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.

‘Stop Global Warming’ signs led the way to the Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris town halls in Berlin and Littleton this weekend.  An FOTPC was able to speak with Huckabee about climate change after the Berlin town hall.  Huckabee briefly mentioned energy independence and then directed the questioner to the Huckabee for President website.

Due to yesterday’s wonderful snowfall, Huckabee and Norris escaped the Granite State before they were asked what might have been the toughest question of their trip:

“Governor Huckabee, I have heard that there is no such thing as global warming.  Chuck Norris was just cold, so he turned the sun up.  As president will you ask him to turn the sun down?”

Early this morning, Senator Joe Lieberman endorsed McCain at a town hall in Hillsborough.  The duo previously worked together in the Senate on the McCain-Lieberman bill that would have set a cap on domestic greenhouse gas emissions.

The very first issue McCain talked about on the stump was climate change.  McCain briefly detailed the cap and trade legislation that he worked on with Sen. Lieberman and stressed the need for bi-partisan solutions.  McCain explained that he is a “free market” guy and would like to see a cap and trade system stimulate the market to reduce global warming pollution.  After devoting a good portion of his stump to climate change, McCain answered two further questions that were climate change-related. 

Check back for video footage soon.  In the meantime, check out McCain’s op-ed about global warming from yesterday’s Fosters. 

Yesterday’s GOP debate moderator Carolyn Washburn asked the candidates to raise their hands if they believe climate change is a serious threat and caused by human activity.  Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani were the only four candidates to raise their hands.

“I’m not doing hand shows today,” Fred Thompson objected and said that he needed a minute to explain.

McCain quickly jumped in:

“Let me put it to you this way: Suppose that climate change is not real and all we do is adopt green technologies which our economy and our technology is perfectly cable of. Then all we’ve done is given our kids a cleaner world.  But suppose they’re wrong and climate change is real and we’ve done nothing. What kind of a planet are we going to pass on to the next generation of Americans?  It is real.  We can do it with cap-and-trade, with capitalist and free enterprise motivation.”

Giuliani weighed in on the science:

“Climate change is real. It’s happening. I believe human beings are contributing to it and the way to deal with it is through energy independence…and I think that our party should embrace this as an issue for us.”

Romney was eager to jump in and share what has become his global warming catch phrase:

“At the same time, we call it global warming, not America warming, so let’s not put a burden on us alone and have the rest of the world skate by without having to participate in this effort. It’s a global effort.”

Climate change finally provided the defining moment of a national debate and it is clear that some of the leading Republican candidates were eager to talk about this issue on the national stage.

Watch the video.

Mike Huckabee met up with an FOTPC in Bow who wanted to talk hunter to hunter about climate change.  The FOTPC shared his concerns with Huckabee about the fact that there are still bears out, when they should already be hibernating for winter.  Huckabee stated “I think there’s only two of us Republicans that talk about the environment and climate change” as the two continued to talk about ducks and the troubles that global warming is presenting for hunters everywhere.

Watch the interaction on YouTube.

In Bedford, Huckabee responded to a question about renewable energy stating that “we need to revive our own economy, instead of the Saudis, and make some Americans rich.”  Huckabee noted his support for wind, solar, and bio-fuels emphasizing that he thinks they are underused in many ways.  Huckabee also voiced his support for nuclear stating that it is “a very important part because it does have the capacity to generate most efficiently and effectiely for electricity.”

Before finishing, Huckabee emphasized that “It’s not one thing that’s going to be our energy source, it’s going to be a variety of things” and joked that it will be geographic as well – focusing on bio-fuels in the mid west and wind in DC where there is a lot of hot air!

Watch Huckabee’s response

Listen to audio of Huckabee answering a question about green jobs.

Lastly, Huckabee responded to a question on oil subsidies: 

“We are a true energy dependent country in a most dramatic way when it comes to oil.  I think we need to not have subsidies for the oil companies, we need to be subsidizing domestically produced, alternative sources of energy.”

Watch the video.