Energy & Environment
Posted by richh19 on October 12, 2008
Summary
Republican John McCain has taken great pains to separate his environmental positions from those of President Bush and other conservatives. In 2003, McCain co-authored the first proposed legislation in the Senate for mandatory greenhouse gas reductions, and he was the only Republican presidential candidate to call for mandatory limits on emissions during the primary campaign.
However, many environmentalists are wary of McCain. “We never know where he’s going to come from,” Debbie Sease, the legislative director of the Sierra Club told the New Republic. “As a general rule, on land and conservation issues … he tends to be pretty good. But he’s a doctrinaire conservative on the role of government in protecting people from pollution.”
Like Democrat Barack Obama, McCain has called for development of alternative energy sources. But Obama wants to cut emissions faster and sees a bigger role than McCain for government subsidies in the development of alternative fuel sources. Both have said nuclear power must have a role in fighting global warming, although Obama opposes the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository, which McCain favors.
McCain has a lifetime rating of 24 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group, with a 0 percent score in 2007. Obama has an 86% lifetime score from the group, though he dropped to 67% in 2007 due to missed votes related to his campaign schedule. The average score for Congress in 2007 was 53%.
“Overall, it seems pretty clear that Obama is the more environmentally-oriented candidate,” wrote in The New York Observer. “Perhaps more importantly, the hard core opposition to enhanced environmental protection and renewable energy comes from the conservative wing of the Republican party. Should McCain win, he will owe them more than Obama would.”
Sources: Wall Street Journal New Scientist The New York Observer The New York TimesLeague of Conservation Voters comparison chart CNN Election Center
McCain campaign website Obama campaign website
Gas Prices & Fuel Efficiency
John McCain:
Sen. McCain supports a suspension of the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax (24.4 cents-per-gallon for diesel) from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Some critics say the cut would encourage motorists to drive more and use more fuel.
McCain opposes a windfall profits tax on oil companies.
Barack Obama
Obama opposes a suspension in the tax, contending it would save the average American only half a tank of gas while draining money from the federal government’s highway trust fund. As an Illinois legislator, Obama voted for a holiday from the state gas tax. But he said it did not help consumers and cost the state money. “I learned from that mistake.” He said during an August 4, 2008, speech that “we should immediately give every working family in America a $1,000 energy rebate, and we should pay for it with part of the record profits that the oil companies are making right now.”
Obama wants to boost corporate automobile fuel economy (CAFE) standards by 4% per year. Obama says that a CAFE of 43 miles per gallon would eliminate the need for all of the oil imported from the Middle East.
Sources: Wall Street Journal Earth2tech.com CNN Election Center
Drilling in Alaska National Wildlife Preserve
John McCain
Opposes, but has indicated he might reconsider. (Vice President nominee Sarah Palin supports drilling in ANWR and has said she will lobby McCain to change his position.)
Barack Obama
Opposes
Sources: New ScientistExpanding Off-shore Drilling
John McCain
McCain supports aggressive offshore drilling and plans to expand the exploration and production of domestic oil and natural gas. His position sparked chants of “Drill baby Drill!” at the Republican convention.
Barack Obama
Obama initially opposed an expansion of drilling, saying it would do nothing to reduce gas prices in the short-term. However, as polls showed widespread support for drilling, Obama softened his opposition, saying he would support limited outer-continental shelf drilling.
Sources: New ScientistTo explore further: Candidates Clash On Impact Of Offshore Drilling (NPR Audio)
CO2 emission controls
John McCain
McCain pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and to 60% below 1990 levels by 2050.
McCain believes the U.S. should not sign an international climate treaty unless China and India agree to participate, contending Congress won’t approve the treaty otherwise. However, McCain has said that if the efforts to include China and India in an international treaty fail, the U.S. still has an obligation to act.
Barack Obama
Obama likewise sets a target of reducing domestic greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 but supports a more aggressive cut — to 80% below 1990 levels — these levels by 2050.
Obama says the U.S. should not wait for China and India to agree to binding emissions before it does so, but he believes that those nations must not be far behind in making their own commitments.
Sources: New Scientist“Clean” Coal
Because the U.S. has abundant supplies of coal, the notion of “clean” coal is catnip to politicians. But there is no agreement on exactly how clean coal can be made. And commercial-scale clean-coal power stations (coal-burning power stations with carbon capture and sequestration) are not expected to be commercially viable before 2020 or 2025. Moreover, many environmentalists believe the term is a misnomer because because emissions and wastes are not avoided, but are transferred from one waste stream to another.
John McCain
McCain would commit $2 billion annually to advance clean coal technology.
Barack Obama
Obama, whose home state of Illinois is a major coal producer, co-sponsored legislation that would subsidize facilities that make liquid fuel from coal, even though the Environmental Protection Agency has found liquid coal contains twice the global-warming pollution of conventional gasoline, when all of its emissions — from production through development and consumption — are measured. After environmentalists protested, Sen. Obama said he’d support subsidies for the technology only if the resulting fuel emitted 20% less carbon dioxide than conventional fuels.
Government support for investments in alternative and renewable energy
John McCain
McCain says he will encourage a market for alternative energy technologies through cap-and-trade system that would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit, similar to the acid rain trading program of the early 1990s. McCain says the virtue of this approach is that the market will decide and encourage the lowest-cost compliance options.
McCain proposes a $5,000 tax credit to consumers that purchase zero-emission cars and a $300 million prize for the the development of battery technology “that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.” He wants automakers to accelerate a switch to flex-fuel cars.
Although he supports government incentives to spur new nuclear plants, McCain has often opposed mandates, tax credits and other policies often touted by other politicians as ways to spur greater use of alternative energies and energy efficiency. “When government jumps in and distorts the market, then there’s unintended consequences as well as intended,” he says.
Barack Obama
Obama also supports a cap-and-trade system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But he favors a bigger government role in fostering the development of technologies to reduce emissions and alternatives to fossil fuels. He says he will invest $150 billion over 10 years to develop and deploy renewable energy and alternative fuels such as cellulosic ethanol that can be made from materials such as switchgrass and wood chips. He wants renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal energy, which today account for less than 1% of U.S. electricity supply, to supply at least 25% of the nation’s needs by 2025.
Sources: New Scientist Wall Street Journal McCain campaign website Obama campaign websiteExpanding Nuclear Power
John McCain
McCain says the U.S. “will not succeed in achieving independence [from] foreign oil nor…in addressing seriously the issue of greenhouse-gas emissions” without expanding its use of nuclear power, which now supplies 20% of the nation’s electricity.
McCain, who often cites the nuclear successes of Europe and Japan, wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and eventually to build 100 new plants. “The French are able to generate 80 percent of their electricity with nuclear power. There’s no reason why America shouldn’t,” he said.
McCain has introduced and voted for legislation that gives the nuclear industry billions in subsidies and federal loan guarantees.
McCain believes that nuclear waste could be safely stored at the Department of Energy’s proposed underground nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Barack Obama
Obama says it will be difficult to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions including nuclear power “as part of the energy mix.” However, Obama opposes Yucca Mountain as a permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste and says there should be no new plants until the waste problem is solved. If he has a better idea for where to store it, he hasn’t shared it.
Sources: New Scientist Obama campaign websiteTo explore further: Nuclear Power A Thorny Issue For Candidates (NPR Audio)
