The Political Climate: an ongoing commentary on the NH Primary and Climate Change

Talk of global warming–or at least “energy independence,” “global climate change,” and “being green”–is in the air. From Chris Dodd to John McCain presidential candidates are unveiling their comprehensive “energy” plans (we have yet to see an actual “global warming” plan).

After debuting his energy plan at the Center for National Policy in D.C. last Friday, Dodd carried his message to voters around NH. In Plymouth he told audience members he has a plan to raise $50 billion annually by enacting a “corporate carbon tax.” He wants to make renewable fuels and new “green” technologies such as hybrid cars more affordable, and he warned people to be wary of “people who say they care about reducing carbon emissions and global warming, but aren’t willing to make the tough decisions to make it happen.” In Keene he spoke about the lack of U.S. leadership in the fight against global warming. “It was a disgrace, in my opinion, that this administration abandoned the Kyoto protocol,” said Dodd. “We can offer the world something far better than they did.”

Last Friday the Associated Press reported on Barack Obama’s “energy proposal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.” The proposal, which was delivered at UNH’s biodiesel fueling facility, mimics California’s approach. Obama talked about raising fuel efficiency standards with an overall goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in passenger vehicles by 10% by 2020. He also said we need to invest in renewable energy sources such as ethanol and cellulosic fuels. “I believe we still have a chance to pass on a planet to our children that is cleaner and safer and more prosperous than we found it,” he said. But as reported in TPC last Friday a FOTPC attending the Obama event at UNH was disappointed. If the event was really supposed to deliver an “energy proposal,” it sounds like he fell short: “he avoided getting into details using the excuse that in due time he will have lots of specifics.”

Today John McCain will deliver his “Energy and Security policy.” Although he chose to leave “global warming” out of the title, a sneak-peak of the speech (from this article in the Boston Globe) shows that McCain “is calling the United States’ foreign-oil reliance and global warming twin threats the country must aggressively confront.” We look forward to hearing the plan.

In other news…the Carbon Coalition’s Town Meeting Initiative got a shout out in Grist Magazine’s “The most sexiest greenest unlikeliest environmental stories of the year.” It may be a sort of backwards compliment, granting the initiative the superlative “Most poignant if entirely quixotic gesture.” Hey, we’ll take it, although with all this candidate talk about global warming (see above), especially with a lot of it taking place in NH, I’m not sure how “quixotic” a gesture it is.

For a good laugh you may want to check out these links. This New York Times “he said, she said” story, covers the “global warming run-in” that took place between Sheryl Crow, Laurie David and Karl Rove this weekend–Who needs Rosie’s and Donald’s public feuds when you’ve got global warming? Also, the Daily Show aired this video last week called “Apocalypse How?” which is a spoof on Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, though Frosty is sadly real.