Climate Politics
All Stories
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Question
Will McCain’s “spending freeze” include spending on nuclear power and clean coal?
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While McCain and Obama squabble …
… about who supports clean energy more, Calif. governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pulling together a summit of community and local leaders from Europe, Australia, India, China, and all 50 states to discuss how best to battle climate change. This is part of the great undercovered story of the climate battle: national governments are largely impotent, […]
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Energy security came up frequently, but climate change only mentioned in passing
The first presidential debate between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama focused mainly on national security issues and the economic crisis/Wall Street bailout package. But energy issues came up a few times during the debate, with McCain and Obama squabbling over the details of how the country could achieve greater energy security. Grist’s David […]
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Candidates spar on who has most comprehensive vision
Obama said that we “have to have an energy policy to deal with not just Russia” but with other not-so-friendly regimes. He also said the United States should increase “domestic production, and yes, offshore drilling … but we only have 3 percent of the world’s oil .. we can’t drill our way out of the […]
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Debate: concessions
Okay, Obama tags McCain for voting against renewable energy 23 times, which is fine. But in the process he concedes offshore drilling, he concedes nuclear, he concedes clean coal. Why play on your opponents’ ground? Over and over again, Obama starts out by conceding and then backing away. It comes off as defensive. Argh.
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Debate: fact-checking
Check out ThinkProgress for some pretty amazing real-time fact-checking of this debate. And more at washingtonpost.com, Factcheck.org and Politifact.com.
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McCain and Obama trade jabs on energy bill and Big Oil
More on the 2005 energy bill, which came up earlier in the debate. McCain said it was “festooned with Christmas tree ornaments,” and claimed that Obama’s vote for it shows his support of excessive pork spending. McCain implied that his own vote against it was a vote against giveaways to Big Oil. But at the […]
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Debate: contempt
McCain has not looked at Obama once. Not a single time. Obama keeps talking to him, trying to engage, and McCain won’t condescend to offer him a single glance. Don’t know how it will play, but it’s pretty astonishing.
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McCain bashes bear earmark, though Palin asked for similar one for seals
John McCain called a $3 million federal earmark to study DNA of bears in Montana “criminal” (he’s criticized this particular earmark in the past, too). His running mate, however, asked for $3.2 million in federal funds to study the “genetics of harbor seals” earlier this year, among nearly $200-million worth of earmark requests. Bears? Criminal. […]
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McCain accuses Obama of not being pro-nuclear power
The candidates had a short back and forth on energy policy. Obama mentioned while he wants to “make sure we’re investing in energy … to solve this problem,” there “may be individual components we can’t do” because of a tighter budget. Then McCain talked up his own energy ideas: “We have to have offshore drilling […]
