Responding to Trump: The New Economies of Pittsburgh…and Paris and Paris and Paris

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ... Where Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto joined the mayors of more than 175 cities in a rebel yell that has been heard nationwide since President Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords last Thursday.

Peduto said: “As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future.” That was the general theme from a list of governors and mayors that Candidate trump would have probably labeled “Uuge”, or at the very least “Big league”.

It turns out that the Paris Agreement is not only about Paris, but Pittsburgh too. Its big-hearted, well-educated people and its vibrant, forward-looking clean economy.

There’s Paris, Texas with its amazing replica of the Eiffel Tower complete with a giant red cowboy hat on top — on the edge of the heartland of the Texas bioeconomy, which is the Piney Woods and its sandhill pine plantations. ... Companies like Enviva have built a substantial inventory of pellet plants in Southeast (acquiring Piney Woods Pellets in 2010) — whose primary customers are in the EU, where the pivot from fossil energy sources to renewable has driven up the popularity of biomass energy, ...

Paris, Tennessee — where former fire chief Don Cox was one of the participants in a landmark University of Tennessee-led R&D effort to develop bioeconomy feedstocks on the idle farmlands of Henry County.

Let’s mention Paris, Maine, the home of Hannibal Hamlin, vice-president under Abraham Lincoln. Deep in the heart of sawmill country. Where companies like Oxford Timber are developing the bioeconomy ...

What about Paris, Iowa? Not far north of Cedar Rapids where ADM has a massive corn ethanol plant, and perhaps 20 miles from the Big River United Energy ethanol plant in Dyersville. Paris is right in the heart of the strongest state in the US bioeconomy, which is Iowa ...

Paris, Oregon ... Oregon is not only home to its own Low Carbon Fuel Standard, it famously embraces sustainability ...

Paris, New York ... Mascoma had a plant there and the technology ultimately acquired by Lallemand went through its R&D paces there. There are a host of companies developing upon the infrastructure — rail, power and communications — that built up around Griffiss. These are New Economy jobs — advanced technologies. These are a hard-working people not afraid of hard work and re-inventing themselves.

There’s Paris Ohio, and Paris Wisconsin, and Paris Mississippi, and Paris Missouri (not 30 miles or so east of Hannibal, where Mark Twain’s best-loved works are set). You might know Paris Virginia if you are a Civil War buff and you’ve traveled the Thoroughfare Gap through the Bull Run Mountains.

All of them, small towns, bioeconomy based, engaged with the advanced new economy., None of them looking back with any particular fondness on the prosperous old days of the Fossil economy, since none of them gained much benefit ...

(T)hey don’t want their old jobs back, they want new, good-paying jobs that are sustainable — not just environmentally sustainable but economically sustainable too. No one is going to get much excited about investing in small towns on the basis of one US President escaping the terms of the Paris Climate Accord with the stroke of a pen — as we have seen in the past 3 days, there are too many government pens around in local, state, national and multi-national roles who are going to stroke Paris compliance right back into the equation.

It’s about the future, not the mandate — the mandate is just a toll to ensure that everyone pulls together, everyone does their share. Better together.

It’s Pittsburgh, it’s Paris, it’s us, it’s now.To paraphrase President Kennedy: Fifty years ago, the proudest boast was “Ich bin ein Berliner!” All mankind who believe in the clean economy, they are citizens of Paris, and can take pride in the phrase “Je suis un Parisien.” Or, if you prefer, “Yep, I’m from Paris, too.” READ MORE / MORE / MORE