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Trump Faces Two Big Deadlines For Impeachment Proceedings; London Terror Attack; Biden To Blitz Iowa On "No Malarkey Tour"; Giving Wildfire Victims a Home Of Their Own Again; The Global Energy Challenge. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired November 30, 2019 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[17:00:09]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Alex Marquardt, in tonight for Ana Cabrera.

The ball tonight is in the President's court. And the clock is ticking.

The President has been hit with a new impeachment deadline after the chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler informed Trump and his legal team that they have until next Friday to decide if they want to take part in any of the impeachment proceedings in that committee.

Now that includes calling witnesses and presenting evidence. In other words, exactly what the President and his team have been asking for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was no due process. You can't have lawyers. We couldn't have any witnesses.

They're not allowed to even ask a question.

Because it's the minority. We have no lawyers. We can't question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Well, now he can have all of that. But will he take up the Democrats' offer?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: Tonight, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler telling President Trump in a letter he has now until next Friday to determine whether or not he'll participate in the next round of impeachment proceedings. That's in addition to a Sunday deadline the White House was given to say if it will take part in the Judiciary's first impeachment hearing. Press secretary Stephanie Grisham had first responded to the invitation saying "Nadler's offer is being reviewed, but the President has done nothing wrong, and the Democrats know it."

REP. STEVE COHEN (D), TENNESSEE: When you complain and complain and complain and then you have an opportunity to put your story to the American public and you don't want to do it, and you don't want to be subject to cross-examination yourself, it shows you don't have a very good story and a very good defense.

MARQUARDT: This coming week the House Intelligence Committee is expected to submit to the Judiciary Committee its report detailing the findings of its eight-week long investigation which included historic public witness testimony with current and former officials with roles related to the Ukraine scandal.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: I think there's a mountain range of evidence that has come to light through public testimony, through the private depositions that I've had an opportunity to listen to.

MARQUARDT: Nadler will use the Intelligence Committee's report as a guide to help write the articles of impeachment on those Ukraine- related charges. The allegation being that the President traded a White House meeting with Ukraine and military aid in exchange for dirt on the Bidens.

Democrats are also considering additional articles including obstruction of justice based on the Mueller probe. All this as most Republicans continue to bash the process and stand by the President.

REP. JOHN KENNEDY (R), LOUISIANA: This will be the first partisan impeachment in the history of our country. I think chairman Schiff and Speaker Pelosi knew from the very beginning how they would vote and what they were going to try to prove.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: Let's bring in our CNN Political Commentators, former White House Press Secretary for the Clinton administration, Joe Lockhart; and former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings.

Scott -- I want to go first to you. We have the first deadline tomorrow night. That's whether the President and his team would participate in the first hearing on Wednesday. The President will be out of the country but he could send his lawyers.

As we just played in that sound, the President has complained about this process, calling it a sham. Now they have the chance to participate. So should they?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I've vacillated on this throughout the day. You know, I think the most likely answer is that, no, they will not participate in it because a, they want to continue to call the process a sham; and b, it's not going to change the outcome.

I mean we're on a course here for the House Judiciary Committee to report out articles of impeachment and probably in mid to late December, the House will impeach the President. And sending your lawyers to this committee isn't going to change that outcome. His lawyers can always show up in the Senate, of course and mount a defense.

So my bet is from a strategic perspective is that they do not participate with this committee. Rail against the process, rail against the partisanship and the process, and then do whatever they're going to do in the Senate.

MARQUARDT: Yes. The White House has said that they're still reviewing those letters from Jerry Nadler. Of course, much of the focus the past few weeks has been in the Intelligence Committee. The last time that the Judiciary Committee was in the spotlight was really during the Mueller probe.

And Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was critical of how those proceedings went under Jerry Nadler including moments like this one --

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FORMER TRUMP ADVISER: Could you read the exact language of the report -- sir? I don't have it available to me.

REP. JERRY NADLER (D), NEW YORK: I don't think I need do that. I have limited time. Did you meet alone with the President on that date? LEWANDOWSKI: Congressman -- I'd like you to refresh my memory by

providing a copy of the report so I can follow along.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump was hounding you about when are going to deliver that message, correct?

LEWANDOWSKI: Completely inaccurate -- Congressman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he asked you about it a few times, didn't he?

LEWANDOWSKI: No, he did not. The White House has said --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you --

LEWANDOWSKI: It's not my privilege to waive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I don't think it's anyone's privilege to waive because I don't think it exists, Mr. Lewandowski. I think the whole thing is imaginary. It's like the tooth fairy.

LEWANDOWSKI: My children were watching so thank you for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Joe -- these hearings in the Judiciary Committee are going to look a little bit different than the ones in the Intelligence Committee.

[17:04:58]

MARQUARDT: For starters, on Wednesday it's going to be a hearing basically with academics and scholars about the nuts and bolts.

What should the goals of Jerry Nadler and the Democrats be during these proceedings?

JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I think these -- these hearings in the House will look very similar to how they did in 1998. There were constitutional scholars that came in and represented both ideas, whether the Clinton case rose to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. And then there was just a little bit of back and forth between the President's lawyers and -- the House Judiciary Committee. The biggest difference, though, is that Ken Starr was the star witness.

I -- I agree with Scott that I don't expect the President's lawyers to participate in this because the -- what they want, what they don't want to do is talk about the evidence.

MARQUARDT: Right.

LOCKHART: Because the evidence is overwhelming. The evidence, if you go to the original transcript, is obvious. And all the hearings in the intel committee would just pile up corroborating evidence.

So I think what they want to do is they want to get this over to the Senate.

MARQUARDT: Right.

LOCKHART: Where -- where Majority Leader McConnell controls the process and see how they do over there.

MARQUARDT: So you think Nadler's going to try and keep it boring?

LOCKHART: I think it will be pretty boring -- yes.

MARQUARDT: I want you guys to listen to an interesting moment that happened when Fox News' Tucker Carlson was defending the President against negative media coverage. And he said this about him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Donald Trump is a salesman. He's a talker, a boaster, a booster, a compulsive self-promoter. At times he's a full-blown B.S. artist. If Trump hadn't gotten rich in real estate, he could have made a fortune selling cars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: And then Carlson went on to say that the most controversy during Trump's administration has not been when he -- is when Trump has told some whopper. It's when he's actually been telling the truth. That's when he's gotten himself into most trouble.

Scott, do you agree with that -- that he gets himself in the most trouble when he's telling the truths?

JENNINGS: I don't know how to respond to that. I don't think people tend to get themselves in trouble when they're telling the truth. I think telling the truth is always, you know, the best idea. Obviously this president has at times exaggerated and not told the truth about certain things.

So I don't know how to respond to that, Alex, except to say that in most every case in life and in politics, telling the truth is the right idea. So for every kid watching at home, when your parents ask you questions, tell the truth. Don't take your cues from politicians in Washington.

MARQUARDT: I think what Carlson's getting at there is that he really gets himself into trouble when he pulls back the curtain and what people see are -- is something rather controversial.

I want to ask you, Joe -- the Intelligence Committee is going to hand off a report of their findings of the eight-week investigation which we understand the judiciary committee will use as a guide to write these articles of impeachment.

But the Judiciary Committee may also add an article of impeachment that goes back to the Mueller probe, an obstruction of justice article. How narrow or how broad do you think this article should be?

LOCKHART: Well, I think there's been a big debate among the lawyers and the members of Congress. You know, my view is that it has to be a little wider, and it has to bring Mueller in because it -- it shows a pattern of the President. It's not just Ukraine. I mean that's an open and shut case.

But there's a pattern that goes back to the first days of the White House and the Russian interference. And Bob Mueller put ten distinct, specific examples of obstruction of justice in. So I think that will go in. I don't think they'll go into the collusion and all of that stuff.

But I think they will look at Ukraine, abuse of power, the bribery to get to the high crimes and misdemeanors. Obstruction of Congress because the -- most of the senior people at the White House haven't testified, and obstruction of justice.

MARQUARDT: Scott -- I want to ask you about something that you briefly hit on at the top. As we go forward -- is this kind of moot? Do you want to just see these proceedings sort of end the House vote and -- and get into what we think will be the inevitable next step, and that's the trial in the Senate?

JENNINGS: Yes. Look, I mean, I think we can analyze all of what's about to happen to death. But I think the outcome here is really certain. And the House is going to do what it's going do. I think the only thing I'm wondering about is are they going to get so full of themselves that they're going to add on a bunch of articles of impeachment that date back to other issues that they care about?

You know at the beginning of this, Pelosi said that it would be tightly focused and bipartisan. Well, the bipartisanship's out the window.

And so now, I'm wondering are they going to go back to the Mueller report? Are they going to get into emoluments? Are they going to get into all the other things? Are they going to get into his tweets? You know, all the things they've wanted to impeach the President for.

I'm not sure what the Democrats have to lose honestly. They're going to get all the votes they need to impeach the President. So it strikes me to that if what you're trying to do here is scratch the itch of your political base, you might as well throw on everything and get every last little bit of that itch that they've been trying to scratch since the President won.

[17:10:03]

JENNINGS: So that's what I'm waiting to see.

But yes, I think we're headed for a Senate trial and we're headed for an acquittal. And probably best for the country if we get this behind us sooner rather than later.

MARQUARDT: All right. Well, that first deadline for the President to respond to Jerry Nadler just over 24 hours from now.

Joe Lockhart, Scott Jennings -- thanks so much for joining me.

JENNINGS: Thanks -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: And coming up, stunning new video of how heroic bystanders in London subdued a terror suspect on London Bridge, using a fire extinguisher and -- get this -- a whale tusk. That story next live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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MARQUARDT: There is heart-stopping new video of the deadly attack on London Bridge. Now this video captures the heroic acts of bystanders on the bridge who confronted the knife-wielding attacker after he had already stabbed two people who later died.

Look closely, you can see there's a man there armed with a whale narwhal tusk who went after the attacker. Witnesses say that he grabbed that tusk off the wall of a historic fish market nearby as another bystander goes after the attacker with a fire extinguisher.

Moments after the attacker was wrestled to the ground, police arrived on the scene and shot him to death. He was also wearing a fake explosive vest.

[17:14:47]

MARQUARDT: Police have identified the attacker as Usman Khan. Khan was convicted in 2012 as part of a team that wanted to bomb the London Stock Exchange. U.K. officials are now facing questions of how Khan won early release from his prison last year, which allowed him to attack again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think the practice of automatic early release where you cut it instantly in half and let really serious, violent offenders out early simply isn't working. And I think you've had some very good evidence of how that isn't working, I'm afraid, with this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: And when the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the site of Friday's stabbings, he vowed to toughen up sentences.

Now a tragic discovery in Arizona. Two children missing after floodwaters swept away their car -- they have been found dead. Rescue teams are still looking for a third child. The children were passengers in a car that was attempting to cross a creek near the border with New Mexico when the floodwaters became too much. Two adults and four other children who were also in the car were able to get out safely.

Now to Texas where a mandatory evacuation order has been lifted following a series of explosions at a chemical plant. Officials are warning, though, that health concerns are far from over for those who live near the Port Neches facility.

The air is being monitored because the fires are burning chemicals that are considered to be a health hazard. Residents are also being warned to look out for pieces of asbestos that might have flown from their plant to homes during the explosions. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation.

And this year's online Black Friday shopping frenzy broke records. Americans spending $7.4 billion online yesterday. The biggest online sales ever for Black Friday. And when combined with more than $4 billion spent on Thanksgiving Day, that tops $11 billion with a b in just two days.

And shoppers are not done yet. Researchers are predicting an even bigger cyber Monday with an estimated $9.4 billion in online sales.

Coming up, Joe Biden's bus tour. The former VP barnstorming across Iowa after a recent poll showed him trailing the competition in that state. Can he turn it around? We'll have a live report. That's next.

[17:17:12]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MARQUARDT: Joe Biden has some catching up to do in Iowa, so he's hitting the open road. The former vice president is heading out on an 18-county "No Malarkey Bus Tour" across the state which will last more than a week. And so far he's been getting a warm reception.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You better give her -- (INAUDIBLE) you got to come to mine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know. I campaigned for Obama. I'm yours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Our Arlette Saenz is in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Arlette -- you just spoke with Biden. What did he have to say?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. Alex -- I did a short while ago. And I was standing there as he was interacting with that voter, and that is what Joe Biden's campaign is really hoping for with this bus tour.

They want to put him in front of as many voters as possible and have those moments of connection. That's a key trait of his that they believe is a strength heading into the caucuses.

And briefly after his events, I caught up with him on the rope line. And I asked him about the launch of that bus tour. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Is this bus tour going to turn things around for your campaign here?

BIDEN: I think our campaign's going fine. And I think it's going to help. It's just going all through the rural states. We've got to earn the votes. We've got to show up. That's what I'm doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now Biden was also asked by a reporter if he could win the nomination without winning Iowa. He said yes but insisted that he is going to win in the state here. Now this bus tour is kicking off just two weeks after our CNN/Des Moines Register poll found that Pete Buttigieg is the leader here in Iowa at this stage in the contest, and Joe Biden is battling it out with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

But he's going to be putting in the work over these next, just a little over 60 days heading into the Iowa caucuses. Right now, he's kicking off that eight-day bus tour that's going to take him to 18 counties across the state, hitting some small and rural towns, as well.

Joe Biden really trying to connect here with voters as we get closer to the caucuses -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right. Arlette Saenz -- enjoy the road trip and stay warm. Thanks very much.

SAENZ: Thanks.

MARQUARDT: And a reminder that the final presidential debate of the year is coming to CNN. The "PBS News Hour Democratic Presidential Debate" will be live from Los Angeles. You can watch it on CNN and your local PBS station. That will be Thursday, December 19th at 8:00 p.m.

We'll be right back.

[17:23:58]

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MARQUARDT: Thousands of people in Paradise, California are still reeling from last year's historic and deadly Camp Fire. One of this year's top ten CNN Heroes, Woody Faircloth, saw the disaster unfolding on TV and was inspired to do something about it. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOODY FAIRCLOTH, TOP TEN CNN HERO: As news of the fires broke and we saw more of what happened to people in the fire and how many people were impacted, that's when it really kind of hit home that, wow, this is a really big deal.

Tens of thousands lost their homes. Entire families were sleeping in their cars, in parking lots. It was total chaos.

Today, the majority are still displaced. When we actually hand over the title and the keys of an RV to someone who doesn't have a home any longer -- it's such a powerful thing to provide a basic human need. How can we not help if we're in a position to help?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Go to CNNheroes.com to vote for him, for CNN Hero of the Year, or any of your favorite top ten heroes. And be sure to join Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa when they name the 2019 CNN Hero of the Year. "CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE" airs right here on December 8th right on CNN.

That does it for me. I'm Alex Marquardt. I'll see you back here in 30 minutes.

[17:29:57]

MARQUARDT: Up next: it's the global energy challenge.

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[17:30:18] JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: Energy -- the power behind

humanity. Progress at a cost and still close to a billion of us are without electricity. As we aspire for quality and equality of life, our numbers rise. With each new generation, expectations will demand more efficient power from greener and cleaner sources.

On this journey, I'm in the United States of America to meet the visionaries and innovators who explore how to make this critical energy transition. Our very existence may depend on how we face up to the global energy challenge.

The United States consumed more energy in 2018 than ever before. 80 percent of it was generated by fossil fuels. As the world urgently debates the global energy transition, what happens in America impacts the globe.

For this nation of 330 million people, so much is at stake. The picture, complex. How to allow the economy to thrive, to raise and maintain living standards for all citizens and uphold the responsibility to the environment.

My journey begins in Midland, Texas. There is an abundance of shale oil and gas across America -- 8 million barrels produced each day. The Permian Basin straddling New Mexico and Texas is the country's most productive site. Midland is at the epicenter.

This is a critical turning point for U.S. shale. After plans for retirement, Scott Sheffield came back as Pioneer's CEO to reconstruct the company. In the last four areas alone, nearly 200 oil and gas companies in the U.S. have gone bust with over $100 billion of debt.

SCOTT SHEFFIELD, CEO, PIONEER: The Permian Basin started in the 1920s. And so we've been producing for over 100 years. And so with the recent unconventional shale revolution which started here in the Permian Basin about five or six years ago, it will allow it to last another hundred years. So we're probably about halfway through.

Before we thought we were on a significant (ph) decline until unconventional was discovered out here in the Permian Basin we're just probably 2011. But now it's going to last another hundred years.

We're at 80 billion barrels recoverable in the Midland Basin and probably about the same in the Delaware which puts us at around 160 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which is pretty close to what the numbers are in some of the Middle Eastern countries.

DEFTERIOS: How do you think you fit into the energy equation? Because there's much more awareness now to introduce solar and wind to the equation. And where natural gas fits in into the future -- say 20, 30 years from now?

M1: Yes. We're still -- in this country, we're still using about 80 percent hydrocarbons for energy use. We have some of the cheapest energy cost in the world today in this country. And it's kept renewables probably from growing faster because they have to compete with natural gas. That's their competitive nature. DEFTERIOS: Pioneer has some 6,000 wells currently in operation. Each

one is closely monitored to maximize efficiency. But fracking is not benign to the environment. Heavy water use and flaring -- the burning of excess of methane gas -- are issues still to be addressed by everyone.

M1: Pioneer has been a leader on both fronts. In regard to water, we decided to move away from fresh water several years ago. We entered into agreements with the cities of Midland and Odessa, to use their affluent water and use that to frack with.

Secondly, in regard to we take methane emissions seriously, we're the first company to start aerial flying over all of our sites, our tank batteries and our well sites. So we use a plane flying about 3,000 feet above the surface. We do it once a year.

And we have methane sensors and flare guns that we use on the local surface side. And so we try to estimate do we have any leakage going on? When we detect it, we fix it immediately.

[17:34:51]

The biggest issue in the Permian Basin today is the flaring issue, in my opinion. We're flaring about 700 million a day. It's roughly about 7 percent to 8 percent of the current gas production in the Permian Basin and it's got to stop.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEFTERIOS: Rapid growth of shale has created an opportunity for America to do what was unheard of -- export gas to global markets. For decades, these terminals on the Louisiana-Texas border handled inbound oil tanker traffic to satisfy America's thirst for energy.

But in 2016, this equation's been turned upside down. There's so much natural gas around that the U.S. exports to better than 30 countries. This vessel is headed for Chile.

ROBERT FEE (ph): Asia's the primary driver of energy demand. And a lot of our cargos, over 40 percent since 2016, are landing in Asia. So countries are trying to meet their growing energy demand and do so in a way that reduces carbon emissions and improves air quality.

And natural gas, LNG from this facility, plays an integral role, particularly compared to coal, and then also enables renewables.

DEFTERIOS: At present, America's the world's number one oil producer. But job creation and less reliance on imported crude need to be balanced with the threat to the environment.

As I leave Texas, you can see the winds of change.

In 2019 for the first time, Texas wind power outpaced coal in terms of electricity generation. The drive for more solar on the grid is under way.

To understand what determines the speed of change, I travel north to see if Wall Street is willing to continue to finance America's shale.

The growth of U.S. production in the future will depend in large part on what happens here on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange because major stock funds are looking for a higher return on their investment. And many are shying away from oil and gas now altogether.

The market cap of oil and gas companies in the S&P 500 has been cut in half already in the last five years alone.

[17:40:00]

JASON BORDOFF, CENTER ON GLOBAL ENERGY POLICY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: The pressure from investors is building on the oil and gas industry in two respects. One is to show returns from shale, and they want to see capital discipline, they want to see -- they want to see dividends paid back to shareholders and not just sort of a cycle of debt for growth and production.

And then also the investment community is asking people to show us that you can survive in a world that sees an energy transition happen, that your plans are aligned with whatever might come in the form of a long-term transition to a lowish carbon future.

DEFTERIOS: Having held senior policy roles at the White House and the National Security Council, Professor Jason Bordoff is the founding director of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy at the forefront of the energy transition.

Has the U.S. in a sense been spoiled by this prolific production that we've seen in shale over the last decade and it's stalling the energy transition here? Or is it still proceeding?

BORDOFF: The energy transition is still proceeding in the United States, but we have to recognize the scale and speed at which that's happening.

So by far renewables are the fastest growing form of energy in the U.S. Electric vehicle sales are growing quickly. The U.S. has reduced emissions more than any other country over the last decade, and that has primarily been driven by cheap shale gas. Market forces have helped allow that to happen.

But increasingly you're seeing renewables play a larger role as well, complementing the role that cheap gas has played.

DEFTERIOS: In 2018, natural gas accounted for nearly 35 percent of the net power generation in the United States, more than any other source. When it burns, it produces nearly 50 percent less carbon dioxide than coal. So as a transition fuel, it is playing a role in reducing the use of coal and lowering emissions.

The shale boom is dramatically altering the global energy landscape. And while still a net oil importer, the United States is paving the way toward energy independence.

HELIMA CROFT, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS: If you think about one basin of American production, the Permian -- the Permian would probably be the third largest member of OPEC on its own at this point. I mean we never thought -- I mean I joined the U.S. government right after 9/11.

We never thought we would have this resource endowment in the United States. We really saw ourselves as perpetually dependent on foreign supply. So this story of the explosive growth of American production has been an enormous game changer. But it's really the story of like individual companies and their entrepreneurial spirit.

DEFTERIOS: Do you make the link between global independence or growing independence and climate change?

CROFT: I do think there's this kind of general malaise about energy, about investment in energy because there's this view of maybe we're not going to need a few decades out. Maybe this is potentially a dying industry.

And so I do think that there's kind of a dark cloud hanging over the energy sector.

DEFTERIOS: Despite the storm clouds brewing for the energy sector, the federal government lacks a unified direction of action.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: More than 100 Democrats in congress now support the so-called Green New Deal. Their plan is estimated to cost our economy nearly $100 trillion.

DEFTERIOS: The rhetoric from the White House has given individual states a new sense of urgency to pursue their own green policies.

[17:43:22]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEFTERIOS: Washington, D.C. -- the seat of America's political power. We are living in turbulent times as we navigate through this global energy transition. Change is not entirely driven by the men and women who occupy Capitol Hill.

Donald Trump is the first U.S. President to tout America as the number one oil and gas producer, allowing it greater energy independence and providing an option to disengage from Middle East conflict.

But on the policy side, many wonder whether American innovation's being held back in the green economy as a result.

Former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is the founder of an organization intent on nurturing the next energy breakthroughs. He is a realist. There are no quick solutions.

ERNEST MONIZ, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF ENERGY: The carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere through a variety of processes, I actually put at the top of the list as a giant game changer. And if we have this rapid technology transformation to go to low carbon, many of those technologies depend upon a supply of critical materials and minerals and metals. But let's call it an order of magnitude increase in the supply of these minerals and metals. That implies a lot more mining activities going on. Some, you know, that's part of the underbelly of this transition.

DEFTERIOS: Give me the best examples you think -- what are the states that are really driving the energy transition and doing it well in the context of where we are today?

MONIZ: States, first of all, are really in the lead in terms of addressing -- addressing climate in the absence of any explicit climate policy at the federal level. Now clearly, states like California and New York, well and the New England region, have always been out front in terms of state energy policy, energy efficiency, low carbon, getting into carbon pricing.

When President Trump made his announcement to start the withdrawal process from Paris, a very strong we're still in movement began. And that certainly had roughly half of the governors in the United States --

BOB PEDUTO, MAYOR OF PITTSBURGH: I'm speaking out on this as mayors all across the country have already committed to following the -- the Paris agreement and will continue to do so.

JERRY BROWN (D), FORMER GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: This is a crazy decision. It's against the facts, it's against science. It's against reality itself.

MONIZ: It didn't take long for more than 2,000 businesspeople to say, you know what, we're still in, too, because handwriting's on the wall. We're going to low carbon.

The pace, the scope, the scale remains in some state of uncertainty but we're going there. So in California's case as an example, they say, ok, we're going to net zero by 2045. We looked at that in great detail at our organization energy futures initiative.

And we looked at 33 technology pathways to meeting that 40 percent reduction in just over a decade. We found that actually it could be done.

DEFTERIOS: I grew up in California. The gold rush and oil fueled past fortunes. Going forward, the California Energy Commission has declared clean tech will define its future. You have an ambitious target to go 100 percent renewable by 2045. Is it overly ambitious?

DAVID HOCHSCHILD, CHAIRMAN, CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION: So it's absolutely achievable. And to those who believe it's mythology, I would just point out what's happened in the last ten years.

[17:50:03]

HOCHSCHILD: So we've tripled renewable energy production in the state of California over the last decade, renewables have fallen radically in price. So go back to 2000, solar energy was about 50 cents a kilowatt hour. We're now getting bids of two cents a kilowatt hour. Energy surge has fallen almost 90 percent in the last decade. So there's incredible momentum in this space.

We're at 55 percent carbon free electricity on the grid today. So we're already, you know, the term alternative energy is a misnomer for renewables. We really shouldn't use that. Fossil is actually the alternative energy now.

DEFTERIOS: Hochschild has cause to be (INAUDIBLE). California is blessed with natural resources, hydropower, thousands of hours of sunlight each year, a terrain favorable to offshore and onshore winds. But infrastructure upgrades are critical to enable this energy mix of renewables and hydrocarbons to power the state.

HOCHSCHILD: You're seeing even more of a push towards clean electricity, towards clean transportation. The market here has grown for these technologies. We're adding, for example, about 20,000 electric cars to the road every month in California.

We're deploying a new program here, 200 electric buses that we're supporting for public schools around the state. So the maintenance and electric (INAUDIBLE), there's virtually nothing. And that's going to affect your respectful girl, very rapidly.

DEFTERIOS: Many see natural gas as a transition fuel. We have it in abundance in the United States. It's not going to be needed in California in your view, though?

HOCHSCHILD: The trend is very much away from natural gas. We now have more pollution coming from natural gas appliances in our buildings than it comes from our gas power plant fleet -- ok. That's probably a function of the gas power plants shrinking as more renewables come on.

We've had nine cities and one county in California since May of this year that have adopted natural gas bans on new construction or electrification preferences. We expect as many as 50 cities to adopt similar policies in the next few months.

DEFTERIOS: Citizens would need to embrace the policy. It may be easier to sway people to give up gas in their homes than change their cars. High electric vehicle costs make switching unaffordable for most Californians.

And one of our daily distractions, the hunger for content, has seen Internet traffic double since 2015. By 2025 five billion of us will be online while on the move.

Data centers are set to drive electricity consumption world wide.

[17:52:50]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DEFTERIOS: Apple, the world's first trillion dollar company claims to have become 100 percent renewable energy sourced. Their space-age HQ a testament to their intent with power to influence its global supply chain as well.

How do you define 100 percent renewable energy in practicality.

LISA JACKSON, VP OF ENVIRONMENT, POLITICAL, SOCIAL INITIATIVES, APPLE: I love your word -- practicality. Because we have to work with what we're given. And we are very much in the middle of a transition, right, to clean energy around the world.

And so what our goal has been is a couple of things. First, to add new, clean energy to the grid. So we didn't want to do this through simply offsets or renewable energy credits. Those are great tools for transition for us but we thought wouldn't it be cool if we're putting new, what we call, additionality -- additional energy on the grid?

We'd love to, whenever possible, displace dirty energy, browner sources of power like fossil fuel generation.

DEFTERIOS: is there a lot of pushback from the supply chain or do you have such a dominant position in this segment of the market that they'll follow suit if you set the example?

JACKSON: You know, I think one of the surprising things for me, at least, was how eager the supply chain is to embrace the idea of clean energy. What they don't have is know-how. So a lot of what we bring to them is, you know, know-how.

We've done it. We can show them how to do it in their country. We'll be right alongside them. Sometimes we're investing right alongside them.

DEFTERIOS: Can design and innovation be compatible with renewable energy?

JACKSON: Our approach at Apple has been to bring the same level of innovation and engineering and design to the clean energy journey as we do to our products. Recycling rare earth elements and getting those into our products. Recycling the aluminum that forms the enclosure for so many of our products.

All of those things are part of the innovation our engineers love. They love being part of rethinking what, you know, the iPhone will be as it continues to be more friendly for the planet.

DEFTERIOS: Apple is more than hardware. Products of their ingenuity and operations consume vast amounts of electricity. To mitigate this, Apple invests in its own renewable infrastructure. Solar farms like this one in San Luis Obispo powers their grid.

JACKSON: You know, America had a power system that was designed to get as many people energy as quickly as possible. And we should take a minute and realize that our energy system has been key to our success and prosperity as Americans. It is a gift that our parents and grandparents and others gave.

Investing in our energy system is much more forward-looking than defending the old systems. A new energy system is what we need.

DEFTERIOS: After this tour of the United States I could see firsthand that the energy transition is well under way. The pace will be set by the big states.

California out here in the West. New York in the East. Texas in the South. But after a quarter century of underinvestment in energy infrastructure, it is also clear that business as usual will not work especially with climate change knocking at the door.

[18:00:00]