John McCain's stance on climate change has proven to be controversial with at least one group of economic conservatives, as the Club for Growth today criticized the Arizona Republican's support for a cap-and-trade system.
The concept would set mandatory limits on greenhouse emissions, and allow companies that pollute less to sell their permits to those that pollute more.
John McCain proposed Monday binding limits on emissions to try to stem global warming, breaking from policies supported by President Bush and most Republicans.
McCain called for a cap-and-trade system allowing companies to purchase the rights to produce emissions, blamed for rising temperatures around the world. Such a system would be in line with free-market principles, he said.
"Those who want clean coal technology, more wind and solar, nuclear power, biomass and bio-fuels will have their opportunity through a new market that rewards those and other innovations in clean energy," McCain said in a speech in Portland, Ore. "The market will evolve, too, by requiring sensible reductions in greenhouse gases, but also by allowing full flexibility in how industry meets that requirement."
By 2012, McCain seeks to reduce U.S. emissions to the level they were at in 2005. By 2020, he called for a reduction to 1990 levels, and, by 2050, to levels equivalent to 60 percent of 1990 levels.
Bush and other Republicans have opposed binding emissions caps. Though McCain didn't name the president's climate change policy Monday, he dismissed it as government inaction.
"I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears," he said. "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."
The Democratic National Committee sent out a memo ahead of McCain's Monday address questioning his commitment to addressing climate change. It noted that four of McCain's donors are CEOs of companies with records of polluting the environment or undermining protected areas.
"As is so often the case with John McCain, this is yet another example of his effort to have it both ways on an issue," the DNC's memo read. "But how can Americans trust him to be a good steward of the Earth when the people advancing his political career are on the wrong side of the issues?"
The ad is running in Oregon ahead of the state's primary and was released ahead of a speech McCain will give on climate change today in Portland. The McCain camp is highlighting the Arizona Senator's stance on global warming as it kicks off its general election campaign.
The issue is thought to be a winner for McCain as the campaign moves to attract independents and siphon off younger voters from Barack Obama.
McCain is careful in the ad though to make clear that he does not think "high taxes and crippling regulation is the solution."
Here is the transcript:
ANNOUNCER: Our environment in peril,
Oil and food prices out of control,
Climate change wreaks havoc with deadly weather.
One extreme thinks high taxes and crippling regulation is the solution.
Another denies the problem even exists.
There's a better way.
JOHN MCCAIN: I believe that climate change is real.
It's not just a greenhouse gas issue.
It's a national security issue.
We have an obligation to future generations to take action and fix it.
I'm John McCain and I approve this message.
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) has come out against a gas tax holiday, despite his support for Hillary Clinton, who has backed the measure.
He sent out a release Monday morning making clear his opposition to the plan, which has also been pushed by John McCain but dismissed by Barack Obama. In the release, Corzine called a gas tax holiday "not my favorite plan." He added that reporters had misconstrued statements he had made about it during a Monday television interview.
"I went on to discuss the differences between the two [McCain and Clinton's] competing plans," Corzine said in the release. "Somehow this was construed by several enterprising reporters as a change in my position on a gas tax holiday, which it is not."
Here's a transcript of Corzine's comments on CNBC, provided by his press office:
The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a web video today attacking Barack Obama for opposing a temporary repeal of the gas tax.
Obama opposes the proposal, forwarded by John McCain and supported by Hillary Clinton, as a "gimmick."
"People are more concerned about looking good for the cameras and for politics than they are at actually solving problems," Obama reportedly said today, questioning the value of temporarily lifting the tax.
The RNC says this stance is hypocritical. In the new web video, entitled "Barack Obama's Gas Tax Hypocrisy," a narrator says Obama voted for gas tax relief as an Illinois state senator. The ad questions Obama's understanding of Americans' economic needs and says he is not ready to be president.
House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has subpoenaed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) documents involving the White House as part of his committee's investigation of EPA's 2007 decision stating that California could not impose its own stricter regulations on auto emissions.
Waxman said his committee has found evidence that the EPA communicated with the White House about the decision. "Unfortunately, EPA has refused to disclose the substance and extent of its communications with the White House," Waxman said today. "The Committee must have these documents in order to understand how the agency
John McCain's back-and-forth over whether he would use public financing for his campaign is bugging Jane Hamsher. She has complained to the Federal Election Commission that the Republican violated the primary spending cap he agreed to without being punished. In another post, Hamsher writes that Common Cause has the same worries, and has let McCain know about them.
Former Vice President Al Gore will roll out a $300 million campaign for his group Alliance for Climate Protection on Wednesday. The campaign will include this ad called "we." Gore spoke about his climate change campaign as well as the presidential campaign yesterday on 60 Minutes. Gore said, "I'm not applying for the job of broker" when asked about the extended fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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