Green Options

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I usually don’t watch the Sunday morning talk shows like Meet the Press or This Week. I’m not sure why. I think this is because I have a deeply ingrained aversion to them dating back to my childhood. You see, we really only had a handful of channels in those pre-cable days, and on Sunday mornings, before the cartoons really got going, three of those channels were running these incredibly boring talk shows - when they should have been running, at least from my point of view, cartoons. It was completely beyond me why they were running these shows at all, and not just doubling up on Superfriends or Scooby Doo! It seems I knew, even at that young age, that there were some things are just better off left till Monday.

What I’m getting at, is that I did not see Hillary Clinton on This Week with George Stephanopolous, on Sunday morning. But since we have a 24-hour media matrix covering every breath and every word in this presidential campaign, I was told all about it by all of my regular news outlets as soon as I got up. I was most struck by Senator Clinton’s reply to Stephanopolous’ question about the pushback her proposed summertime gas-tax holiday has received.

In a recent post, my colleague Jennifer Lance asked whether Hillary Clinton can take on big oil. Among other things, Jennifer concluded that despite the good intentions of Senator Clinton,”A gas tax holiday will not solve the problem of peak oil.” And that is exactly the same message the Obama campaign wants to deliver in an ad now running in North Carolina ahead of next Tuesday’s primary.

The commercial denounces the proposed gas-tax cut, a proposal which Senators Clinton […]

Americans are feeling the pain of high gas prices; I just paid $4.20 a gallon at the pump in northern California. Needless to say, the presidential candidates are scrambling to be the savior of the gas guzzling voter. Both McCain and Clinton support suspending federal excise tax on gasoline and diesel fuel over the summer, but is this the right solution? Barack Obama disagrees, and I can’t help but think this is a band-aid solution.

The federal excise tax on gasoline was first implemented in 1932, although the states began taxing fuel in 1919. It is estimated that suspending this tax, as proposed by Clinto and McCain, would result in a loss of revenue of nine billion dollars for the Highway Trust Fund, which is used for interstate maintenance. McCain says he would shift revenue from other sources, and Clinton proposes enacting windfall-profits tax on big oil companies to make up for the loss. Both candidates are making Obama look like the bad guy for not wanting to save consumers 18 cents per gallon, but would this temporary suspension of the federal excise tax on gasoline really be the catalyst to change our current oil dependency and the harm it causes to the environment?

Faith has always been a factor for voters. We all know the usual issues that religious leaders bring up every election year, but this time around climate change has been added to the list. The appeal for green values was at the forefront of the Compassion Forum that aired last Sunday on CNN.

Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, has been leading a compaign to instill “creation care” as a religious imperative. He attended the forum and this was his exchange with Barack Obama:

REV. CIZIK: How do you relate your faith to science generally and science policy, and let’s take an issue like climate and flesh that out, or take stem cells, something like that. Just give us a little more indication of how you think.

OBAMA: Well, first of all…

CIZIK: Is that fair enough?

OBAMA: It is fair enough. And you guys have done some terrific work on this. So I want to congratulate you on that.

OBAMA: And should it be part of God’s plan to have me in the White House, I look forward to our collaboration. (LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: So, look, the — one of the things I draw from the Genesis story is the importance of us being good stewards of the land, of this incredible gift. And I think there have been times where we haven’t been and this is one of those times where we’ve got to take the warning seriously.

It looks like Hillary Clinton has another “3 a.m.” political ad out. This time it’s about the economy.

I’m not sure what it is about these ads that have captured the nation’s imagination; John McCain has his own version of it, and, of course, it inspired scores of parodies on YouTube and among late-night talk show comedians.

Still, I wonder if the candidates will get around to making one of these ads about the environment.

It’d be really easy to do, actually. All you need is a ringing phone…and no one to answer it.

That’s because the environment has somehow become a non-issue during this campaign season. All three candidates have fairly progressive views when it comes to addressing climate change, and they all tout the benefits of weening ourselves off foreign oil, so we’ve basically been told by the media that there’s nothing more to discuss on the topic.

The only problem is that voters WANT to discuss it.

I don’t know if you caught it, but the whole Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama flap over NAFTA exposed a dirty little secret: The North American Free Trade Agreement isn’t about American jobs or cheap Mexican labor—it’s about Canadian oil.

Think as far back as two weeks ago. I know you can do it. Remember, Britney’s dad started taking control of her life… everyone you know bugged the hell out of you by constantly saying: “I drink your milkshake…”

Anyway, back then, Hillary and Obama were campaigning among blue-collar crowds in Ohio when news broke out that someone from the Obama camp called the Canadian government and reassured them that the tough talk on NAFTA was all just an act. Later, it was revealed that Hillary probably made a similar call.

All of which begged the question: Why would they care so much about Canada if this was about NAFTA? Hasn’t Uncle Lou told us time and time again that NAFTA is all about Mexico: its cheap labor, and its non-existent regulations, which entice American factories to relocate south of the border?

Obama Replies, “Scoreboard!”

As Barack Obama chalked up another primary victory Tuesday in Mississippi, Hillary Rodham Clinton challenged rival Barack Obama on his record on energy policy. Campaigning in Pennsylvania and speaking in the state capitol, Clinton accused Obama of being all talk and no walk, by suggesting that he voted for the 2005 Cheney-crafted Energy Policy Act. A bill that Clinton claims is lining the pockets […]

It’s time to sequester voters in Nevada, and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton headed for the jugular vein today by declaring if she’s president, Yucca Mountain will be a thing of the past.

The State of Nevada has opposed the Yucca Mountain project since it’s inception, and now, years overdue and billions of taxpayers dollars later, it’s still at least 10 years away from completion.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democrat and the junior US Senator from the state of New York. She is serving her second term in the US Senate. Hillary, as everyone in world probably knows, was the Former First Lady of the United States. She is married to Former President Bill Clinton and they have a daughter, Chelsea.

Senator Clinton has been the perceived front-runner in the Democratic primary since she entered the race. Although, even in New Hampshire where support among registered Democrats remains high for both her and the former President, the race is tightening as we approach the January 8th primary.

She has been to the Granite State on many occasions, and she has brought Bill with her on many of her trips. Her political campaign in NH is heavily populated with Democratic activists and party officials who supported her husband and now support her.

In May, I met Senator Clinton in Manchester and asked her about the role of clean energy in her Administration. Clinton said, “I want to invest in clean energy technologies, and to establish a national program to reduce global warming and increase our fuel efficiency.”

When I followed up with a question about energy independence, she answered instead about climate change, “The United States must be a leader in international efforts to address the problem of climate change.”