Posted on 05/12/2008 5:26:19 AM PDT by webschooner
PHOENIX (AP) - Republican John McCain, reaching out to both independents and green-minded social conservatives, argues that global warming is undeniable and the country must take steps to bring it under control while adhering to free-market principles.
In remarks prepared for delivery Monday at a Portland, Ore., wind turbine manufacturer, the presidential contender says expanded nuclear power must be considered to reduce carbon-fuel emissions. He also sets a goal that by 2050, the country will reduce carbon emissions to a level 60 percent below that emitted in 1990.
"For all of the last century, the profit motive basically led in one direction - toward machines, methods and industries that used oil and gas," said McCain. "Enormous good came from that industrial growth, and we are all the beneficiaries of the national prosperity it built. But there were costs we weren't counting, and often hardly noticed. And these terrible costs have added up now, in the atmosphere, in the oceans and all across the natural world."
The Arizona senator promised to challenge China and India, two economic rivals who are fueling their challenge to U.S. market supremacy with heavily polluting fuels such as coal, gas and oil.
"For all of its historical disregard of environmental standards, it cannot have escaped the attention of the Chinese regime that China's skies are dangerously polluted, its beautiful rivers are dying, its grasslands vanishing, its coastlines receding and its own glaciers melting," said McCain.
He also took a swipe at President Bush, who balked at the beginning of its term at signing the Kyoto global warming protocols. McCain said he would return to the negotiating table.
"I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges. I will not accept the same dead-end of failed diplomacy that claimed Kyoto. The United States will lead and will lead with a different approach - an approach that speaks to the interests and obligations of every nation," he said.
The language highlighted the political stakes for McCain, his party's presumed nominee. His visit to Oregon came just days after the two leading Democratic contenders, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, campaigned in the state.
Oregon is among the expected general election battlegrounds, and its Columbia and Hood rivers are playgrounds for many outdoorsmen and environmentalists.
Global warming also stands with abortion rights and an array of social causes as important issues to the evangelicals and Christian conservatives whom McCain hopes will bolster his political base this fall.
McCain has long expressed a belief in global warming, arguing that even if he is wrong, acting as if the planet's temperature were increasing would only benefit the environment if scientists subsequently proved he was mistaken.
McCain traveled to the Pacific Northwest from Arizona, where he and his family spent Mother's Day.
In his speech, he highlighted his personal experiences viewing evidence of glacial recession. He also cited evidence of a shift in animal migration patterns.
"You would think that if the polar bears, walruses, and sea birds have the good sense to respond to new conditions and new dangers, then humanity can respond as well," he said.
McCain's major solution is to implement a cap-and-trade program on carbon-fuel emissions, like a similar program in the Clean Air Act that was used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions that triggered acid rain.
Industries would be given emission targets, and those coming in under their limit could sell their surplus polluting capacity to companies unable to meet their target.
McCain wants the country to return to 2005 emission levels by 2012; 1990 levels by 2020; and to a level sixty percent below that by 2050.
"As never before, the market would reward any person or company that seeks to invent, improve, or acquire alternatives to carbon-based energy," he said. "More likely, however, there will be some companies that need extra emissions rights, and they will be able to buy them. The system to meet these targets and timetables will give these companies extra time to adapt - and that is good economic policy."
More validation why I will never vote for this Sell out.
I am pro-global warming.
I woke up to 43 degrees this morning.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How about on the issue of climate change? Because you and Sen. [Joe] Lieberman [I-Conn.] have come out for a bill which would have mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases.No wonder McCain admits he doesn't know much about economics. Who does he think is going to pay for GE making all that profit, since he says it isn't the American taxpayer? Will President McCain just mandate that profits will henceforth grow on trees? Where is the profit from those mandated fluorescent bulbs coming from? Is McCain secretly suggesting he will set up a program to provide free fluorescent bulbs to the American people, since he says "It won't cost the American taxpayer"?
MCCAIN: Gradual reductions, yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But they are mandatory.
MCCAIN: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you sticking by that?
MCCAIN: What I mean by that is that it's cap-and-trade, that there will be incentives for people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It's a free-market approach. The Europeans are using it now. We did it in the case of addressing acid rain -- look, if we do that, we stimulate green technologies. I have great faith in the American industry. General Electric, the world's largest corporation, has announced they're dedicated to green technologies. This will be profit-making business.
It won't cost the American taxpayer. It will make profits, because we'll move forward with the innovation and ability of American industry to address this issue.
Dear Senator,
Many prominent scientists and climatologists are now questioning whether global warming is real or an aberration in how the data was collected and interpreted. The link between CO2 in the atmosphere and increasing global temperatures is not proven and if it has any role at all it is in combination with many other factors which are simply beyond human control. To irreparably damage the US economy pursuing the phantom of man made global warming is unconscionable.
How I am ever going to bring myself to pull the lever for this guy.
“{The Arizona senator promised to challenge China and India, two economic rivals who are fueling their challenge to U.S. market supremacy with heavily polluting fuels such as coal, gas and oil.”
Here’s a suggestion. If you’re serious about challenging China and India, propose legislation that imposes tariffs on all goods imported from nations using “heavily polluting fuels” and which have lax environmental standards in general. That’ll get their attention.
Ah, I knew you weren’t serious. We can’t do anything that complicates corporations’ search for the world’s cheapest labor and lowest environment standards as places to produce products to be sold in the USA.
I'd like to see that socialist RINO get beaten in November.
Somehow it seems better to get it in the chest than stabbed in the back.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE
If he used the word “undeniable”, he has proven himself an idiot. Another brick in the wall. Please, Repubs, ditch this clown and give us a real candidate. We’ll respond in two ways: 1) you’ll get money, 2) we’ll actually vote.
Sorry McCain... you can’t pander to your base and pander to your opposition at the same time. Although you are a Democrat in reality, you are running as a Republican and this strategy just won’t work.
A Kyoto-like agreement would be a disaster fr the US. Countries like China would ignore such a pact, anyway. However, if McCain’s answer to global warming and (energy dependence) promotes nuclear energy, then I support that.
Yeah, but it’s not cooling as much as it would have if it weren’t for the evil capitalist countries [USA] putting out so much plant food... er, “greenhouse gases”,
and when this current cooling cycle is over - watch out, a runaway greenhouse effect is inevitable.
/sarcasifitwereneeded
Any interference or pressure in the market by an outside force that pays no cost for the effects of that pressure
costs those in the system unnecessarily.
Perhaps you could read the rulings of the Clinton appointees to the USSC and then tell us whether you should pull for McCain. Just sayin’
[He’d BETTER pick someone like Hunter or Thompson for a veep, then perhaps retire in 2 yrs]
So while fighting the islam terrorists at the front door, Mr. McCain will let the communists in the backdoor to destroy our economy.
How about we give Alaska back to the Russians? We aren’t using it anyway.
Building just a few nuclear plants would put us in “compliance” with Kyoto immediately when they come online.
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