The Green Force of Your Vote

The two U.S. Presidential candidates are coming to that great moment of truth, that singular moment in a democracy when all the campaigning, stump speeches, advertising, the stumbles and the successes will rest with a simple act of one citizen casting their one ballot.

It has been a difficult campaign for both Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain. Both men have tried to walk very fine lines, oil prices were out of control, the economy began to collapse, President Bush’s approval ratings reached new lows and the nation’s young men and women continued to be exposed to danger fighting in foreign wars on two fronts that have no end in sight.

Those forces have pushed both candidates off their ideal messages.

At the beginning of the campaign season the environment was a frequently discussed policy as rising oil prices were demanding that new approaches to the reliance on foreign energy sources needed to be debated.

Both Obama and McCain support off shore drilling. Sen. McCain had opposed any new off shore drilling prior to 2008. He now supports it and smiles broadly as his campaign crowds proudly chant, “Drill, Baby, Drill.”

Sen. Obama generally opposes off shore drilling but is willing to consider it as part of a comprehensive energy plan that includes other incentives for renewable energy programs.

Sen. Obama wants to cut the US carbon emissions 80 percent below the 1990 levels by 2050. Through a cap-and-trade program Obama would auction off 100 percent of carbon credits to ensure that industry was paying for the right to emit green house gases.

Sen. McCain also supports a cap-and-trade program but would limit carbon emissions to only 60 percent by 2050. To jump start his program McCain would give away many of the emission credits but would move to an auction system once the program was operating.

Carbon emissions also come into play when the candidates talk about coal. Both support the concept of “clean coal”.

McCain would spend 2 billion dollars a year to develop clean-coal technologies but hasn’t offered many specifics beyond that.

Sen. Obama supports coal-to-liquid fuels provided they emit 20 percent less carbon than conventional fuels. He also says that he would use “Whatever tools are necessary to stop new dirty coal plants from being built in America – including a ban on new traditional coal facilities.”

On fuel economy, getting a better bang for your fuel buck, Obama advocates raising the standards by 4 percent a year, roughly one mile per gallon, per year. He also proposes spending 4 billion dollars to assist US automakers in retooling and redesigning their manufacturing plants to produce more efficient cars and trucks.

Sen. McCain wants more effective enforcement of the current fuel economy standards. In 2007 he said that fuel economy standards should be raised but did offer any specific targets then and hasn’t done so during the course of his campaign.

Ethanol has been mentioned as an issue by both men and both are opposed to using food as fuel. The wide spread use of corn as a fuel augment has caused a global disruption in food prices and both candidates acknowledge that other sources for bio fuels need to be found.

Sen. Obama is calling for the production of 60 billion gallons of advanced bio-fuels such as cellulosic ethanol to be produced domestically every year by 2050. 
 
McCain also supports the increased use of new bio fuels but has not been able to offer specific targets.

Renewable energy (wind, solar and bio mass) is another area where Sen. McCain has not offered many details. He is a strong supporter of renewable energy concepts but whenever he is asked about them is a little impoverished when it comes to explaining the nuts and bolts of his policy.

Sen. Obama wants to have 10 percent of US electricity produced from renewable sources by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025. He is proposing that his administration would invest 150 million dollars in renewables, advanced bio fuels and clean technologies. Obama suggests that this investment would create over 5 million new “green” jobs.

When placed in a campaign context it is difficult to ascertain where either candidate leads on the specifics of the environmental issues. Sen. McCain has been at a disadvantage in recent months by being portrayed as the underdog and as a result forced to speak to political differences in approach and not the policy differences between him and Sen. Obama

Sen. Obama on the other hand has had the recent luxury of being cast as the front runner and thus able to explore and explain the nuances of his policy approaches on the environment and other specific issues.

Both candidates place the environment as a priority item in their policy agendas but there are strong differences between the two candidates in their approaches to implementing their policies.

Sen. Obama appears to be committed towards implementing regulatory specifics and investing money in creating jobs, building an alternative energy infrastructure, while weaning America off its dependency on fossil fuels. It won’t happen overnight but Obama feels that the commitment has to be made sooner rather than later.

Both McCain and Obama mirror each others rhetorical proposals with the exception of a dramatic variation in Nuclear Power production. Sen. McCain would like to build over 45 Nuclear power plants before 2030 with an overall goal of 100 new plants. Sen. Obama would like to see Nuclear production as part of a larger mix of energy sources to get us closer to a broad range of alternative energy sources.

Both candidates have adopted the soft shoe shuffle approach to the problem of dealing with nuclear waste.

The other big difference between the two candidates is one of political approach. Sen. McCain seems willing to have his government offer basic guidelines and let private business implement the changes for new energy sources and production.

“Government should set the standards and leave it to the market to win the race,” McCain said in his major energy speech delivered in Ohio last May.

Sen. Obama policies demand a more active role for government both as a policy leader and as an investor. His stated environmental goal is one that demands change from the present day accepted norm. For ecological and security reasons the dependency on foreign energy sources, specifically, oil has to change.

The US has a very limited supply and sources of oil and in Obama’s policy mind the only solution to that dependence is creating new renewable energy sources under domestic control.

Obama’s policies are designed to completely redirect the American economy into a new era of self efficiently and self reliance. He is betting that the United States can be a leader in the critical issue of climate change and make money from its investments by sharing and selling new environmental technologies. But it won’t happen overnight and it will be expensive – it’s an investment.

Sen. McCain is also keenly aware of the dangers of climate change and need to address the issue as strongly and as immediately as possible. He has made great pains recently in distancing himself from the present policies of President Bush but has had little opportunity to express the specifics and depth of his policies on the environment.

Sen. McCain knows that change is needed but seems reluctant to use his vision of government as an active investor in order to accomplish that change. The Senator seems to see his role as an agenda maker, setting out the goals and relying on private enterprise to do all the heavy lifting.

One ballot, one voice, but collectively a major redefinition is in the balance for the future direction of the United States towards the next four decades. God Bless.