Grooming of a Politician

(Casper Star Tribune)

Grooming of a politician

By Jeremy Pelzer, Casper Star Tribune, May 17, 2010

David Wendt knows energy issues. And for years, he’s worked with multi-national corporations, government officials and other key players to build a consensus to advance green energy technologies.

Now that the Jackson resident is running for Congress on the Democratic ticket, he’s looking to apply the same consensus-building techniques to a range of other issues. His task now, though, is to learn about those issues.

As president of the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs, a global think tank, Wendt has taken a realistic, pragmatic approach to encourage the energy industry to become greener. Over the years, he’s worked with – instead of talking at – high-level business and government leaders to enact change.

He’s worked for years to promote clean energy technologies and carbon sequestration development. Particularly, he’s worked with China to promote clean coal efforts, organizing a half-dozen exchanges in the U.S. and China between policymakers and experts to address the growing issue of China’s carbon emissions.

“He does tend to get agreement on issues that are sometimes difficult,” said state Sen. Grant Larson, R-Jackson, who’s worked with Wendt on clean coal issues.

Now that he’s running for Congress against U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., one of Wendt’s main campaign points is to apply his successes in promoting public-private collaboration on energy issues to a range of other issues.

Wendt pointed to several examples of how successful such partnerships can be, including the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s and the recent partnership between General Electric and the University of  Wyoming to build a $100 million High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center in Cheyenne.

One of the most direct benefits of increasing such partnerships, he said, is that it will save the government money and help lower the skyrocketing federal deficit.

Wendt said government needs to “challenge” the private sector by setting standards for it to meet – such as reducing carbon emissions by enacting cap-and-trade legislation.

“Business has the wisdom of how do you spend our resources most cost-effectively. And they can do it better than government,” Wendt said. “But until government sets the bar, they’re not going to necessarily spend their time doing it – figuring out the cheapest way to do the most important things.”

But as he gears up for a congressional run, Wendt freely admits his main job now is to get up to speed about other issues besides energy.

“I’m going to have to be able to assimilate and become effective in a lot of other rings of policy – health, education and other issues,” Wendt said. “I can’t just talk about energy.”

And while Larson praised Wendt’s work outside of government, he said such accomplishments won’t translate well now that he’s entering politics.

“When you start getting into the political arena where there isn’t agreement, then it becomes much more difficult,” Larson said.

Contact capital bureau reporter Jeremy Pelzer at (307) 632-1244 or jeremy.pelzer@trib.com.