Thoughts on McCain’s Environmental plan
May 13, 2008
McCain has long had a hot and cold relationship with the green movement, but maybe he’s taking a page from the California governator’s book about how to suddenly be seen as green as though it’s been a life goal.
Or maybe it was just the moment. In a wind power generation plant.
In any case, now he’s said it he’s going to have to get behind it for the rest of the election at least.
Dave Roberts points out that while better than expected, McCain’s proposals still have a long way to go.
McCain has always supported cap and trade programs and his goals are pretty much what everybody else has proposed. He looks to reduce greenhouse gas emission levels to 60% below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama’s plan of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050 .
He also wants to give away carbon offest permits (rather than auctioning them off) to get corporations with the program. What’s wrong with that idea? Well the whole idea of auctioning off permits is to limit the supply and so make it more expensive to get the permits, encouraging corporations to decrease their need for the permit. If they get them for free what exactly is the motivation? Oh, and of course they could just SELL some of them and make a boatload of money on the credits they got free from the guvmint. How very Republican.
McCain isn’t afraid to take a poke at Bush’s lack of policy though. He said “I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges” in a direct stab at Bush’s open denial then sudden revelation that global warming even exists, and McCain says he plans for the US to lead the post-Kyoto UN process and offer incentives for other countries to sign on.
Interestingly, McCain has really pushed for nuclear power in the past as a way to reduce greenhouse gasses and Ethanol, not so much to save the world, but to reduce our dependencies on foreign oil which “Makes us to vulnerable to the vagaries of foreign nations”.
Bottom line, we’ll wait and see how McCain develops his policies and really puts his policies into action. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a president who listens to the scientists instead of suppressing them.
Naaah. I’m still voting for. Obama.
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McCain still thinks nuclear power is the answer. He’s in the stone age.
nuclear power is still not the answer. Where do we put the waste? Our depleted coal mines perhaps.