The New York Times‘ Elisabeth Bumiller says, "On the environment … Mr. McCain has strikingly different views from Mr. Bush."
Is that true?
Bush wants unstinting federal support and pork for the nuclear industry. He supports "clean coal." He is against raising CAFE standards on automobiles or boosting efficiency and performance standards on other individual economic sectors. He supports removing the moratorium on offshore drilling. He believes in appointing judges hostile to environmental regulation. He does not believe in large-scale government investment in clean energy development and deployment. He does not believe in removing fossil fuel subsidies or in offering tax credits or incentives to renewable energy. He is in bed with oil company barons.
On none of these subjects is McCain "strikingly different" from Bush. In fact, they’re exactly the same.
The difference — virtually the only difference — is that McCain supports a weak cap-and-trade system.
That’s not nothing, but relative to Obama’s differences from Bush on the environment, it’s rather short of striking.
