Clinton Global Initiative jumps the shark, invites McCain to keynote on energy solutions 2

I understand that CGI will also have Senator Inhofe keynote on climate science, Karl Rove on ethics, and President Bush on openness in government. Seriously -- or ridiculously, take your pick -- the CGI has announced:

Senator John McCain will deliver the opening remarks live at the "Integrated Solutions: water, food and energy" plenary session.

Would this be the John McCain who voted with Inhofe (R-Big Oil) and against clean energy and clean water a staggering 42 out of 44 times in the past decade? Or the McCain who then missed eight straight votes on renewable energy tax credits only to lie about it at the Aspen Institute on videotape?

Or the McCain who told voters at a videotaped town meeting that even if you maximized renewable energy "in every possible way the contribution that that would make given the present state of technology is very small, is very small ... I'd be glad to send you the figure ... the truly clean technologies don't work"?

Or the McCain who picked a global warming denier as his running mate? Or the McCain who mocked the idea of energy efficiency this summer? Or who managed to tell a mere 10 energy lies in his big convention speech?

Or the McCain who has lined his pockets with Big Oil money and pushed lies even the industry won't tell in public, like offshore drilling could provide "additional oil" within "a matter of months?" Or the McCain whose own convention keynote surrogate led the RNC delegates in a chant of "Drill baby, drill"?

Maybe McCain can lead the international group of participants at the Clinton Global Initiative in a chant of "Drill, baby, drill!"

I am working on a long article on McCain's success at greenwashing himself. We've seen that even experts in clean energy have been duped by McCain's sincere-sounding lies.

But President Bill Clinton? Hard to believe. I'm afraid this is going to re-open the entire issue of where he stands in this campaign -- especially if he repeats any of McCain's greenwashing spin that the Arizonan has any understanding of or belief in "Energy Solutions." And let's not forget that McCain's idea of water solutions is to take it from Colorado and give it to Arizona.

Last year, I attended CGI and was quite impressed.

But now they have sadly jumped the shark or, to be trendier, "nuked the fridge." Either way, jeers to the CGI.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

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