Do you suppose Constructing Seven isn’t a really telling incident, sir?
CONAN: I feel it fell for various causes, and the scientific neighborhood agrees with me. Effectively, extra to the purpose, I agree with them. What do I learn about Constructing Seven? The very fact is…
BOB: Effectively, truly, the architects and engineers all are in a consensus of…
CONAN: No they don’t seem to be, Bob, and I am sorry…
BOB: Sure, there is a group known as Architects and Engineers…
CONAN: Bob, I am hanging up on you, as a result of that is nonsense. Thanks. Let’s transfer proper alongside. Paula’s on the road with us from Tucson.
PAULA: Hello. I am glad to be on the air at present. We’ll miss you very a lot. Wendy Johnson is definitely one in all my new heroines, however residing down right here close to the border, I needed to speak a little bit bit about immigration.
CONAN: And also you’re proper on the frontline there.
PAULA: Proper on the frontline, and, you recognize, residing round and amongst many Mexican immigrants and immigrants from Latin America, you get a really completely different perspective than folks in different components of the nation. One of many issues that has actually stunned me about this entire dialogue is nobody appears to see how backwards we have now it. Even our personal senators, McCain and a few of our representatives, appear to suppose that the very first thing it’s worthwhile to is quote-unquote “safe the border,” when in reality, if we set up a guest-worker program, if we set up a manner for folks to come back right here legally, it erodes the very want for any sort of resistance to folks coming right here illegally
CONAN: I hear what you are saying, however there’s a facet of this by which at the very least some – and maybe I am studying between the traces right here – on the Republican aspect say so as to get Republican votes, we have now to have this component within the invoice, in any other case it isn’t going to get handed. And that essential component that many progressives need, the trail to citizenship for the 11 million or so already right here, that is not going to go wherever.
PAULA: Effectively, I perceive that, and I – to me, that simply factors to the dysfunction of our system and the way in which we do management on this nation. To place 20,000 extra folks down right here the place our border patrol can barely preserve the wants that it has already, after which to construct a fence that, fairly frankly, you recognize, I do not suppose you may construct a wall excessive sufficient to maintain determined folks out of this nation. And I feel it is time we realized that.
And we’re additionally – what occurs with the border fence? Moreover creating an environment of militarization and hostility and suspicion amongst folks, it’s destroying lots of very important components of our surroundings down right here. And it is a very delicate ecosystem within the Southwest.
So there are such a lot of causes to not go that path and so many causes to start out taking a look at how we will begin welcoming folks into this nation who wish to be right here, who’re contributing, who wish to work. And I assume my final level can be to all these well-meaning folks in my camp who level to the truth that Mexican laborers are prepared to do jobs nobody else needs to do, why ought to an individual must conform to do slave labor to be welcomed into this nice nation? So that is what I’ve to say. Thanks.
CONAN: Thanks very a lot for the decision, Paula. Marilyn Geewax, our senior enterprise editor for NPR, is right here. And we at all times love an opportunity to speak along with her. She joins us one final time in Studio 42. Good to have you ever with us, Marilyn.
MARILYN GEEWAX, BYLINE: Hello, Neal, it is nice to be with you.
CONAN: And this time final week, there was one thing akin to panic setting in, because it was Ben Bernanke saying, effectively, possibly by even the tip of the yr, we would be capable of begin winding down that quantitative easing, cease shopping for so many bonds and wean the system off these injections of federal cash that we have been utilizing for thus lengthy.
And abruptly, the bond market and the inventory market went (makes noises).
GEEWAX: And that huge bomb is hitting on lots of people who’re making an attempt to purchase houses proper now. Rates of interest, the long-term charges, those that you simply use to purchase a house with, 30-year mortgages, they’ve actually risen so much prior to now month. We have seen rates of interest on these dwelling mortgages go from about one thing within the vary of three and a – three-and-three-quarters of a % up, to about four-and-a-half %, even past that. Now it is beginning to appear to be it might rise up to five %.
So if you happen to have been excited about shopping for a house, possibly abruptly, understanding that your month-to-month mortgage fee goes to be $100 extra, possibly $200 extra, that is actually inflicting lots of people to both rush into shopping for a house earlier than charges go even larger, or possibly begin to change their thoughts and suppose possibly renting some time longer is not such a foul thought.
So this challenge of dwelling affordability is turning into a little bit bit extra of an issue in any case this time with low rates of interest. So I feel that is actually been the large fallout from the upper rates of interest. Whether or not or not that is a short lived phenomenon, and possibly it will simply form of die down, but it surely might begin to derail a few of this housing restoration we have seen this yr.
CONAN: And fascinating, Mr. Bernanke made this announcement as a result of he stated, effectively, you recognize, the financial system, it is getting higher. And I feel at present, we’re even seeing some encouraging employment numbers.
GEEWAX: Oh, it is at all times so sophisticated with the financial system, as a result of here is the factor: He is saying sure, the rationale rates of interest are going to begin to drift larger is as a result of the financial system is definitely getting stronger, and that is good. We would love a stronger financial system. However, you recognize, a giant a part of the rationale why the financial system is getting stronger is as a result of the housing market has been gaining.
When folks purchase houses, additionally they get landscaping companies, they usually purchase furnishings, they usually do issues that create jobs for different folks. So how do you handle to begin to elevate rates of interest to maintain the financial system on extra regular footing, to get charges again to one thing that appears extra traditionally in line? And that may be a little bit larger. 5 % is extra in keeping with what’s regular for mortgage charges.
But when the housing market will get weaker, and possibly we begin to backslide once more, and the job development that we have seen in development begins to ease off, will we get proper again into the soup? Will we slide again? You realize, Neal, it has been 4 years precisely. It was in June of 2009 that the financial system rotated and started to develop after the large plunge for the recession.
So we have had 4 years of development, but it surely’s nonetheless very weak, and lots of it’s tied to that housing market coming again. So it is a precarious second.
CONAN: Are you inspired broadly in regards to the U.S. financial system? Do you suppose that is – regular development goes to have the ability to proceed?
GEEWAX: It is such a sophisticated time proper now. Once I look out throughout it, there are such a lot of issues which might be so encouraging within the vitality sector, and my goodness, the brand new applied sciences that we’re popping out with, the brand new methods of producing, there are simply so many thrilling issues on the market, whether or not it is agricultural or simply issues which might be popping out of the high-tech sector. There’s a lot to suppose, boy, that is – this could possibly be an actual turning level. The financial system would possibly actually take off.
However then I look the opposite path, and there is nonetheless – we have got virtually 12 million folks long-term unemployed, and the – is about half of that, virtually. So it is – we have got lots of people searching for work and lots of child boomers who misplaced revenue and misplaced wealth throughout this. Individuals are transferring in the direction of retirement, a really massive cohort of Individuals.
CONAN: I want you would not point out that.
GEEWAX: Yeah, proper about – one thing like 75, 78 million Individuals are steaming in the direction of retirement. And their houses are possibly not again to the place they as soon as have been when it comes to the worth. Their retirement financial savings, after you modify for inflation, are nonetheless depressed. Lots of people misplaced jobs and took jobs for decrease pay. So you have received a giant chunk of the inhabitants transferring in the direction of retirement, not within the form of form that that they had hoped to be in.
And you continue to have an terrible lot of individuals with no jobs in any respect, or underemployed, or these long-term unemployed people. It is – it stays a really uneven and really powerful financial system, and I really feel like I would not be stunned if two years from now, the financial system’s again in a foul recession. And I would not be stunned if two years from now, development is 4 or 5 %. It, both manner, appears totally believable to me.
CONAN: Marilyn Geewax, as at all times, thanks very a lot to your time at present. We actually do respect the time you have spent with us.
GEEWAX: Oh, thanks, Neal. It is at all times simply been a pleasure and an honor to be with you.
CONAN: NPR’s senior enterprise editor Marilyn Geewax, with us right here in Studio 42. This is a few emails. The congressional gridlock and animosity is my vote for essential subject. That from Joyce. And that is from Corey(ph): I am trying ahead to the nation’s technique to speak about tax reform. It may not be as fascinating as immigration reform, but it may be simply as essential.
And that is from Victor Singing Eagle(ph): This is one thing we needs to be speaking about, seeing how native points continuously get overshadowed by bigger points. I am unsure exactly what went down, however I learn that the Supreme Courtroom made an essential ruling on the ICWA, Indian Little one Welfare Act. May help – any individual assist me perceive, as I made – I’d exit in a limb. This was an adoption case the place a toddler was put up for adoption by an Indian girl. Her father had renounced any curiosity. The Indian girl put the kid up for adoption. She was adopted by a Caucasian couple, I feel, in North Carolina, after which her father put in his declare beneath the ICWA, the Indian Little one Welfare Act.
He was given custody. The adoptive mother and father sued. Their case was upheld by the Supreme Courtroom. They will now attempt to get their custody again. It received despatched again to the courts in North Carolina. It isn’t sure that they’ll get custody, however as I perceive it, it was determined kind of on a technical foundation and never on a broad foundation. However I’ll stand corrected if I am unsuitable. Within the meantime, let’s get Claudia on the road, Claudia with us from Denver.
CLAUDIA: Hello. Neal, initially, I wish to say that I feel that is one of the best present on NPR, and I’m going to overlook you a lot on daily basis.
CONAN: Thanks.
CLAUDIA: And also you’re simply a unprecedented host. So – however I used to be calling in regards to the wildfires in Colorado, and, I imply, they’re simply devastating the state, and never solely this state, however every thing round us. The wildfires have been precipitated, to such an important extent, by beetle kill, which is attributable to the truth that we’ve not had chilly sufficient winters to kill off the beetles.
CONAN: These are bark beetles, and as you recommend, in earlier durations, they have been killed off by excessive chilly in the course of the wintertime. That chilly isn’t as chilly because it was once, and people beetles are killing massive swaths of bushes, not simply in Colorado, however throughout the West.
CLAUDIA: That is completely true. And it is – I imply, this a part of the nation is so lovely and has so many beautiful ecosystems. And what we’re seeing is a lot being burned to the bottom. One of many different issues is that individuals have determined to stay, as an illustration, within the Black Forest space in Colorado Springs. They’ve determined to construct houses there. They actually do not perceive the surroundings right here, and they also do not do something to mitigate the possibility of fireside. You realize, they maintain all these big, outdated bushes round their houses…
CONAN: As a result of they’re lovely, however they’re additionally tinder.
CLAUDIA: Precisely.
CONAN: Claudia, I can see you are having a little bit drawback together with your throat, so we’ll allow you to go.
CLAUDIA: Sorry.
CONAN: Thanks very a lot for the type phrases, and thanks very a lot for the decision.
CLAUDIA: Thanks for the present. Bye.
CONAN: We’re speaking about, effectively, what is the speak of the nation? That is TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR Information. And NPR science correspondent Richard Harris is with us. An ideal introduction, Richard.
RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: Howdy, Neal. Sure.
CONAN: And it’s on per week the place we have now seen the president of america give you an bold coverage to cut back carbon emissions. That might, in flip, scale back, we hope, world warming, or at the very least the velocity at which the Earth is warming.
HARRIS: Sure. Even possibly to a small extent. Clearly, it’s a world drawback. And if the U.S. will get on board and may be very critical about it, it could possibly make some distinction. However clearly, you want cooperation from world wide, as a result of we’re now not the main wrongdoer in emissions of carbon dioxide, however we definitely produce nonetheless an enormous quantity of it, and we’re accountable for lots of the carbon dioxide that is within the air. So it was fascinating to see this form of scattershot method that the president took to attempt to form of say what – the place can I make an effort?
And it’s scattershot, as a result of the Congress has principally determined they don’t seem to be going to behave on this. And so the president and his workforce determined to say: Effectively, the place can we make a distinction while not having new legal guidelines, while not having Congress to be concerned? And so you find yourself with a form of spectrum of concepts that he put out.
CONAN: And lots of them concerned emissions from coal-fired crops, both new ones – and people rules, I feel, are actually accepted, and it is – as we maintain listening to, it makes it just about not possible to construct a brand new coal-fired plant utilizing current know-how.
HARRIS: Proper. And people rules are nonetheless within the works. They have been proposed and introduced again – pulled again a little bit bit, however he known as for them to maneuver ahead once more and be finalized later this yr, after which to use that very same customary to energy crops which might be current…
CONAN: Current, yeah.
HARRIS: …energy crops. And that is a tough one, as a result of he did not specify how a lot they must be reined in, but it surely’s extraordinarily tough, if not not possible, usually, to take carbon dioxide from an influence plant and scale back it in any vital manner. There are some actually soiled energy crops that you may enhance considerably, however you may’t make them as clear as pure gasoline until you do one thing tremendously dramatic, like seize the carbon dioxide and bury it underground. And that is extraordinarily costly, additionally.
CONAN: After which there was the point out of the Keystone XL pipeline, which lots of people did not anticipate. He stated we’re not going to approve this until it proves to not have a major impact on carbon emissions. And a few folks say, effectively, it depends upon the way you take a look at it.
HARRIS: Completely. That is going to be a really fascinating dialogue, as a result of that – it was – the phrases have been ambiguous, and, in fact, the Canadians instantly argued, oh, effectively, this isn’t going to considerably exacerbate local weather change. People who find themselves against the pipeline stated: What are you speaking about? You would be tapping into this big useful resource of fossil fuels that actually ought to remain underground eternally. And if you happen to begin – if you happen to discover a option to carry it to the market, you will inevitably going to have an effect on local weather change. In order that’s going to be very fascinating to see how that rhetorical twist will get – performs out within the coming weeks and months.
CONAN: It is so fascinating. Richard, thanks for being with us. Typically, we have now Richard when there’s some actual catastrophe happening on the earth to elucidate to us in regards to the oil leaks within the Gulf of Mexico and such issues. And that is solely a slow-motion disaster, solely a slow-motion prepare wreck. So it is at all times good to have you ever on this system.
HARRIS: It is at all times a pleasure, Neal.
CONAN: Let’s examine, yet another electronic mail, this from Alicia in Madisonville, Kentucky: I’ve heard NPR discuss elevating minimal wage and the results that may make. I, together with so a lot of my friends, are working in minimal wage or barely above minimal wage jobs. We now have bachelor levels, or larger. We’re having such problem discovering full-time work the place we will make a residing. Most of us must take out scholar loans to get this schooling. Now we’re unable to pay it again. What are we to do?
And this from Darren(ph): I can not imagine the starvation strike in Guantanamo Bay has been happening since February. The vast majority of Individuals do not appear to know or care that most of the folks we’re detaining have been cleared of any wrongdoing, but are being held indefinitely. The latest use of metal-tip feeding tubes for placing detainees to demoralize them makes me ashamed of my nation and my president.
There are such a lot of individuals who wrote. There are such a lot of we known as. I am sorry we’re not going to have the ability to get to extra of your calls at present. And thanks a lot for carrying sufficient to contact us. Once we come again after a brief break, we will be speaking with David Ellis Dickerson from Greeting Card Emergency, so electronic mail us. What’s one of the best goodbye card you ever received? That is at speak@npr.org, or give us a name: 800-989-8255. Stick with us. I am Neal Conan. It is the TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR Information.
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