Another look at McCain’s position on the environment.
The New Republic had a piece analyzing Senator McCain’s record on the environment and his likelihood of being a pro-environment president, if elected. While the article doesn’t make a strong conclusion in either direction, it does give an interesting history of McCain’s positions towards the environment and it is decidedly mixed.
While McCain has often played the role of contrarian, in promoting pro-environmental positions that were unpopular at the time and unlikely to pass, he seems to be much less committed to regulations that have a real chance of success. (Which may be why the League of Conservation Voters gave McCain a zero rating on his environmental voting record last year.)
In fact, McCain missed two votes in recent months that would have shifted tax breaks from oil companies to renewable energy companies and would have boosted incentives for energy efficiency. Both of these bills failed by a single vote.
Nonetheless, McCain, along with Senator Lieberman, did play a major role in putting the proposed national cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions to the forefront of national policy. Although their original bill did not pass, the initial push for it gathered enough support that it is now assumed that it is inevitable that it will pass the next time through the Congress, which could have a tremendous positive effect on the environment.
- Similar Posts:
- McCain gets poor rating from environmental group.
- McCain opposes ethanol subsidies but supports cleaner coal and nuclear subsidies
- Factcheck.org is great resource for analyzing candidates’ green claims
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