RNC – John McCain on Energy and Global Warming

1 comment

August 13, 3:14 PM

by John Ryden, Global Warming Examiner

 

 

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks
to reporters during a news conference Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008, in
Birmingham, Mich. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

John McCain has his own energy plan that is likely to become a big part of the RNC party platform. John McCain doesn’t want to say no! He is supporting the Republican “All of the Above” as a solution to our energy problem. He has also pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 60% over 40 years. Obama is looking for an 80% reduction over 40 years. Both of these goals are very aggressive. Does John McCain have the plan to achieve his goal? Where’s the Juice?

Let’s put McCain’s goal into perspective. This is equivalent to:

    * Building 37.5 new nuclear plants each year.

    * Building 30,000 3 Mega Watt (MW) wind generators each year.

    * Installing 113 GW of solar cells each year.

He is a supporter of nuclear power and has proposed building 45 nuclear plants over the next 20 years (by 2030). That takes care of 2.25 of the nuclear plants each year. He now has to make up a lot of ground with other initiatives.

He does support increasing our domestic supplies of natural gas. I think you could substitute natural gas for coal for electric production, but John McCain also seems to support coal. He will commit $2 billion annually to advance clean coal technologies. That seems to contradict any plan for reducing coal. Obama is similar to McCain in his support for coal.

McCain does support more domestic drilling including off-shore drilling, mainly for improving our balance of trade and keeping more dollars in the United States. I believe that it is important for us to have a strong economy. It is from the strength of our economy that we will generate the funds to invest in our clean energy future. McCain seems to get this!

McCain is for changing our policy on Ethanol. Ethanol production today is not about the environment and global warming. It takes as much energy to produce ethanol as we get back. It does decrease our use of foreign oil, but does this by substituting natural gas for imported oil. (The natural gas is used to make fertilizer that is used to grow the corn and then natural gas is used for heat to distill out the ethanol.) McCain has also questioned the tariffs we have enacted on imported ethanol. Using food to create energy is a bad policy that raises our cost of food. It does help corn farmers with prices four times higher than a couple of years ago. McCain thinks we have gone too far and has enough courage to say so.

The problem is that John McCain has a weak voting record when it comes to energy and global warming. He voted against drilling in ANWR, which has a very high EROEI of our available oil reserves. 11 billion barrels of oil lies very close to the end of the Alaska Oil Pipeline. Prudhoe Bay oil production is declining and there is a lot of excess capacity in the pipeline. If he is for more drilling, why is he against drilling here? I just don’t believe this is any more environmentally sensitive than any other area. The only reason is that there is a lot of political opposition to drilling and he is a politician.

McCain’s voting record on providing support of clean energy like wind and solar has been weak over the years. He has worked on cap and trade legislation, but this legislation has been weak and not very well supported. Cap and Trade can be effective if the pool of available credits is strictly limited. Cap and Trade breaks down when users are allowed to create new credits so they can continue to their carbon emissions.

So what will McCain do about energy and global warming? His congressional record; as a politician seeking compromise, means that he is not opposed to renewable energy initiatives. They seem to be part of the political puzzle. He has not shown that he has a driving desire to fight global warming, but will support some carbon reduction plans to gain acceptance of comprehensive energy and climate change legislation. He just does not seem to have the vision or direction to achieve the goals he has outlined.

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