Obama on energy and carbon emissions.
Columnist Joel Connelly at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on a speech Senator Obama gave regarding the environment during a recent visit to Seattle (aka “The Emerald City”).
In the speech Obama made some of the following key points:
- That America should be 20% more energy efficient by 2030.
- That we should achieve an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050.
- That “no business [should] be allowed to emit greenhouse gases for free [since] the polluters don’t own the sky. The public does.”
- That while every administration in the past 35 years, Republican and Democrat, have promised to materially reform our energy policy, “they all fall victim to the same Washington politics [and become] beholden to the same special interests.”
- That while atomic energy is currently “cost prohibitive” due to the expensive nature of disposing of and storing nuclear waste, that if this problem was solved, atomic energy could be an alternative to pursue because it does not emit greenhouse gases.
Generally, we have to agree with pretty much all of these points. Specifically, it is good to see Obama articulate his position that candidates always claim to be energy reformers while campaigning but once in office fail to act due to special interests and Washington politics. It seems less likely that once going on the record so clearly with this criticism that Obama would allow himself to become the exact type of politician he is criticizing. This would be too dangerous given the media’s tendency to skewer politicians who make hypocritical statements (Remember the reporting on senior Bush’s infamous “read my lips, no new taxes” statement?) Candidates are notorious for hemming and hawing in order to avoid creating a clear record that can be used against them in the future. We really like the fact that Obama was so clear on this point.
Photo by Steve Schwartz
- Similar Posts:
- Comparison of the candidates’ oil and energy policies
- Factcheck.org is great resource for analyzing candidates’ green claims
- Bloomberg compares global warming threat to that from terrorism.
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