Mustering the political courage to act, move, decide

I had breakfast with Bill Gates the other morning. The global philanthropist and founder of Microsoft really gets you thinking.

I am sure the other 1,200 people in the hotel ballroom felt the same way. Gates was the headliner recruited to help raise money for the nonprofit Climate Solutions.

The topic was clean energy, but the fundamental insight was on making choices and acting on them to move in bold, new directions. Capacities and abilities evolve, but the willingness to move off dead center is huge.

Gates was interviewed by Jabe Blumenthal, co-president of the Climate Solutions board and a former Microsoft manager. Blumenthal poked and nudged his old boss in pursuit of answers about the nature of investment and innovation in clean energy and climate change. Blumenthal excelled.

Gates drew lines between his personal investment interests in clean energy and the mission of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Energy topics impact the poor, and the foundation focuses on their role in poverty.

Gates made a strong case for the federal government to lead and fund basic energy research. Private money is involved, including his own, but he laid out a simple truth: Vested interests will keep the energy industry doing what it does — fighting to maintain the status quo.

Gates nailed it, and not just because his pithy observation came on the 142nd anniversary of the golden spike that linked the transcontinental railway at Promontory, Utah. — a triumph of government-financed risk taking for a better future.

So the doyen of Davos got me thinking. Take all the federal money pumped into the oil industry, in the form of tax breaks, depletion allowances and other gravy, and put the savings toward energy research, not deficits.

Finance basic research on nuclear power and storage capacity for renewable energy.

Despite nuclear power's avoidance of climate-changing carbon emissions, solving the lethal legacy of nuclear waste never gets much beyond fighting over holes in the ground and creation of a petroglyph that still translates to "Run!!" in 7011.

Infuse federal dollars into a focused attempt to capture and store renewable energy when the wind does not blow to spin turbines and clouds obscure solar panels.

Spend the money on education, research and technology that will create jobs and fuel private investment in ways we cannot imagine, ala a national economy connected by rail service.

At its core this is not a partisan issue, but rather a recognition that large, basic infrastructure investments are needed to keep the country running and competitive well into the future. Not the quarterly horizons of Wall Street handicappers projecting corporate earnings.

This all gets down to choices and thinking long-term.

Difficult times focus the mind and change opinions and view points. In the midst of horrendous budget decisions in Olympia, Republican and Democratic lawmakers are finding common ground on bedrock services.

House Bill 1811 passed the House and Senate unanimously and was signed into law last week by Gov. Chris Gregoire. Desperate individuals and families will have an initial pathway to services over the phone, without trekking from agency to agency. Privacy, convenience and accountability with no added cost.

Homeless advocates are tracking renewal of real-estate document recording fees set to expire. Modest fees help finance housing security for those with the highest needs. Lawmakers understand homelessness ignores party affiliation and political geography.

A sliver of the Disability Lifeline stipend might survive to help pay rent.

Capital dollars for the Housing Trust Fund are also in play, with good reason. They leverage federal dollars and private housing funds.

The number crunching is horrific, but homeless advocates note the intensity of concern and desire for information in both parties. Failure to act has consequences.

That is the political threshold the energy issue needs to hit in Congress.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His email address is ldickie@seattletimes.com