A look at Tom Tancredo’s environmental platform and record

Update: Tom Tancredo dropped out of the presidential race on Dec. 20, 2007.

Environmental and energy issues don’t seem to be top priorities for Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo. He rarely mentions them on the stump and he doesn’t highlight them on his campaign website. When he does talk about his vision for America’s energy system, he calls for reliance on the free market rather than regulation, and — like everyone else — stresses the importance of reducing U.S. consumption of foreign oil. His lifetime voting score from the League of Conservation Voters is 11 percent.

Read an interview with Tom Tancredo by Grist and Outside.

Key Points

Says Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth is the last book of fiction he’s read.
Says global warming appears to be happening, but argues that the jury is still out on whether human activity is responsible. “There’s plenty of reliable research on both sides,” he says.
Opposes a cap-and-trade system for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Supports expansion of nuclear power, as well as storage of nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.
Supports continued use of coal as an energy source, including liquefied coal.
Supports oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore in U.S. waters.
Calls for decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.