The candidates seem to have a ‘plan’ for everything. What might their climate change action plan include? Check out our seven benchmarks for a Presidential Leadership Agenda on climate change:
1. Legislation for economy-wide emissions reductions.
2. Aggressive R&D for low-carbon technology.
3. Federal planning for climate change impacts and response.
4. Picking the right team to carry the initiative.
5. Cooperation with international partners.
6. Reallocation of budget priorities.
7. Enable/encourage citizens to take conservation into their own hands.
Senator John Edwards
How do Edwards’s climate change quotes relate to our seven benchmarks?
Read the Edwards campaign's response to our Seven Benchmarks
1. Legislation for economy-wide emissions reductions:
Cap and Trade/ 80% by 2050 - "I think we ought to cap carbon emissions in America. I think that we ought to bring that cap down, we want to reduce our carbon emissions by at least 80% by the year 2050, and then we ought to auction off below the cap the right to emit any carbon." Listen to the audio
- July 28, Dover
40mpg standard by 2016 - “A billion dollars should go to the car industry…so that we can create new, fuel efficient vehicles.” Listen to the audio
- April 2, Durham
2. Aggressive R&D for low-carbon energy technology:
"To jumpstart our investment in the future, I will create the $13 billion-a-year New Energy Economy Fund. The fund will be financed by greenhouse gas polluters through the sale of emission permits and by ending taxpayer giveaways for big oil companies, including special tax subsidies and sweetheart terms in offshore drilling leases. The resources will double the Department of Energy’s budget for efficiency and renewable energy, accelerate new energy technologies to market and help new businesses get started, encourage consumers to buy efficient products, and provide transition assistance to workers in carbon-intensive industries." Read the transcript
- Provided to the Carbon Coalition by the Edwards campaign
"At least a billion dollars ought to go to be going to the development of carbon sequestration technology, carbon capture technology."
- July 29, Bedford
$ from cap and trade auction- “It should generate thirty or forty billion dollars and that money ought to be used to transform the way we use energy: wind, solar, cellulose based bio-fuels.” Listen to the audio
- July 28, Dover
3. Federal planning for climate change impacts and response:
"The U.S. government is the nation’s single largest energy consumer, with a $15 billion energy bill in 2005. However, its investments in energy efficiency have been cut in half since 2001. Federal agencies whose work has a substantial impact on global warming should consider ways to reduce their impacts. I will overhaul federal buildings and vehicles to emphasize efficiency, reducing the use of energy by 20 percent, and expand the government’s use of renewable sources. After taking energy efficiency steps at the White House, I will purchase carbon offsets to make it carbon-neutral." Read the transcript
- Provided to the Carbon Coalition by the Edwards campaign
4. Picking the right team to carry the initiative:
"As president, I will appoint to federal leadership positions Americans who share my commitment to halting global warming and moving the United States toward energy independence. We’ve seen what’s happened in the Bush Administration to people who have tried to talk honestly about politically inconvenient subjects like climate change. I will respect the scientific method and the facts it produces, inviting dissent and debate and making policy judgments based on evidence. No ideology—and no president—should stand in the way of progress that could protect our environment. Read the transcript
- Provided to the Carbon Coalition by the Edwards campaign
5. Cooperation with international partners:
"We have a responsibility to lead the world toward a new climate change treaty that builds on the Kyoto Protocol. The first step is to make our own commitment to address global warming. The U.S. is one of only three developed nations that have refused to limit its greenhouse gas pollution. Second, to bring developing countries to the table, we should share America's clean energy technology in exchange for binding greenhouse reduction commitments. If necessary, I will insist that strong labor and environmental standards in our trade deals include commitments on climate change." Read the transcript
- Provided to the Carbon Coalition by the Edwards campaign
"We can not go to China and India and fashion a global solution to this problem until we first clean up our act." Listen to the audio
- July 29, Derry
China and India - “We want to work with you...we want to solve this problem together." Listen to the audio
- July 29, Derry
6. Reallocation of budget priorities:
"Stopping global warming is one of the great moral imperatives of our time. It has been one of the top priorities of my campaign and it will be one of the great priorities of my presidency. When I announced my candidacy, I identified only four priorities of my administration, and addressing the crises of energy and global warming was among them. As I travel across the country, I regularly tell audiences that I believe that it is time to ask the American people to be patriotic about something other than war. As I mentioned above, I will also repeal subsidies and other taxpayer giveaways for big oil companies and provide resources to build the New Energy Economy." Read the transcript
- Provided to the Carbon Coalition by the Edwards campaign
7. Enable/encourage citizens to take efficiency and conservation into their own hands:
"“So I think part of it is using the government to create financial incentives for people to conserve, but I think a second part is for the president to use a bully pulpit to push people to do the right thing because I think they’ll do the right thing if they’re pushed to do it." Listen to the audio
- August 23, Keene
“We need a president of the United States who will ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war.” Listen to the audio
-July 28, Dover
Other Global Warming Comments from New Hampshire
- Non-Renewable Energy
"We ought to invest in clean coal technology, carbon sequestration. At least a billion dollars ought to go to that." Listen to the audio
- April 2, Durham
"At least a billion dollars ought to go to be going to the development of carbon sequestration technology, carbon capture technology."
- July 29, Bedford
"We ought to ban the building of any more coal fire power plants, until and if we have carbon sequestration."
- July 29, Bedford
"I am not for liquid coal, I think the last thing we need is another carbon based fuel. I do think – and by the way I’d go further than that – I think we ought to have a moratorium, a ban on building any more coal fired power plants unless we actually have the capacity to capture the carbon which we do not have today and don’t appear to be very close to having.." Listen to the audio
- August 23, Keene
"We ought to cap, and cap means ban, any building of any coal or coal fired power plants in America unless or until they have clean coal technology, the capacity to capture the carbon that’s being emitted." Listen to the audio
- April 2, Durham
- Cap and Trade/ Carbon Tax
"We ought to auction off below the cap the right to emit any carbon. . .and that means we make the polluters pay. That's the bottom line. It should generate thirty or forty billion dollars and that money ought to be used to transform the way we use energy: wind, solar, cellulose based bio-fuels. We ought to ban the building of any more coal fire power plants in this country until we have the ability to capture the carbon." Listen to the audio
- July 28, Dover
"We ought to reduce our greenhouse gases by at least 80% by the year 2050 and I’m actually open to a more aggressive plan than that, but that’s the minimum we ought to be doing." Watch the video
- August, 23 Keene
- Fuel Efficiency
"We ought to make sure that the most fuel efficient cars are being built in America." Listen to the audio
- July 28, Dover
"At least a billion dollars ought to go to us, America building the most fuel efficient cars on the planet. We should raise fuel efficiency standards in this country."
- July 29, Bedford
"I believe that fuel efficiency standards should be at least 45mpg by the year 2016." Watch the video
- August 23, Keene
- Other
"What I have suggested is that we make grants to local community colleges and unions to be able to train workers to do these green collar jobs. Also, that we create academies within our high schools so that young people are trained and learn about this transformation."Listen to the audio
- July 28, Dover
"A billion dollars should go to the car industry…so that we can create new, fuel efficient vehicles." Listen to the audio
- April 2, Durham
"I think that if we do our transformation from carbon, oil fuels to alternative, clean, renewable sources of energy… We can create at least a million new jobs, you know they won't be blue collar jobs, we call them green collar jobs." Listen to the audio
- July 28, Dover
"I think that at the high school level we ought to create green academies, so that the young people understand the economic opportunity available to them, and have to start to develop some of the skills to be able to do that. I think that the federal government can help finance that. The federal government should also be working in partnerships with community colleges, labor unions and local groups to train those, who in fact are in the work force, to be prepared to do these green economy jobs."Listen to the audio
- Sept. 27, Durham
Nothing in Promises, Commitments & Priorities: Seeking a Presidential Leadership Agenda is meant to imply an endorsement of any candidate or political party.
