Climate Politics

Talking with voters in Nashua about the environment and the election

This is part of a series of dispatches from Melinda Henneberger, who's talking to voters around the U.S. about their views on the environment and the election.

Nashua, N.H. -- Suziana Moriera does not see soaring gas prices as all bad: "It's still not hurting enough. People complain, but it's got to hurt more" before Americans will start driving appreciably less. It's got to hurt more, she thinks, before her hometown of Nashua will ever come up with public transportation that doesn't involve "waiting an hour for a bus that still doesn't take you where you need to go."

That's why Moriera, a music teacher and registered independent whose daughter makes her living as an environmental consultant, puts green issues near the very top on the list of concerns she'll be voting on in November -- right below getting the troops out of Iraq and putting the economy back on track after what she sees as the disaster of the Bush years. ("I've had enough of the Republicans!") Yet she may well vote for John McCain for president, "even though he is in the Bush camp, and they have been terrible on the environment." Why? Essentially, because she suspects Barack Obama of being a little bit too nice a guy, a possible pushover.

Though a lot of us do seem to want a president we'd enjoy grilling out with, the less-discussed fine print on the wish list is that we want him to be the kind of good-bud neighbor who is also capable of acting like a jerk sometimes -- the dad next door who'd have no problem yelling at the kids in the party house to turn the music down, and no problem calling the cops.

"He's very much a gentleman," Moriera says of Obama -- and not at all responsible for what she saw as the sexist treatment of her first-choice candidate, Hillary Clinton. But could he be too gentlemanly? She wonders: "Does he have the backbone to deal with the huge problems he'll have to face?" So far, he has just not filled her with confidence on that score. "Obama has been flip-flopping so much, I'm not sure about him. On eavesdropping, I was shocked," she says, referring to his recent Senate vote in support of the new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Obama had promised he would help filibuster any FISA bill that gave immunity to telecommunications companies that had cooperated with the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. But then, he went ahead and voted for just such a bill. "And if he did that," Moriera reasons, "he could do other things." Come November, she may reluctantly conclude that what she sees as McCain's strength is more important than his specific stands, many of which she disagrees with: "I'll have to see."

A collection of Venerable Old White Guys weighs in on the energy challenge

High Broderism has finally and fully descended on the energy debate. The AP reports that a “bipartisan group of 26 elder statesmen” (that sound you hear is a wave of spontaneous erections from the Beltway press corps … schwing!) has sent a letter to both presidential candidates, along with members of Congress and the press, […]

Bipartisan group of House members rolls out bill for gas-price relief

A bipartisan group of six House members introduced a bill on Wed. to help reduce the gas-price pressure on Americans by investing in transit alternatives and smarter city planning. “The Transportation and Housing Options for Gas Price Relief Act of 2008” (H.R. 6495) was introduced by Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), and is cosponsored by Chris Shays […]

Senate Dems under pressure to lift ban on offshore drilling

Democrats in Congress are under increasing pressure to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling, The Wall Street Journal reported this week ($ub. req’d). Last week, some Democrats signaled that they would be willing to endorse offshore drilling. And on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he might allow voting on offshore drilling. […]

Al Gore details plan for exclusively carbon-free electricity in U.S. by 2018

In a speech in Washington, D.C., today, climate activist Al Gore called for the United States to move toward using electricity that comes exclusively from carbon-free sources within 10 years in order to stave off catastrophic climate change. “I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept […]

2.6 million acres opened to drilling in Alaska, Dems introduce Drill Act to spur production

The U.S. Interior Department announced it’s opening up some 2.6 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) to exploratory drilling. A decision on drilling in the sensitive Teshekpuk Lake area of the reserve has been deferred for 10 years, delighting many environmentalists who have advocated for its permanent protection. Bidding on leases […]

The current oil shock

This essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom's kind permission.

-----

When will it end, this crushing rise in the price of gasoline, now averaging $4.10 a gallon at the pump? The question is uppermost in the minds of American motorists as they plan vacations or simply review their daily journeys. The short answer is simple as well: "Not soon."

As yet there is no sign of a reversal in oil's upward price thrust, which has more than doubled in a year, cresting recently above $146 a barrel. The current oil shock, the fourth of its kind in the past three-and-a-half decades, and the deadliest so far, shows every sign of continuing for a long, long stretch.

The previous oil shocks -- in 1973-74, 1980, and 1990-91 -- stemmed from specific interruptions of energy supplies from the Middle East due, respectively, to an Arab-Israeli war, the Iranian revolution, and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Once peace was restored, a post-revolutionary order established, or the invader expelled, vital Middle Eastern energy supplies returned to normal. The fourth oil shock, however, belongs in a different category altogether.

Sounds like a good speech!

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, safely removed from any position from which he might actually do anything about it, discovers that climate change is real.

Taking a three-day weekend for the planet

From the Beehive State, a gratifying way to reduce energy use (and carbon emissions): Taking Fridays off. And it's mandatory. In part to deal with rising gas prices, Utah's republican governor John Huntsman introduced the measure for state employees. The move, of course, instantly reduces commutes by 20 percent.

The remaining four work days get longer -- state offices will now stay open from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. -- so that the total number of hours worked remains the same.

I'll bet there's a civic benefit too: The change may actually makes government offices more accessible by extending open hours beyond the tight 9-to-5 window that most citizens still work.

From the USA Today article:

Ex-policymakers urge current politicians to get off their asses

In order to avert “a long-term energy crisis,” writes a bipartisan group of former political up-and-ups in a letter to U.S. politicians, we must “reexamine outdated and entrenched positions” on energy. The letter, sent to Barack Obama, John McCain, every member of Congress, and all 50 governors, declares that “we must rise above partisan differences […]