'Journalistic omissions credit' needed

In a week that featured criticism of debate moderators' questions for lack of substance, there was a good bit of it to be found in the recent media appearances of California's former EPA secretary and environmental crusader Terry Tamminen as he continued to promote his most recent book, "Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction."

In the book, Tamminen proposes, among other things, that governments should sue (1) oil companies for doing damage similar to the harm cigarette companies cause to the health of human beings and (2) regulators under the so-called public trust doctrine for failing in their duties as trustees with jurisdiction over the air we breathe. Tamminen claims the oil companies have lied to the government. Interesting for a former cabinet secretary who is still an energy adviser to the Hummer-driving governor of the state, whose reputation on the environment Tamminen helped burnish for a time.

Tamminen left his state job in 2006 in part, he admits, because his book and the positions he holds could embarrass his former boss who has taken more than $2 million in contributions from "big oil" and continues to use a private jet to fly home to Brentwood from Sacramento. Schwarzenegger justifies the practice, his staff says, by paying for "carbon credits" to offset his polluting commuting. This is something Schwarzenegger is selling hard at the same time California and 17 other states fight the feds on greenhouse gas jurisdiction.

To be sure, Tamminen himself probably deserves a little hotter grilling about his strong support of "cap-and-trade" policy, regarding the buying and selling by polluting industries of carbon emission credits, especially since he's joined Pegasus Capital -- "aligning financial and social interests wherever possible" -- as an "operational advisor." (For his recent appearance on Fox Business News, click here.)

Still, with gas prices rising in a state that deifies the automobile, Tamminen's ideas about the problems surrounding oil policy are worth noting and discussing even if you don't believe the messenger is above reproach. (Tamminen is viewed with a little more suspicion by some California environmental groups these days than when he went to Sacramento for his support of that market approach to curbing emissions.)

I happened to catch Tamminen last Tuesday evening on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," public television's excellent news program, being lead by the skillful questioning of Ray Suarez. The interview, not to be found on your local TV news, raised a lot of issues that citizens might appreciate any news media not only corroborating, but also expanding upon.

Suarez: "[W]hat's the impact of $100-plus-per-barrel oil been on the United States?"

Tamminen: "Well, it's very significant. I think that the price of oil is one of the main drivers of what I call the Easter Island effect, which is named after that place in civilization which used up all of its resources without any thought for the future and ended up as warring tribes living in caves and resorting to cannibalism."

Tamminen went on to list a number of ways this "cannibalization" is manifested, from the need of people to have the "latest cellphone" to "seeing businesses having to cannibalize different parts of their businesses."

"In California, we've had farmers who couldn't get produce to the markets because [of] contracts that they had with truckers," Tamminen asserted. "The truckers couldn't afford to bring the produce because of the high price of diesel. And so it rotted in the fields, which then just exacerbated the problem even further, making scarce produce even more expensive."

(Did I miss this in the papers? I'm not saying it didn't happen, just that if it did, one would have thought that it would have been a pretty big story.)

Tamminen raises important questions about the true cost of what he, and his book, calls our "oil addiction."

"I mean, right now, even at $3.50 to $4 a gallon for gasoline," Tamminen asserted, "we're not paying the true cost of our oil addiction. It's probably more like $10 to $12 when you factor in the subsidies that the government provides, tax subsidies to oil companies, which hardly need it anymore, as well as the cost of health care related to air pollution for the illnesses and the deaths that are caused by this air pollution, and now the tightening noose around our neck related to climate change and the actual cost that that's having, not just to the environment, but to the economy."

Tamminen maintains that Americans never truly realize the high cost of gasoline because the price tends to drop after it reaches record highs, but Tamminen explains that the price always settles a little higher and higher each time.

Tamminen, who says he will never run for office because of the campaign finance system, also argues that oil companies have gotten a great return on their $186 million in federal campaign contributions.

"And for that," Tamminen told Suarez, "they've reaped these hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies year after year, despite the fact that the oil industry in particular is enjoying record revenues. And ExxonMobil has reported the highest quarterly net profit in the history of commerce. This is hardly a start-up industry that needs our help anymore. So I think the real issue here is people are not really aware of what's happening because of the politics."

And maybe "not really aware" because of a trend toward clinging to questions about lapel pins and how not wearing one might make you less patriotic, the kind of reporting that gets parroted on the local affiliates in reports from the syndication services the networks, though not PBS, provide. Now if only there were a "journalist omissions credit" to be purchased for not asking the tough questions on the important issues.