Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader announces his presidential run, calls for carbon tax

Nader is officially in the race — and he is now the only big-name presidential candidate who supports a carbon tax. On the issues page of his campaign site, Nader also declares “No to nuclear power, solar energy first.” Only solar? Sounds like he hasn’t thought a lot about renewable energy since the ’70s.

Ralph Nader might jump into the presidential race

[UPDATE: Yep, Nader is officially in.] Ralph Nader is set to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday (as David noted), and that has tongues wagging. Might he use the occasion to announce that he’s jumping into the presidential race? As you already know, he ran in 2000, garnering 2.74 percent of the popular […]

Interviews and info on the presidential candidates’ environmental positions

Updated 22 Aug 2008   Forget boxers or briefs. You want to know about the presidential candidates’ stances on energy and the environment, right? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Compare the candidates’ green positions using our handy chart. Get a quick rundown on each candidate below, where you’ll also find links to interviews […]

Albert, Martin, and … Ralph? Solving the real energy crisis

New crises demand new modes of thought.

In the early 20th century, scientists were baffled by the paradox that the speed of light never changes, even if the observer is rushing toward the light source. Einstein resolved the crisis by redefining time from a constant to a variable.

In the mid-20th Century, America was struggling to escape its centuries-old legacy of slavery and segregation. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement found us all a way forward, by redefining racism as an assault on the souls of whites as well as blacks.

Today, America's and the world's prodigal use of fossil fuels is creating twin crises: a climate crisis from emissions of heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere, and a security crisis self-created by the industrial world's thirst for other people's oil.

We can solve both crises, but only if we relinquish deep-seated beliefs about fuels and energy. And the attitude we must fling overboard first is our sense of entitlement to cheap energy. We need to recognize that energy does not cost too much; in fact, it doesn't cost nearly enough. To preserve Earth's climate, and wrest political authority from the corporate oil barons and petrodollar sheiks, we must conserve fuel massively and permanently, starting now.

The United States, the biggest consumer of coal, oil, and gas by far, probably needs to cut back by 75% within just two decades.

Yet so long as energy is cheap it will never be conserved, except in token and totally inadequate amounts.

Energy-efficiency standards are often held out as the alternative to higher fuel prices. Standards have proven modestly valuable in some sectors, and going forward they can be a helpful supplement to price-based conservation.

But by themselves, standards will never come close to achieving the necessary reductions in energy usage. For every activity that is brought under efficiency standards, dozens of others will elude regulatory control, either through industry "gaming" or due to the creative unruliness of consumer capitalism, forever finding new ways to burn fuels.

(Cases in point: the "light truck" loophole to CAFE standards that spawned the SUV plague, and the advent of flights-by-the-hour air travel that consumes even more fuel per passenger.)

The lesson should be clear: whether the resource is muscles, water, fuel, or time, we humans squander what's plentiful and husband only what's dear.

To be sure, few people in public life have yet articulated the need to make energy expensive. One prominent advocate missing in action so far is Ralph Nader, the activist icon and two-time Green Party candidate for president.

Your Friends and Nader's

Right on, Ralph. The complaints continue to pour in: “Why are you writing columns supporting Ralph Nader? How can you actively aid and abet the election of that dolt Bush? You can think better than that.” And so does the applause: “I believe that you will never regret voting on the basis of your conscience, […]

Hitting the Nader on the Head

Wow! Did I ever infuriate my liberal friends when I said I would vote for Ralph Nader! [See Won’t You Be My Nader?.] They’ve been hammering me with earnest lectures about how every vote for Nader will help get Bush elected, and how an elected Bush will devastate the environment, enrich the rich, hand the […]

Won't You Be My Nader?

Russell Peterson, former governor of Delaware, ardent environmentalist, lifelong Republican until a few years ago when he switched to being a Democrat, was appalled when I told him I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Al Gore. Tell it like it is, Ralph. He gave me the undeniably rational argument. George W. shows no sign […]