Day 2: Obama vs. McCain on environment; Open thread.

From Obama's website:

Barack Obama

Limit the causes of global warming

Propose all transportation fuels sold in U.S. contain 10% less carbon by 2020.

Decrease oil comsumption

Encourage U.S. automakers to make hybrid vehicles by helping companies shoulder the health care costs of their retirees. His plan to save nearly half a trillion of gasoline and 6 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases by 2028.

Increase energy efficiency

Invest in making buildings and consumer products more energy efficient

Build healthy communities

Identifying environmental health problems that affect communities.

Preserve the Great Lakes

Strong supporter of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration and co-sponsored the Great Lakes Environmental Restoration Act.

Protect National Parks and Forests

Support true preservation policy to protect parks and forests. He voted to prohibit use of funds to construct new roads in Alaska's Tongass National Forest.

From McCain's website:

John McCain

John McCain's Principles for Climate Policy
• Climate Policy Should Be Built On Scientifically-Sound, Mandatory Emission Reduction Targets And Timetables.
• Climate Policy Should Utilize A Market-Based Cap And Trade System.
• Climate Policy Must Include Mechanisms To Minimize Costs And Work Effectively With Other Markets.
• Climate Policy Must Spur The Development And Deployment Of Advanced Technology.
• Climate Policy Must Facilitate International Efforts To Solve The Problem.

John McCain's Cap and Trade Policy

John McCain Proposes A Cap-And-Trade System That Would Set Limits On Greenhouse Gas Emissions While Encouraging The Development Of Low-Cost Compliance Options. A climate cap-and-trade mechanism would set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions and allow entities to buy and sell rights to emit, similar to the successful acid rain trading program of the early 1990s.
Innovating, Developing and Deploying Technologies
Under John McCain's plan: Emissions Permits Will Eventually Be Auctioned To Support The Development Of Advanced Technologies. A portion of the process of these auctions will be used to support a diversified portfolio of research and commercialization challenges, ranging from carbon capture and sequestration, to nuclear power, to battery development. Funds will also be used to provide financial backing for a Green Innovation Financing and Transfer (GIFT) to facilitate commercialization.

The real John McCain on environment:

2007 Rating from the League of Conservation Voters: 0

McCain was the only member of Congress to skip every single crucial environmental vote scored by the League of Conservation Voters. When it comes to the environment, good intentions are not enough. A candidate for President needs to have a voting record on one of the most important global issues right now to show that he took a stand.

Below is a list of all the important environmental bills that McCain was absent for in 2007:

Cloture on H.R. 6, the energy bill (6/21, Vote 225)
Passage of H.R. 6, the energy bill (6/21, Vote 226)
Maintaining Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) in H.R. 6 (12/7, Vote 416)
Taking away giveaways to Big Oil to subsidize clean energy (12/13, Vote 425) Loosening public health and environmental regulations on refineries (6/13, Vote 210) Undermining the RES with coal and nuclear energy (6/14, Vote 211)
Offshore drilling in Virginia (6/14, Vote 212)
Liquid coal (6/19, Vote 213)
Environmental safeguards for biofuels (6/20, 219)
Consider global warming for water projects (5/15, Vote 166)
Appropriately prioritizing water projects (5/15, Vote 165)
International family planning (9/6, Vote 320)
Farm Bill subsidy reform (12/11, Vote 417)
Farm Bill subsidy caps (12/13, Vote 424)
Eminent Domain for public parks (12/3, Vote 429)

(From League of Conservation Voters)