[Sosfbay-discuss] Paul Pelosi Jr.'s environmentalist leanings

[JamBoi]

Date:	Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:14:46 +0000
http://www.mensvogue.com/business/politics/lifestudies/articles/2007/04/paul_pelosi

life studies: the environmentalist Paul Pelosi, Jr., is a policy maker,
marathon runner, and carb-burning green machine.

In January, 2007, a San Francisco magazine published a photo of a young
man, his face half-obscured, under the headline "Guess Who's Reading
The Nob Hill Gazette?" Tall, trim, and blue-eyed, he looked like a more
earnest version of Luke Wilson. He may not be gracing the front page of
The Washington Post yet, but 25 people guessed, correctly, that the
mystery reader was Paul Pelosi, Jr. One of them was his sister
Christine. He has three others, including the documentary filmmaker
Alexandra Pelosi. His cousin is Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San
Francisco. His father is Paul Pelosi, Sr., the investor, and his mother
(you might have guessed) is Nancy Pelosi, the recently ascended speaker
of the House. If the Pelosis are America's new political dynasty, then
Paul Jr. is its rising prince.

Lolla-Pelosi aside, Pelosi tries to keep a low profile. At 38, he
doesn't drink, works out regularly at the Olympic Club, and, unless
business calls, which it does increasingly, sticks close to home. His
axis of leisure comprises San Francisco (hometown), Napa (the family
retreat), and Tahoe (where skiing and jigsaw puzzles are to the Pelosi
clan what touch football was to the Kennedys).

But lately, as president of San Francisco's Commission on the
Environment, a position he was appointed to in 2003 by then mayor
Willie Brown, Pelosi has been logging even more miles than he does in
marathons. "If we think there's an environmental hazard that can be
prevented, then we don't wait for that risk to emerge," he said
recently over breakfast at a Greenwich Village café. "I'm a momentum
person," he went on, ordering a breakfast of iced tea ("It's good to
stay hydrated") and a three-egg omelet, which, coming from the
food-is-strictly-fuel school of consumption, he deemed paltry. "If I
was at home, I'd have six eggs," he said. "It's like a rocket ship—you
want to have electricity in your veins." Pelosi—"Paulie" to the
family—may not be a natural-born nomad but, materially speaking, he
lives like one: specifically, in an apartment in San Francisco's Marina
district, where he abstains from using heat or air conditioning and
doesn't wash his clothes during peak energy consumption hours. He
usually takes the electric bus, but when he does drive, it's a Smart
car, a hand-me-down from Mom and Dad. The Commission on the Environment
has no legislative power, but it recommends policy to area lawmakers,
so Pelosi, who has both a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Georgetown, believes
in leading by example.

"What we try and do," he said, "is identify it on the human level. I
try and make it part of your experience, your food, your home." So far
the 
commission has succeeded in, among other initiatives, eliminating
Styrofoam takeout containers in San Francisco and securing funding for
an exploration into tidal-power turbines under the Golden Gate Bridge,
which could one day provide as much as 6 percent of the city's energy.
Pelosi would like to levy a fee on plastic grocery bags (17 cents per
bag), a plan that seems likely to pass.

It's hard to imagine Jenna or Barbara Bush, Pelosi's Republican
counterparts of sorts, asking excitedly at 8:00 a.m., "Are you familiar
with the precautionary principle?" Or "Do you know that San Francisco
recycles 67 percent of all materials it uses?" So is Pelosi bucking the

second-generation-slacker role in favor of a career in politics? He
responds with a "who me?" smile: "I think Mom handles that pretty well
at this point."—LAUREN COLLINS

___________________

JamBoi: Jammy, The Sacred Cow Slayer
The Green Parties' #1 Blogger
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com

"To the brave belong all things"
Celt's invading Etrusca reply to nervous Romans around 400BC

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)

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