Recently, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama unveiled his plan to deal with the issue of climate change. Obama’s plan is modeled after the one recently signed into law, through an executive order, by California governor Schwarzenegger. In January Schwarzenegger created a statewide low carbon fuel standard. Obama intends to take the California plan nationwide. “This is our generation’s moment to save future generations from global catastrophe by creating a market for clean-burning fuels that can stop the dangerous transformation of our climate,” said Obama. “In states like New Hampshire and California, people are taking the lead on producing fuels that use less carbon. It’s time we made this a national commitment to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and take the equivalent of 32 million cars’ worth of pollution out of the atmosphere.”
A press release put out by his campaign said that Obama believes that we ought to become more efficient with our use of oil, and find a way to remove automobile pollution from the air. “It will take a grassroots effort to make America greener and end the tyranny of oil. This Earth Day should mark the beginning of a nationwide effort to harness our technology, our ingenuity and our will to achieve energy independence in our time,” Obama said. His proposal would require that transportation fuels contain 5% less carbon by 2015, and 10% less by 2020. He also advocates a carbon credit system that would allow fuel providers to sell their credits to those that still used fuels which contained more carbon. He also would allow polluters to borrow credits against future promised cuts.
The campaign says that a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard (NLCFS) would push the market towards fuels that use less carbon, and it would also promote growth in cleaner fuels and technologies. Emissions credit trading is a deeply flawed concept that undercuts the purpose of any legislation that it is attached to. Emissions credit trading is a way for big business and corporate America to buy their way around the law. Credit trading will also create an uneven implementation of the law. The biggest polluters will be able to afford to buy more credits, thus the people most responsible for the climate change problem can buy their way out of having to change.
My impression is that the Obama campaign, much like the Clinton campaign, is a bit short on ideas. It also strikes me that this is a fairly conservative proposal. There is nothing wrong with proposing that the California plan be taken national, after it has been tried, and we have some preliminary data to see if it works. A plan like this may work at the state level, but will it work for the entire nation? The truth is that politicians are trying to dance around the fact that the only way we are going to deal with the issues of oil dependence and climate change is to cut consumption.
Consumption can’t be deeply cut through credit trading programs, or 15-20 year plans. In order to be effective, stricter standards must be equally applied to everyone in all areas. The market will adjust to that too. The government still needs to spend some serious money subsidizing the research and development of better technology. It is too late to propose plans that might work in decades. Our dependence on foreign oil could very well end up crippling the U.S. economy someday. I don’t care if you are a liberal or conservative. I think we all can agree that this is a frightening thought. Political leaders in both parties need to stop being so cute about this issue, and do their jobs. Our future really does depend on it.
Jason Easley is the editor of the politics zone at 411mania.com. His news column The Political Universe appears on Tuesdays and Fridays at www.411mania.com/politics
Jason can also be heard every Sunday afternoon at 1:30 pm (ET) as the host of The Political Universe Radio Show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepoliticaluniverse
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7 users commented in " Barack Obama’s global warming plan "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackYesterday Sen. Chris Dodd was in town, and I asked him about his energy policy plan. He did mention a carbon tax, and forcing automobile companes to increase fuel efficiencies. Public transportation and lowering speed limits was not mentioned in his comments to me, nor were other ways to directly lower consumption. While not specifically stated, I got a sense from him that corporate America was the evil behind all this. I specifically asked him what he was going to ask of the American people in dealing with our energy crisis, and he was vague in responding to that.
Yes, when you look at the plans from all the candidates from either party, no one wants to cut consumption, but that is what needs to be done.
I think it is a knee-jerk left reaction to discount carbon trading as one part of an energy strategy. I also think there is too much emphasis being placed on policy proposals coming from the candidates. None of the proposals are worth the paper it is printed on. What matters is what can be passed which is something that will be determined by the political process.
Obama has the most progressive voting record, and his biography demonstrates commitment to progressive values. I think he is the most electable and will have the strongest coattails.
Great article. I enjoyed reading it.
I think we need to know what our candidates stand for on the issues as well so I created a site to track presidential candidates and the first article is always the current scorecard of their political stances. Check it out. http://www.candidatepositions.com
The replies on what he’s going to do is vague without any real details. It just sounds like an idea and I think we all know that big business like the oil companies and auto makers will do what they can to get in the way.
They done it before to destroy the wonderfully efficient, clean and favorable electric car- because they realized it hurts their profits. Fighting big business that’s tied into our government is hard. I don’t know if he’s going to do it… or even if he’s willing to do it.
Everyone should read Chapter 5 of the following think tank report:
http://www.archive.org/details/TheFirstGlobalRevolution
i feel that barack obama should show us all a lesson im in sixth grade and i think that this is a good way to start with getting ride of it or a least minimizing it.it is hard for some but easy for others.over the last couple year the raising temp. from day to day has raised.
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