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Environmental policy and presidential politics: An interview with David Wilhelm
Environmental issues haven’t yet come to the foreground in this year’s presidential campaign, argues David Wilhelm, one of the country’s most experienced Democratic political operatives. He argues that the environmental initiatives must be positioned as relevant to the economic lives of middle class Americans.
Wilhelm served as director of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, and as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Today, he’s a venture capitalist in his native state of Ohio, where he is involved in funding environmentally-oriented businesses. David also is a director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. We talked with him recently about energy and environmental issues in the presidential race, and his work in Ohio.
“I don’t think it’s enough to talk about global warming or energy in isolation from the day-to-day challenges that average people face,” Wilhelm said. “Those of us who care about global warming need to figure out how we can make it relevant to job creation strategies, to income-boosting strategies. We need to get people to think, ‘This is an important component of my economic future.’ ”
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February 7th, 2008 at 12:01 am
Wilhelm is a very, very smart guy, and he’s done a lot of good things over the years. Too bad he’s not with us in Chicago anymore, but hopefully he can promote change in Ohio and beyond.
He also brings up a good point about the town that re-trains former mine workers to install solar arrays and wind turbines. We need the workforce to know how to do these things so that they go beyond concept and are realized in our own backyards.