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."
Sorry McCain... you can’t pander to your base and pander to your opposition at the same time.His only "base" IS the opposition... and the Mexicans.
PELLEY: Would you close Guantanamo Bay?
MCCAIN: Yes. I would close Guantanamo Bay. And I would move those prisoners to Fort Leavenworth. And I would proceed with the tribunals.
But this economy will tank in a huge way with any one of the three in office. Better the Democrats take the blame, and give us half a chance to take it back in 2010.That's it, in a nutshell. The strongest reason not to vote for McLefty.If McNasty get in, it will doom our chances for decades and really ruin this once great nation.
No, In a show of bipartisanship he will agree to dump nukes from his plan in exchange for accepting all the senseless gorebull warming credit crap that the RATS want.
If McNasty get in, it will doom our chances for decades and really ruin this once great nation.
That's it, in a nutshell. The strongest reason not to vote for McLefty.
I think McCain will be blamed anyway, which he should be, even if you don't want to vote for him, your vote is still important, make sure every other vote on the ballot is conservative.
But the enemies arrayed against America today are dangerous and supported by equally dangerous and dedicated “useful idiots” within America.
By ignoring too many instances of Treason, Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy in time of war, Treachery and leaking Confidential Information that harmed our efforts — we have simply encouraged the enemies within.......many of them in our Congress!
In a sane society — Fonda, Kerry, Carter, Durbin, Reid, and too many others to mention - would be in prison not “People Magazine”...
For instance, if CFL's are a viable alternative to regular bulbs....people will buy them. If Low-water-flush-toilets are a viable option to the old-style, 5 gallon kind....people will buy them.
And so forth.
My money is on - more or less - that the newer "green/eco/earthfriendly technology" will go the way of the dinosaur for the simple reason that it's not better/safer/more earthfriendly and so on. People don't want what they can't use, and if the only way to implement a technology is to subsidize the heck out of it (ethanol) or make alternatives to it illegal (CFL's)....then the technology was never viable to begin with.
he doesn’t care about the illegal migration from MX to the US, only animal migrations.
Try four years ago. From michellemalkin.com:
Climatologist Patrick Michaels had McCain pegged four years ago, when The Maaaveerrick convened ridiculously, eco-Chicken Little-stacked hearings:
Recent U.S. Senate hearings into alleged global warming, chaired by Arizona Republican John McCain, were among the “most biased” that a noted climatologist has ever seen - “much less balanced than anything I saw in the Clinton administration,” he said.
Patrick J. Michaels is the author of a new book “Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media.” He is an environmental sciences professor at the University of Virginia who believes that claims of human-caused “global warming” are scientifically unfounded.
Michaels spoke with CNSNews.com Thursday following a panel discussion sponsored by the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., where Michaels also serves as a senior fellow in environmental studies.
“John McCain, a Republican, has probably held the most biased hearing of all,” Michaels said. McCain is a big proponent of limiting greenhouse gas emissions, which he believes are causing “global warming.” The Arizona senator also “is trying to define himself as an environmental Republican, which he is going to use to differentiate himself from his rivals for the (presidential) nomination in 2008,” according to Michaels.
No mention of expanded drilling. Get ready because we are about to pay $10 a gallon when one of these 3 fools get elected.
McCain clearly thinks he can win without the conservative base. Normally I would say he is crazy, but Obama is so terribly flawed, McCain may have a chance. If McCain wins, it sends a terrible message to the Republican party about getting away with hard left turns. It will perhaps marginalize the conservative viewpoint for a long time to come. For this reason, I’m not sure an Obama win would be worse for the country than a McCain win. At any rate, I will not be voting for McCain. I have to draw the line along my principles somewhere, and McCain is significantly on the other side of that line.
I will be a maverick Republican for as long as this idiot is the GOP leader.
What gets me is that even if you believe the world is warming due to man (I do not), we will destroy the free world economy with efforts that will have NO MEASURABLE AFFECT. (BTW, if the models show little to no effect, shouldn't that point to the premise that we are not causing any measurable warming ourselves?)
In other words, "doing something" will cost us all tremendously and there will be no benefit.
It's economic and lifestyle suicide.
Koolaid! It’s not just fer breakfast anymore.......
A heat wave!! Low 30's here in Idaho...ice on the wheel lines. I welcome a little Global Warming.
The idiot McCain continues to infuriate conservatives. Who advises this jerk??
PELLEY: Would you close Guantanamo Bay?
MCCAIN: Yes. I would close Guantanamo Bay. And I would move those prisoners to Fort Leavenworth. And I would proceed with the tribunals.
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