Force Change

McCain and Obama miss Senate vote on extending solar and wind tax credits

The Mustache (as Grist.org has taken to calling Tom Friedman) had a column in the NY Times this week about Senator McCain’s failure to show up for all 8 of the votes in the Senate for a bill to renew the tax credits for wind and solar power.  Due to strong Republican opposition to the bill, it has stalled, and we are now facing a situation where these tax credits will expire at the end of the year.  If this happens, it will be a major setback for attempts to build a meaningful renewable energy industry in our country. 

McCain, who has faced significant criticism this year for his voting record (or lack thereof) on the environment, continues to emphasize his green credentials, even showing majestic images of windmills in his campaign commercials running this week during the Olympics.  However, as Friedman points out, not only did McCain not vote all eight times on this issue, but for one of them, “he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote.”  

With that said, Senator Obama has proved only slightly more genuine on this matter, having missed the most recent vote on July 30, but making the previous three.  However, given how the candidates have been wasting their time bickering over tire pressure and off-shore drilling lately, it is funny (and sad) to see that not only are they not voting to support their positions, but their campaigns are using almost identical windmill footage to promote those “policies.”

The Mustache really puts it best by stating:

Without taxing fossil fuels so they become more expensive and giving subsidies to renewable fuels so they become more competitive - and changing regulations so more people and companies have an interest in energy efficiency - we will not get innovation in clean power at the scale we need.

That is what this election should be focusing on. Everything else is just bogus rhetoric designed by cynical candidates who think Americans are so stupid - so bloody stupid - that if you just show them wind turbines in your Olympics ad they’ll actually think you showed up and voted for such renewable power - when you didn’t.

Posted in Energy, General, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Politics | No Comments »

Cost of gas in America still relatively low compared to world

As the national average price of gas continues to hover around $4 per gallon, and our politicians continue their petty tire gauge politics over who can come up with a better proposal to lower those prices, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at how our cost of gas compares to other countries around the world.  This NY Times chart, from a little over a month ago shows that we still pay substantially less per gallon than most other countries in the world.  The source of the higher costs in other countries can generally be attributed to higher gas taxes in those nations.  Many of the countries with cheaper gas, including China and Indonesia, substantially subsidize the cost of fuel. 

Clicking on the above graphic will enlarge it.

Posted in Energy, General, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Politics, Transportation | No Comments »

Obama and McCain race to the center on off shore oil drilling

Barack Obama declared this weekend that he would not be opposed to a comprehensive energy bill that included a lifting of the ban on off-shore drilling.  The McCain campaign (and rightwing bloggers) quickly accused Obama of flip-flopping, while Obama (and leftwing bloggers) defended his actions as a pragmatic means of passing an energy bill. 

While we think lifting the ban on off-shore drilling is just ignoring the elephant in the room (our over-consumption of oil), if doing so will allow Congress to pass a meaningful energy bill, then it might be worth it.  However, at the risk of sounding too cynical, the real reason Obama probably indicated a willingness to lift the ban is because of recent movements in the polls, attributed to McCain’s support of off-shore drilling.  It is election season, and both candidates are in a race towards the center.

Photo credit.

Posted in Energy, General, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, San Francisco, Water Pollution | No Comments »

California to sue EPA over ship, jet and farm equipment emissions

California announced yesterday that it intends to lead a number of states in filing a lawsuit against the EPA for its failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, planes and farm equipment.  The announcement, made by Attorney General Jerry Brown, comes on the heels of a series of environmental disputes between California and the federal government.  This is also not the first dispute between the parties dealing with the EPA’s stance towards greenhouse gas emissions.

An EPA spokesman responded to Jerry Brown’s announcement by stating, this “is certainly typical of the attorney general of California.  If they don’t like how we make a decision on something, they sue and hope the courts will mandate toward their position. It works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn’t work.”

Apparently, greenhouse gas emissions from the sources in dispute here (ships, off-road engines and jets), are greater than those released by every registered vehicle in the United States.  This is clearly an important issue for state governments, and could just be the beginning of these state vs. federal government disputes, depending on the results of the presidential election.

Photo credit.

Posted in Governmental Regulations, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industrial Development, Los Angeles, New York, Politics, San Francisco, Transportation | 1 Comment »

Weekly roundup

• The Governator throws his support behind McCain despite their disagreement regarding offshore drilling.

• The City of Los Angeles decides not to follow the lead of Santa Monica and defers decision to ban plastic bags to the state.

• “This comes down to the closest thing to war, while not having war.” -T. Boone Pickens

• Cheney’s office accused of trying to alter EPA administrator’s testimony on greenhouse gases.

Posted in Energy, General, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Los Angeles, Politics | No Comments »

McCain opposes ethanol subsidies but supports cleaner coal and nuclear subsidies

The concept of unintended consequences is one that we look at frequently on this blog, with ethanol, of course, being one of our biggest discussion topics.  Sen. McCain throughout his career and on the campaign trail has claimed that he is opposed to government mandating specific solutions, opting instead for market based answers.  He has directed much of this criticism towards Sen. Obama for his support for ethanol subsidies.  However, it is not clear that McCain is completely consistent in this approach, since he has recently been advocating subsidies for cleaner coal and nuclear power. 

Of course the most obvious criticism of McCain here is for hypocrisy.  However, the more interesting question is what role should our government play in promoting alternative energy and clean technology?  We generally believe that market based solutions like the proposed cap-and-trade system are most likely to produce the best result.  However, tax breaks and subsidies may also play an important role, as they have with solar and wind energy development.  The problem is when the government’s directives result in a “solution” that may not be the most efficient or practical (as may be the case with ethanol), and we then are faced with a series of undesirable and unintended consequences.  Of course it is easy to judge, in retrospect, which solution was good and which was bad. The hard, if not impossible, part is to do this prospectively, which probably cuts in favor of market based, instead of government mandated, solutions.

Photo credit.

Posted in Energy, General, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Politics | No Comments »