The election race is really starting to heat up - and the neatest part of it is that people our age are extremely engaged with the issues and candidates. This being a energy oriented blog, I am going to spend a little time on the environmental records of the candidates.
I'm at Wesleyan, a university renowned for its liberal edge, and so the environmental pros and cons of Obama and Clinton are frequently brought up in discussion. However, the GOP candidate, McCain is often excluded from student conversation here - and when someone brings him up, there is considerable skepticism over his record of environmentalism. He talks like he has a long environmental record, but we must ask, "is he faking it?"
McCain is an old school conservative when it comes to environmental issues. He loves the idea of national parks (although he has voted for increased road building in conserved areas), voted to end whaling, he supported a carbon cap and trade proposal in 2003 and opposed oil drilling in ANWR. 
On the other hand, McCain recently got in a lot of trouble over a couple of endangered grizzly bears in Montana. A group of scientists requested money to study the genetic makeup of these bears, but McCain argued that the money was pork, a special interest and waste of time. He even advertised his rejection of the proposal in an ad series.
So, what do you think, is McCain for real?
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Is McCain Faking It?
Labels:
grizzly bear,
John McCain
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Depends on what your definition of "for real" is...
I've got a bit of perspective on this because my godfather is one of his national co-chairs, and although he (my godfather) is pretty much a raging conservative, his son is a climatologist who lives in Alaska, drills ice cores, and authors studies on global warming, so when it comes to a lot of environmental issues he's pretty in touch with reality. And since he knows McCain pretty well, I've gotten the inside scoop on his environmental stance with the help of multiple bottles of 23 year oak aged Guatemalan rum...
Overall, he's definitely the best Republican environmental candidate we've seen for a generation (disclaimer - this claim is 100% subject to normative relativism rule - consider the competition...)
In a marked departure from the base of his party, he's fully legit on his commitment to climate change, and the corresponding "macro" environmental issues. Consistent with his conservative philosophy, his approach to policy is based around market incentives (carrots) rather than command and control, top-down regulatory measures (sticks), which is actually fairly consistent with the emerging consensus among the major environmental players (TNC, WWF, Rainforest Alliance, CI, Al Gore, etc) As a man whose reputation has been built upon fighting government pork, it is no surprise that he would resist micro-level research subsidies. Additionally, his view on states' rights would pit him against supporters of blanket federal environmental legislation such as the endangered species act and superfund. Unlike many of his ilk, however, he is generally inclined to support the same end goals as mainstream environmentalists, even when he differs on the specific policy approach. As a result, he would likely be amenable to dialogue on these issues, offering promise to those willing to explore pragmatic solutions. This would be a refreshing break from the current state of affairs, and is of significance because it would provide an opportunity to "depoliticizing" environmental affairs and fully bring the conversation into the mainstream where it belongs.
Then again, he could start dragging his knuckles, select Mitt Romney as his running mate, denouce evolution, stack the Court with apocalyptic revelations-spouting crazies, bomb Iran, and stick a pipe in ANWAR, in which case we're all screwed.
Thanks for your thoughtful post. I agree that McCain is likely to be pro-environment in the traditional sense of old-school conservatives - which is a vast improvement over what we have seen lately.
Post a Comment