How green is your candidate? Info on the 2008 presidential contenders

Update: Mike Huckabee dropped out of the presidential race on Mar. 4, 2008. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007, touts energy independence as one of his top priorities. He dodges the issue of whether humans are responsible for global warming, saying we don’t know for sure, but argues that we should still act to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Whenever he’s asked about climate change or the environment, he wraps in religion, saying we have a spiritual obligation to protect God’s creation. Read an interview with Mike Huckabee by Grist and Outside. Key …

This is part of a series of interviews with presidential candidates produced jointly by Grist and Outside. Update: Sam Brownback dropped out of the presidential race on Oct. 19, 2007. Sam Brownback. Photo: IowaPolitics.com “America is on the verge of an energy crisis,” Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) warns on his presidential campaign website, blaming “years of neglect and shortsighted domestic policies.” His solution? Incentivize the marketplace to develop more nuclear power, more renewables, plug-in hybrids, better biofuels, and other homegrown energy sources and technologies. Brownback has been a big advocate of ethanol and other biofuels throughout the decade he’s spent …

Update: Brownback dropped out of the presidential race on Oct. 19, 2007. Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback, who has represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate since 1996, calls for the U.S. to be “energy secure” so it won’t have to depend on unfriendly countries for oil — and touts ethanol as a homegrown solution to the problem. He calls for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, even though he’s not convinced that humans are responsible for global warming. His lifetime voting score from the League of Conservation Voters is 14 percent. Read an interview with Sam Brownback by Grist and Outside. Key …

This is part of a series of interviews with presidential candidates produced jointly by Grist and Outside. Update: Tom Tancredo dropped out of the presidential race on Dec. 20, 2007. Tom Tancredo. Photo: VictoryNH Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo — best known for his zealous opposition to illegal immigration — bills himself on his campaign website as “a solid pro-life, pro-gun, small government Republican.” What’s not mentioned on his site is anything about the environment or energy issues. (Considering that he’s got a lifetime approval rating of 11 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, perhaps that’s no surprise.) But when …

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 …

This is part of a series of interviews with presidential candidates produced jointly by Grist and Outside. Update: Ron Paul dropped out of the presidential race on June 12, 2008. Ron Paul. Photo: MyTwistedLens Enviros may roll their eyes at a candidate who dismisses the U.S. EPA as feckless and disposable, who believes all public lands should be privately owned, and whose remedy for an ailing planet is “a free-market system and a lot less government.” But Ron Paul, the quixotic libertarian U.S. rep from Texas, has a bigger cult following online than any other presidential candidate*, and has won …

Update: Ron Paul dropped out of the presidential race on June 12, 2008. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul doesn’t spend much time talking about the environment; when he does address the issue, it’s usually to say that our land, air, and water would be in better shape if the government butted out and let the free-market, private-property system run its course. Paul has represented Texas’s 14th district in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past decade, and he represented the 22nd district for about seven years in the ’70s and ’80s. In 1988, he ran for president as the …

Rudy Giuliani. Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who served as mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, talks up energy independence as a critical component of national security. He acknowledges that climate change is happening and that humans contribute to it at least to some extent, but he doesn’t often address the issue or other environmental concerns. Key Points Recognizes climate change as a problem, but opposes mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. Calls for an “intense focus” on energy independence, saying he would make it a priority to wean the U.S. off foreign oil within 10 to 15 …

Update: Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race on Feb. 7, 2008. Key PointsRepublican presidential candidate Mitt Romney isn’t convinced humans are a big contributor to climate change, but he supports efforts that would cut greenhouse-gas emissions while pushing America toward energy independence. As governor of Massachusetts from January 2003 to January 2007, he got off to a promising start on a green issues, but then repeatedly angered the state’s environmental community [PDF]. Acknowledges that climate change seems to be happening, but says it’s unclear how much humans have contributed to the problem. Calls for policies that would boost …

Update: Duncan Hunter dropped out of the presidential race on Jan. 19, 2008. Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter has served in the U.S. House since 1981 as a representative of California’s 52nd district, which encompasses areas east of San Diego. Hunter has earned a lifetime voting score of 9 percent from the League of Conservation Voters. Environment and energy issues are not mentioned on his campaign website and are not a priority in his presidential campaign. Key Points Acknowledges that global warming has occurred, but says it’s not clear how much human activity has contributed to the problem. Calls for …

Update: Fred Thompson dropped out of the presidential race on Jan. 22, 2008. Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1994 to 2003, filling a seat previously held by Al Gore — but he hasn’t followed Gore’s lead on green issues. Thompson got a lifetime voting score of 12 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, and he is not yet convinced about what’s driving climate change or what should be done about it. Thompson doesn’t talk about the environment much on the campaign trail. Key Points Says it’s unclear how or why climate change …

He brought you the seat belt. He launched a consumer advocacy empire. He got over 2 million votes in the 2000. We interview with Ralph Nader about his presidential platform.

Updated 22 Aug 2008 Ralph Nader. Though Ralph Nader is running as an independent and not under the Green Party banner this time around, he still has some serious small-G green cred (at least among those not still livid over his alleged role in Gore’s 2000 presidential defeat). In the heyday of his consumer advocacy, he and the groups he formed helped get landmark environmental and consumer-protection laws passed, including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. He has also spent decades fighting nuclear power. These days, Nader regularly decries corporate influence in government and argues against subsidies …

Cynthia McKinney. Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney sums up her energy policy with a simple, memorable rhyme: “Leave the oil in the soil.” “Right now we’ve got two energy policies in this country,” McKinney told Grist. “One is war, the other is drilling. And neither one of them works.” It’s a message she hopes will win over voters who have tired of both the Democratic and Republican parties. McKinney was a Democrat herself for years, representing Georgia’s 4th district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003, and again from 2005 to 2007. She was the first …

Bob Barr. Photo: Bob Barr for President In July, Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president, attended a big climate-change speech by Al Gore and found himself being praised by the former vice president for paying serious attention to the issue. After the speech, Barr issued a statement commending Gore for his “efforts and leadership” on global warming. But in an appearance on the Glenn Beck show just six days earlier, Barr argued that “global warming is a myth” being foisted upon the country by “internationalists” and “environmental folks.” So is Barr a climate activist or a climate skeptic? “We …