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Posted on 06/27/2009 10:57:52 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
GOP candidate promotes working with Europe on climate change, but only wants to 'encourage' involvement of 'rest of the world.'
BY DAN GAINOR
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain is using the idea of global togetherness to promote “a cap-and-trade system” to battle climate change. He said “Americans and Europeans need to get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand over a much-diminished world to our grandchildren.”
According to the Arizona senator, whose opinion column appeared in the March 19 Financial Times, the United States needs to work with Europe to create a replacement for the Kyoto treaty.
“We need a successor to Kyoto, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner.” He said America needs to be willing to be “persuaded” by our European allies. McCain’s column was headlined “America must be a good role model.”
However, he never addressed the potential costs of his proposal.
McCain talked about Americans and Europeans leading together but only said he wanted to “encourage the participation of the rest of the world, including most importantly, the developing economic powerhouses of China and India.”
But experience has already shown that government intervention in environmental issues can have negative consequences. Ethanol mandates have artificially inflated demand for corn and affected grocery prices. And recent studies have shown ethanol isn’t any better for the environment than burning fossil fuels.
A recent report from the Nikkei estimated it would cost the Japanese economy $500 billion – split evenly between businesses and consumers – to meet its carbon reduction goals by 2020.
McCain in his column did advocate for increased use of nuclear power. “Right now safe, climate-friendly nuclear energy is a critical way both to improve the quality of our air and to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources.”
McCain’s cap-and-trade position is similar to both of his liberal potential adversaries. According to his campaign Web site, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) also supports “implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.” Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) also has a climate plan “centered on a cap and trade system for carbon emissions.”
[Yes.]
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Glad I voted for Bob Barr.
A stark reminder of why McCain’s career must end next year.
Being at the bottom of your Academy class, as was McCain, usually means one thing—you are pretty stupid, which he amply demonstrates with quotes like “America needs to be a good role model”.
I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s one of the things I tried to warn folks about last year, when we were picking a standard bearer for November 2008.
McCain has been the single most destructive force in the Conservative movement over the last twenty years.
No single or group of Democrat(s) have done more to neuter Conservatism than John McCain.
This man has short-circuited more reasoned Conservative efforts than any Republican on record IMO.
Watch McCain shepard the C&T House Bill through the Senate in the name of “bi-partisanship”.
Hope he fails.
“Glad I voted for Bob Barr.”
Dude your Symbolic vote went for the Zero then.
Further proof that we are probably better off with Obama winning. At least the enemy is in plain sight.
McCain was the only one to raise his hand for the global warming question during the Repb debates last year.
I suppose an analogy could be that Obama is ripping the bandaid off quickly, whereas McCain would simply take it off more slowly. Or perhaps Obama sliced our wrists quickly with a razor blade, and McCain would use a rusty fingernail file. They both lead to the same place, but Obama gets it over with quickly and you can get on with the business of dealing with the result and trying to fix the damage.
Juan. A sell-out whose contempt for the United States and the American people drives his every thought and action.
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