Last night I went out to Moules and Frites at Central Kitchen. Kim had searched online and recommended it. My searches came up with similar recommendations, so I headed over and ate at the bar. I was down at the end of the bar where staff chatted and I had a good discussion with some of them. It was the birthday of one of the bartenders and his girlfriend came in and talked with the waitresses about different trips that they had been taking. It helped keep the annual meeting in context.

This morning, as I walked to the convention hall I passed John from Below Boston. He is passing out Obama stickers to anyone interested. He says that he has gotten a lot of thumbs up.

I sit next to a delegation of legislators from South Africa as I have some breakfast. During the morning networking, I run into Rep. Steve Fontana and Rep. Diane Urban. They are talking with former Norwalk Mayor Alex Knopf. Mayor Knopf’s name tag also has a green ribbon indicating that he is a member of the press. He disappears before I get a chance to find out which press outlet.

For the first session, I walk past the “Public Hearing on Internet and Electronic Commerce - Breakfast”. The program describes the event as follows:

The committee will conduct a public hearing to solicit the viewpoints of consumers and industry representatives regarding NCSL’s Internet and Electronic Commerce Policy Statement.
…
Presiding: Representative Phil Montgomery, Wisconsic
Speaker: K. Dane Snowden, CTIA – The Wireless Association, Washington, D.C.
NCSL gratefully acknowledges the sort of CTIA – The Wireless Association for breakfast.

I wonder which consumers they solicited viewpoints from. Most of the sessions you have to be a registered attendee of the annual meeting to enter. I had considered seeing if they would let me testify, even though I’m here as part of the press. In the end I decided not to engage. However, it does seem like the industry representatives are all over this and there isn’t a lot of consumer viewpoints being expressed.

Instead, I go to the session, “Capital Hill Tackles Climate Change”. There was a large turn out to the Climate change session, a couple hundred people. It was even better attended than the internet and electronic commerce session. Nikki Roy, from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change spoke about the chances of meaningful climate change legislation over the next few years. A staffer for Rep. Markey spoke about climate change, and Eric Holdsworth of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) spoke about the industry’s response. EEI represents the shareholder owned utilities, which make up around 85% of the electricity generated in the United States.

He noted that in 1994 they signed a memorandum of understanding to voluntarily cut greenhouse gases. They went on to sign agreements with the Bush administration. He claimed that the EIA is projecting energy growth of 43% BY 2030. This is based on population growth and changes in energy consumption patterns. The numbers seem high to me, but I do know the assumptions that were used. Also, my assumptions are that we will see people conserving energy and finding new ways to be more energy efficient. As a side note, in the exhibition hall, America Electric Power was giving away compact fluorescent lightblubs. On the other hand, if we ever get plug-in hybrids or other electric vehicles, that could increase the demand.

He argued for an energy policy that included all the current sources of electricity. He mentioned that New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington State all have CO2 regulations in effect. He spoke about Illinois, Texas and Wyoming having Carbon Capture and Storage systems in place.

During the questions and answers, one person asked about wind. He noted that the wind is always blowing somewhere and that by putting up windmills in places like North Dakota, Wyoming and Texas considerable renewable energy could be tapped. He talked about the need for a smarter grid to get that energy from the windmills to cities where the energy demand is greater. I hadn’t really thought about the grid issues. There are enough battles over simply the placement of windmills, such as you find with Cape Wind. The issues of transmission lines, as they’ve been fought over with new lines in Fairfield County or cables going under Long Island Sound only exacerbate the issue.

All in all, the session was long on speech making, a little short on details, but did have some bright spots.