Translating Presidential Platforms: Energy and the Environment

Energy and the Environment

John McCain

Barack Obama

*Translation

McCain is promoting the Lexington Project to solve the nation's energy problems, according to his campaign Web site. This project includes expanding domestic oil and natural gas exploration to increase domestic supplies, and reforming the transportation system. It includes a $5,000 tax credit for customers who purchase zero-carbon emission vehicles and for increasing the number of flex-fuel vehicles. McCain would invest $2 billion annually to advance clean-coal technologies, and he says he would instruct his administration to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 to help reduce foreign dependency. Also, a permanent tax credit for businesses would equal 10 percent of the wages spent on research and development as an incentive for alternative sources of energy. McCain says we must protect the environment from climate change through a cap-and-trade system. "Market participants are allotted total permits equal to the cap on greenhouse gas emissions. If they can invent, improve, or acquire a way to reduce their emissions, they can sell their extra permits for cash." The federal government would focus on making new buildings green to help set an example.

Obama’s New Energy for America plan, described on his Web site, includes short-term and long-term strategies to reach energy independence. Short-term relief would include providing $1,000 to couples and $500 to individuals in emergency energy rebates. In 10 years, America could potentially save more on oil than what is currently imported from the Middle East and Venezuela combined, he argues. By 2015, Obama says, he would put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road that get an average of 150 mpg of gas. Obama would focus research on the development of advanced battery technology. Federal funding to leverage private sectors to fund automakers would increase. He also calls for a $7,000 tax credit for people buying advanced vehicles. He also plans to have 10 percent of all the nation’s energy needs met by renewable sources by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025. He says he would reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050 by creating an economy-wide cap-and-trade system. This means pollution credits would be auctioned. “A 100 percent auction ensures that all industries pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these valuable emission rights away to companies on the basis of their past pollution.”

From John Byrne, director and distinguished professor of Public Policy at the University of Delaware, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 2007:
    America needs to address the problems of climate change, move from nonrenewable energy to sustainable energy and also make energy more affordable. Both candidates have agreed to return to international negotiation on climate change.
    The planet's natural absorption capacity is 3.3 tons of greenhouse gases per person per year, but Americans release about 21 tons per person per year. To reduce this number, the U.S. needs to reduce its conventional energy use, because 75 percent of greenhouse gases result from fossil fuels. The most practical way to do this is to improve vehicle efficiency, build houses and offices that don't leak energy and shift to renewable energy such as solar and wind energy. California is a leading example of shifting policy, and the result is that the state uses the same amount of energy as it did in 1978. Thirty-one states, including Missouri, have renewable portfolio standards, which require these states to have a certain percentage of energy from renewables. The Missouri standard requires that, by 2020, the percent increases to 11 percent. But Missouri is on the lower end of participating states. Delaware, for example, will be at 20 percent by 2019. Both candidates support a national renewable portfolio standard. Obama wants to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, a number supported by scientific evidence. This significant change is needed to meet the per-capita standard of 3.3 tons of greenhouse gas emission per year.
    It is not a practical solution to drill for oil because there is not a lot of evidence that there is more oil. McCain's idea to have a $5,000 incentive is similar to the $3,000 to $4,000 incentive for hybrid cars. When the incentive began, there was a big burst in demand for the vehicles. Investing $2 billion annually to advance clean-coal technologies is continuing an idea that has been in effect since the Jimmy Carter administration. In the past 30 years this has been unsuccessful and those resources should be put toward other technologies. Nuclear power plants are also not a good idea because each plant costs between $3 billion and $4 billion dollars. This will encourage increased use of energy consumption.
    Although Obama wants to provide short-term energy relief with rebates, it also is important to focus on long-term strategies and dramatically increase the weatherization of homes. A concern is that Obama supports ethanol. There are alternative options, such as switchgrass, that could be used to make biofuel without disrupting a food crop.
    Both candidates support a cap-and-trade system, but Obama wants an aggressive market, and his goals are aligned with the scientific community. McCain has not identified aggressive targets.