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

Before Christmas, LCV was complaining that the media elite were dissing climate change and presidential politics.  If Russert, Stephanopoulos, and Couric won’t listen to LCV, maybe they will follow in the footsteps of one of their peers: The New York Times.

The New York Times editorial board decided to take a look at the candidates’ climate change positions in yesterday’s editorial “The One Environmental Issue.”  The editorial found that in past years Democratic and Republican strategists believed that climate change was “too complicated and forbidding an issue to sell to ordinary voters” and therefore was not an issue in 2000 or 2004 elections, but now they say, “the times have certainly changed.”

Of the Democrats, the editorial now says:

“Still, the country is a long way from a comprehensive response equal to the challenge. That is what the Democratic candidates are proposing. Senators Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, former Senator John Edwards, Gov. Bill Richardson and Representative Dennis Kucinich have all offered aggressive plans that would go beyond the Senate bill and reduce emissions by 80 percent by midcentury (90 percent in Mr. Richardson’s case), much as called for in the United Nations reports.

Internationally, the Democrats say they would seek a new global accord on reducing emissions to replace and improve upon the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Winning agreement among more than 180 nations will be slow-going, so several candidates, including Mrs. Clinton, have suggested jump-starting the process by bringing together the big emitters like China very early in their administrations.”

Two months ago, The New York Times first highlighted “the GOP Divide” on climate change after Mike Huckabee joined John McCain as the only Republicans to endorse a cap on carbon emissions.

This Times editorial described McCain as “authentic pioneer” in the senate on climate change, and “The other leading Republican candidates — Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee — talk about energy issues almost exclusively in the context of freeing America from its dependence on foreign oil. All promote nuclear power, embrace energy efficiency and promise greener technologies. Only Mr. Huckabee has dared raise the idea of government regulation, embracing, at least theoretically, the idea of a mandatory cap on emissions. The rest prefer President Bush’s cost-free and demonstrably inadequate voluntary approach, which essentially asks industry to do what it can to reduce emissions.”

When so much of the campaign news is focused on anything but the actual issues, it is refreshing to finally see national coverage of the climate issue and the presidential campaign.

Hillary Clinton’s Senior Economic Policy advisor, Brian Deese, held a roundtable with UNH research scientists and UNH Office of Sustainability faculty yesterday to discuss Clinton’s climate change policy and plan.

The UNH researchers were pleased at Clinton’s promise to restore the integrity of science.  She will ensure that scientists will be free to conduct scientific research independent of politics and that “there will be no oil lobbyist flunky rewriting climate change reports in her administration.”

The UNH staff explained that the research would need to be conducted in an Apollo-like program for clean energy.  It is not uncommon to hear about an Apollo program for energy from the candidates, but Clinton backs up her claims with specifics about the program.  She would create a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund to finance this scientific research program paid for by removing subsidies from the oil companies.

One technology of concern among the roundtable attendees was coal.  Deese explained that Clinton would prohibit new coal-fired power plants from going on-line unless every other possible way to meet electric demand and increased efficiency had been exhausted.

There seemed to be only minimal concern among the scientists about Clinton’s actual policies, but there was deep frustration that Clinton and the other candidates are not grasping the scientific urgency of this issue because they are not making climate change a national priority in their campaigns.  Clinton’s climate change plan seemed to be just another of Clinton’s many ‘plans,’ on par with her social security plan and immigration plan.

The media should take some of the blame for this by not raising climate change in debates and national interviews, but the candidates could always initiate the issue themselves.  Researcher Cameron Wake stated that there is ample opportunity to talk beyond the dark and gloomy aspects of climate change.  The issue will move into the mainstream when the candidates discuss the many success stories reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the business, corporate, and individual levels.

Deese listened intently throughout the roundtable, and hopefully Clinton begins to bring up climate change on the national stage. 

Hillary Clinton took questions at her two NH town halls this weekend and she did not have to ‘arrange’ a climate change question.  Straight from the North Pole, Santa flew down in his carbon neutral sled to ask Clinton about a new green economy.

Clinton spoke about including poorer nations in the global climate change response:

“I will say to the leaders of the most significant greenhouse gas emitting nations which includes the European Union, the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, India, South Africa, and Brazil that we have to meet every three months until we hammer this out hopefully within a year.   We don’t have any time to waste any longer.  The urgency of this is so intense that we have lost a lot of time.   We do have to reach out and include the fast developing countries, but not in a way that makes it seem like – ‘okay we got rich on the fossil fuel economy, but we don’t want you to follow our model.’   We need to be saying- ‘let’s work together, let’s experiment together.’  Let’s see this as a way of bringing the world together instead of being set one against another.   There are contributions to be made from every part of the globe to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.“

The candidates have recently been talking a lot about international climate agreements because of the Bali Summit which concluded on a more positive tone this weekend.

Senator John McCain campaigned up North this weekend and a few FOTPCs were there to ask him about his climate plans.  In Hanover, McCain once again included global warming in his stump speech to a crowd spotted with ’stop global warming’ stickers.

McCain also received a question from a teacher concerned with the “3-Cs” of climate change - crude oil, climate change, and China.  McCain responded by stressing the need for more nuclear power, new energy solutions, and international action.

In Dixville Notch, McCain again touted nuclear power as his approach to combat climate change and stressed the importance of research and development into new energy sources.  McCain also noted the importance of a bipartisan approach on climate change policy stating “I can reach across the aisle and work with the Democrats.”   

Before leaving, a FOTPC asked McCain about the upcoming climate summit in New Hampshire sponsored by Arnold Schwarzenegger and McCain responded by saying that he “never refuses the Terminator.”  So far McCain is the only candidate confirmed for the NH climate change summit.  No further details have been released regarding the event since Thursday.

Three Democrats participated this weekend in the first debate dedicated solely to climate change and energy issues.  The debate organizers invited the sixteen major candidates, but only Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton took the stage in Los Angeles for the debate.   The candidates spoke at different times to discuss their climate and energy platforms before taking questions from a knowledgeable audience.

Clinton first cited the major points of her climate change plan, Strategic Energy Fund, 80% by 2050, etc.  Clinton then offered the activist crowd a thought to take away from the forum: “There is no way that we will ever produce a piece of legislation that will get through the Congress that every one of you will agree with.”  She explained that she realized this after her failed attempt at healthcare reform as First Lady.

Edwards countered Clinton’s advice by stating “We have to ask ourselves a basic question: Are we willing to put political calculation aside and actually stand up with a little backbone for what’s right? Are we willing to say that the time for compromise and half-measures is over?”  Edwards also laid out many of his familiar policy positions for emissions reductions and creating new technologies.

The NY Times reported that Kucinich called for an abolishment of nuclear weapons and stated that environmental principles need to be worked into trade agreements.  Kucinich also noted his support for the United States rejoining the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement that limits the emissions of greenhouse gases from most industrialized countries.

Read more about the debate in the LA Times review.