Candidates Agree On Need To Address Global Warming

Continued...Both candidates have said they would grant California a long-sought waiver under the Clean Air Act allowing that state to set its own limits on automobile emissions of carbon dioxide, the main human-generated greenhouse gas. The Bush administration turned down California’s request in January.

David D. Doniger, who directs climate policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council and worked in the Clinton administration on the issue, said this simple move would set in motion a wave of pent-up state actions following California’s lead, and the resulting bottom-up pressure could force Congress to pursue a climate bill.

The same upward push could result, he said, if the next president orders the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) to regulate carbon dioxide.

The Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 ruling in 2007, rebuffed the Bush administration and said the Clean Air Act gave the agency the authority to restrict the gas.

If Obama is elected, such a move appears likely. Heather Zichal, policy director for energy, environment and agriculture for the Obama campaign, said he would reduce emissions through actions at the E.P.A. and other government agencies.

“While he strongly believes that Congressional action is needed, he is also committed to employing the considerable powers Congress has granted to the executive branch,” said Zichal. McCain has not specified whether he would seek to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

Some environmental groups say the next president could attack the energy, economic and climate problems at once with a grand program to remake the electrical grid, greatly expand sources of nonpolluting power like wind turbines and solar arrays, and boost energy efficiency.

Obama and McCain have both picked up on that theme.

When addressing energy on the campaign trail, McCain and Palin have tended to focus on expanding supplies of fossil fuels even as they mention the need for solar panels, tapping geothermal energy and the like. They call this an “all of the above” strategy.

One of McCain’s main talking points on nonpolluting energy sources is a promise to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030. End.

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Energy specialists say that is a difficult goal because of the high cost - one estimate is that each plant would cost $10 billion - and unresolved questions about where to store nuclear waste. Another issue is the lack of American expertise in building such plants after decades of opposition.

Obama has given muted support to nuclear power but has repeatedly said his prime goal is an ambitious, sustained push for efficiency and new climate-friendly technologies, like plug-in hybrid cars and improved solar panels. Among other steps, Obama would create a national project to cut energy waste with federal subsidies to insulate one million low-income homes a year.
He and McCain both continue to mention “clean coal” in the context of climate change, even though teams of researchers have concluded that investments in large-scale tests of ways to capture and bury carbon dioxide from coal combustion would be required on a scale far beyond the federal spending either candidate is calling for.

Intellpuke: I've said it before but it bears repeating: Carbon trading is a shell game - a con. It does nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it allows the major polluters to continue emitting greenhouse gases unabated. And that is not what the planet, and every living thing on it, needs.