Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.):
"Climate change is the road less traveled but he's traveled it even more than Al Gore," Graham said. "Al Gore has talked about it and deserves great recognition but he was around here a long time and never introduced a bill."
Let's see: McCain got 43 votes the first time he pushed his bill with Lieberman. He added some nuclear subsidies for the second go-round and got 38 votes. I'm not sure he can lay claim to great achievements.
The key point for me is that unlike Gore -- and unlike Clinton and Obama -- McCain doesn't support the policies needed to successfully address catastrophic climate change without devastating the economy (and without an absurd over-reliance on nuclear power):
- McCain "might take [new CAFE standards] off the books"
- McCain's crooked talk on nuclear power
- Even more doubletalk on mandates from John McCain
- Why John McCain isn't the candidate to stop global warming
- McCain's doubletalk express on global warming
Heck, McCain ramped down his talk about climate recently, even as Gore ramps up his communications effort. For the full statement by Graham, and a full rebuttal, see ThinkProgress, which has a great post that I'll just reprint below [unindented]:
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An online ABC News article on the "surrogate wars" of this year's presidential election quoted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an ardent supporter of Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) candidacy, saying that McCain has "earned a reputation ... of doing things that put the country ahead of party." As an example, Graham cited McCain's environmental record, claiming that it's stronger that former Vice President Al Gore's:
"He's not going to run away from President Bush but at the end of the day, John McCain has earned a reputation, and has the scars to show it, of doing things that put the country ahead of party," Graham said, noting McCain has differed with the party on immigration, his desire to close Guantanamo Bay, and enacting robust climate change policies.On its face, Graham's claim is laughable. But digging deeper into the substance, it rings of pure absurdity. In fact, Gore held the first congressional hearings on climate change in the late 1970s, well before McCain was even elected to Congress.
"Climate change is the road less traveled but he's traveled it even more than Al Gore," Graham said. "Al Gore has talked about it and deserves great recognition but he was around here a long time and never introduced a bill."
In 1997, Gore helped broker the Kyoto Protocol which called for nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the passing of a Senate resolution [PDF] stating that the U.S should not join Kyoto, Gore symbolically signed the protocol in November, 1998. While McCain voted for the resolution, he claims today that "we have an obligation" to cut greenhouse gases but still thinks the U.S. "did the right thing by not joining the Kyoto treaty."
Moreover, the evidence shows that McCain is confused on environmental issues. He now supports ethanol despite previously criticizing it. McCain has talked tough on capping carbon emissions but failed to even vote on key Senate legislation addressing the issue. Furthermore, he doesn't seem to understand his own position on cap-and-trade:
In the Republican debate in Florida, he denied that his cap-and-trade program included a mandatory cap on carbon. (One wonders what he thought that first word was doing in there.) He has said he won't support a cap-and-trade bill unless it includes extra support for nuclear power (because nuclear power is low-carbon), not seeming to grok the fact that the whole point of a cap-and-trade program is to raise prices on carbon, offering a de facto subsidy to all low-carbon options.
While Gore was starring in the Oscar winning global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, McCain has been trying to build an environmental record that is just strong enough to anger conservatives and fool the media into continuing to call him a "maverick." But the reality is that McCain's record falls well short of the leadership Gore has shown on the issue.
This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
For McCain, it’s really all about the fake snow
John McCain’s troubles are the world’s troubles
Climate talks timeline: From 350 to Kyoto to Copenhagen and beyond
Comments
View as Flat
Delay And Deny Posted 4:47 am
04 Apr 2008
Look, it's easy to take a position that is so far from reality (Al Gore) and then look at a reasonable person like John McCain and say "oh, he doesn't do as much as Gore".
The bottom line is Gore failed as a politician. He held an appointed post for 8 years (VP). Failed to win the Presidency and then went off the deep end on a Joe McCarthy-esque tirade about "Global Warming".
Comparing a sane man like McCain to Gore only makes McCain seem that much more Presidential.
Look! Nuclear Batteries!
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RichardD Posted 4:44 am
05 Apr 2008
This is quite amazing when we know how often Gore criticized the oil-sands production in Canada as being one of the major factors responsible for climate change.
See this link below: (the man holding the Montreal Canadiens' shirt (with Gore's name) at the left is Andre Desmarais, CEO of Power Corporation.)
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080405/CPACTUALITES/8 ...
Gore was invited by a french Montreal newspaper owned by Power Corporation.
Power, one of the biggest companies in Canada, has a controversial record, with major investments in Total group. Total has a major oil sands project in Alberta, named Joslyn. Joslyn is located in the Athabasca oil-sands region in northeastern Alberta and consists of both mining and steam-injection projects. The project may contain two billion barrels of oil, Total has estimated. Total started commercial production at Joslyn in November 2006 and expects output to reach 10,000 barrels a day this year or in 2009 at the latest.
Total also operates the Yadana gas pipeline with Chevron and the Burmese junta. During construction of the pipeline Total and its American partner hired the Burmese military to assist in the building and provide security. The result of this partnership caused great suffering to the local population as the Burma's military used forced labour and violence to get the job down.
These corporations are providing billions to the military regime of Burma that will never trickle down to the general public. The money that the Junta receives will instead be used against Burma's population, bankrolling the general's latest arms purchases from China.
Power Corp's founder, Paul Desmarais Sr, is also a friend of French right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy admitted recently that Desmarais helped him on his way to the French presidency.
So, you guys should investigate Gore's links with Power Corporation.
What was Al Gore doing on a stage with these people????
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EarthlingAngst Posted 8:03 am
06 Apr 2008
EarthlingAngst
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Tushara Kodikara Posted 9:43 am
06 Apr 2008
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human power Posted 1:13 pm
06 Apr 2008
I must have missed Obama and Clinton calling for the 80-90% reductions in GHG emissions by 2020 that will be required of Americans if our planet is to avoid catastrophic "tipping points" of positive feedback. Last year's Arctic ice melt-off may indicate that we are either already reaching the first of these tipping points or are very close.
Let's at least be honest enough to admit that in the broken American electoral system all of the candidates must pander to the wealthiest 10% in order to finance their political ambitions and to secure positive corporate media coverage. That is why none of them will publicly admit the extent of the emissions cuts required in order to keep human history going through the twenty-second century.
Even most math-challenged Americans should realize that they will not be able to afford energy if our approach to cutting emissions is cap-and-trade. Face it, if we try to get 80% reductions under cap-and-trade, the wealthiest 15% will continue to generate GHG at the same rate as today while everyone else has to make do on next to nothing.
We held back the violent fascists of the twentieth century with personal quotas for gasoline and other goods. We can hold back climate change with personal quotas on gasoline, diesel and grid power, if we are serious. So far, we are not.
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GreyFlcn Posted 10:20 pm
06 Apr 2008
http://greyfalcon.net/mccain.pdf
And some Thinkprogress stuff:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/26/mccain-bear/
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/07/mccain-stimulus-2/
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