The 2008 presidential campaign turned its focus briefly to the country’s energy future yesterday as Republican John McCain toured a plant in Portland, Oregon owned by Danish wind-turbine company Vestas, and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tried to win primary votes in the coal states of West Virginia and Kentucky.
McCain pledged to pursue mandatory U.S. curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and provide international leadership in combating global warming, if he is elected president.
If true, McCain would disprove the notion that his administration would be nothing more than a continuance of the policies adhered to by the Bush administration, which has refused to participate in international efforts to reduce global warming under the Kyoto protocol.
However, McCain’s comments drew critical responses.
Sierra Club Executive Direct, Carl Pope, said in a statement. "While Senator McCain deserves credit for his work on early global warming legislation in the Senate and for bringing attention to the need for urgent action, his plan is driven by yesterday’s solutions and they won’t solve tomorrow’s problems. The science on global warming has changed dramatically over the last five years and Senator McCain’s previous bill and current proposals are outdated and fail to provide the big changes Americans are demanding."
Barack Obama criticized McCain’s voting record in the Senate, which suggests McCain may only be saying what he needs to win votes from independents and centrist Democrats, many of whom undoubtedly have seen McCain’s numerous appearances on the popular, left-leaning "Daily Show" on Comedy Central.
"It is truly breathtaking for John McCain to talk about combating climate change while voting against virtually every recent effort to actually invest in clean energy," Obama said.
"While Senator McCain talks about the need to invest in alternative energy, he rejected the single biggest investment in renewable energy in history, including incentives that contributed to a nearly 50% increase in wind power generation last year, and he has repeatedly opposed renewable fuel mandates and higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks," Obama continued.
However, Obama and Clinton should be called to task as well for talking up "clean coal" technology to win votes in coal state primaries this week and next, while avoiding discussions of global climate change.
Brent Blackwelder, president of the environmental group Friends of the Earth, perhaps said it best: "There is no such animal as clean coal. We shouldn’t be placing our bets on coal to bail us out. We need to be looking at getting rid of coal plants."
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