Lodamun

[imperialpearl]

For the better part of the past five centuries, Lodamun has relied on fossil fuels as its primary energy source. Although one may be correct to note the series of green investment initiatives throughout the same period, the otherwise sporadic nature of these attempts has done little to shift the needle in favour of a sustainable energy transition. Fossil fuels remain entrenched within Lodamun, not only as the backbone of industrial development and economic growth, but also as a political and cultural fixture, evidenced in the existence of entities such as Federal Repositories and the Harrington Company. Yet, in recent decades, the question of Lodamun’s energy future has been reframed not solely around environmental sustainability, but also around national security and economic resilience. With the nation becoming increasingly dependent on imported energy (crude oil and natural gas) from external territories, often in distant parts of the world, some have reasoned that Lodamun has become acutely vulnerable to fluctuations in global supply chains, geopolitical tensions, and the pricing strategies of foreign and not-so-friendly powers. Notwithstanding the nation’s strategic energy, mineral and cash reserves and the relative comfort these policy tools have afforded previous administrations, there seems to be a growing consensus that the pre-existing toolkit is no longer sufficient to insulate Lodamun from external shocks, and that it may be time for the nation to reconsider its otherwise clandestine endorsement of imported energy. At a major press event at Whitehall in Kensington, President William Stedman stated that there was a need for a new compact to be negotiated throughout Lodamun, one that addresses the centuries-long calls for a just, green transition while also affording the nation greater energy security amidst an increasingly competitive geopolitical landscape.

“For decades, if not centuries, we were told that addressing the clear vulnerabilities of our nation’s addiction to imported energy would have required significant sacrifices. Sacrifice in national security, our sovereignty and that they would condemn us to a future that which philosophers describe as: Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish, and Short. Yet, this framework from which many of these talking points have originated is flawed. Our dependence on imported energy is what makes us vulnerable and susceptible to that brutish future. We need not choose between a secure future and meeting our material needs. The path to energy independence, a goal which we have aspired to since the days of [President Andrew] Neilson and [President Jared] Williams, is also the path to prosperity. By hedging our bets, as the investors do, to a green future, we will create new industries, transform our economy and rid ourselves of the vulnerabilities which have held us back. It is time that we recognise that our environmental and security goals are one and the same. We are proposing a new compact, a green compact, for a new Lodamun.”

Although the “Green Compact”, by virtue of its unveiling at a Whitehall press event, might appear to have been an initiative conceived within the President’s Economic Advisory Council or the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and Innovation, its true origins lay as part of a congressional process which began in the Joint Select Committee on Energy Security and Sustainable Growth. Chaired by Senator Samuel Harriman (DPL-SC) and populated by an eclectic mix of legislators across the political spectrum, the committee, which had been initially tasked with investigating the risks posed by Lodamun’s heavy reliance on imported energy, soon became a forum for much larger, grander discussions on the future of Lodamese energy. Through expert testimony, stakeholder consultations and regional hearings that laid bare the anxieties of workers and communities bound to the fossil fuels industry, the committee began to draft proposals that would link three principal concerns once treated as separate issues: economic resilience, national security and environmental justice. According to political analysts such as Sean Cooper and Kimberly Andrews, what set the ‘Green Compact’ apart from its predecessors was its comprehensiveness and the broad coalition which backed it from committee deliberations into mainstream congressional and political discussions. Whilst much of the committee’s work had been focused on gathering the opinions of affected persons, numerous pieces related to the Stedman Administration and the DPL’s lack of a coherent strategy on climate change and green energy were published by various media houses. This, observers noted, was particularly ironic given that Lodamun had an environmental scientist as President, yet still no clear national plan to address environmental justice or chart a path towards sustainable development.

Much of the compact’s eventual uptake by the Stedman Administration can be credited to the political manoeuvring of Senator Harriman. Viewing the gaping hole in the administration’s approach to sustainable development as an opportunity, Harriman initially proposed to reframe the Compact not as an object of the congressional cycle but as a framework to completely transform the nation, language which resonated with President Stedman’s long-held ambitions for an Andrews and Neilson-style grand economic plan. In bringing the Compact out of committee, Harriman had spent the better part of six months on a clandestine campaign to court both allies and sceptics within the Administration. It had been noted that Whitehall Chief of Staff Wilbur Collier, a college friend of Harriman, reportedly brought in President Stedman on the compact, notwithstanding his initial hesitation to the comprehensiveness of its proposed policies. “I think it’s reasonable to say that without Collier bringing in the President on the compact, it would have been dead on arrival. Although I had been making significant headway in terms of bringing Secretary [of the Interior] Foster and Secretary [of the Treasury] Strickland on board, having the President speaking on the compact in cabinet meetings certainly helped in making it easier to convince other, much more hardline sceptics,” Senator Harriman told reporters at the press event.

At the press event, Harriman noted that the Compact in its current state was not a policy proposal nor a piece of legislation but a crucial “first step” towards the realisation of the broader ambitions on environmental justice and energy security. He explained that the Compact was hinged on how the Lodamese economy and society at large would be shepherded away from its dependence on fossil fuels. “This is not a policy statement, nor is it some sort of omnibus bill. What the compact is, in its current form, is a first step towards where we want to see Lodamun in the future. It is signalling to society that achieving environmental justice and energy security would ultimately require a national undertaking to transition away from fossil fuels,” Senator Harriman explained. Public investment is likely to play a major role in the Green Compact and will likely be the bedrock upon which the initiative’s efforts towards a ‘just transition’ will be built. For the Lodamese Government, public investment is not the boogey man it is known as in other territories; outside of perhaps Kalistan’s historically socialist government, Lodamun remains the only nation on the Seleyan continent with a tenure track record of public investment. Throughout history, numerous agencies have been operationalised, with the specific intention of honing in public monies into specific projects. Agencies such as the Research Projects Administration, the Civil Projects Administration, the Federal Green Finance Corporation and the Federal Industrial Finance Corporation, to name a few, have been at the forefront of public investment initiatives over the past three to four centuries. In actualising this first step, President Stedman, Treasury Secretary Strickland and Civic Services Secretary Kenneth Meyer have stated that a potential ‘temporary’ amalgamation of the nation’s public investment agencies for the purposes of the Green Compact would be necessary.

Having shepherded the Compact into the national initiative it has become, President Stedman noted during the press event that Senator Harriman would be appointed as the ‘National Coordinator for the Green Compact’, and would head up the new national transition agency, the Corporation for Sustainable Development. Secretary Meyer clarified that the CSD would likely be anchored politically in the Executive Offices of the President, essentially making Senator Harriman an advisor/special envoy for the President. Harriman stated that although he would have to step down from his position as a senator from Newchester, he did not expect his interactions with the National Congress to be concluded. “Although I am indeed stepping down as a senator for Newchester, I don’t think it would be the end of my relationship with the National Congress. Obviously, I intend to conduct a series of ‘conjugal visits’ to continue lobbying for the Green Compact moving forward," Harriman said. Former JSCESSG General Counsel and experienced environmental attorney Carina Royce is reportedly being tapped to head up the new Office for Environmental Equity and a Justice Transition, which has been structured to aid in addressing (legally) issues related to the long-term transition away from fossil fuels. President Stedman has noted that discussions had already begun as it pertained to the initiative’s budget, which would be distributed among the various agencies involved. Initial estimates placed the special budgetary request at around 800 billion over a ‘very-long-term period’; however, some independents and DPL politicians have stated that such a figure ought to be smoothed to around 300 billion LOD. “What I can say is that those discussions are ongoing. The next time you hear about it would be, hopefully, when it is passed by the House and Senate,” President Stedman explained.