Oct 19 - McClatchy Washington Bureau
On the big picture, Barack Obama and John McCain agree - with a shared sense
of urgency - that the U.S. can't keep pumping greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere unchecked, because their accumulation threatens to bring rising
seas, mass extinction of plants and animals, and more hunger, disease and
natural disasters.
Scientists say the next president must take action on climate change. McCain
and Obama both say that the country will need to respond with a system to
limit the pollution from heat-trapping gases, a plan known for short as "cap
and trade."
While their approach sounds similar, the differences between the two
candidates could produce very different outcomes because the task is so
enormous. A plan to help stop global warming will require developing
different sources of energy and a new system to use and pay for them. It
also will reshape the nation's economy and security.
A cap-and-trade plan would require companies to buy permits for greenhouse
gases. Those that find low-cost ways to reduce emissions would need fewer
permits and could sell unused ones to less-efficient companies that need
them. The limit, or cap, on total emissions would decline every year. The
next president and Congress are expected to work out the details.
Both candidates say they support mandatory emissions reductions through cap
and trade. McCain's plan calls for a reduction to 1990 levels by 2020 and a
60 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050. Obama's plan has the same
2020 goal with an 80 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050.
Many congressional Republicans oppose an economywide cap-and-trade plan, but
there's support for such regulation even from some large companies,
including Shell, Chrysler and General Electric. They seek long-term planning
certainty and prefer regulation that works through market mechanisms.
Princeton geosciences and international affairs professor Michael
Oppenheimer said a cap-and-trade system is needed soon to form the basic
framework of regulation. "I'm a big supporter of market-based incentives,"
he said.
NASA climate scientist James Hansen recently said that the next president
and Congress "must define a course next year in which the United States
exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present
dangerous situation."
Otherwise, he said, it will become impossible to reduce the level of gases
enough to prevent changes such as rising oceans and dying plant and animal
species - what Hansen called "disastrous climate changes that spiral
dynamically out of humanity's control."
Both candidates told the Web site Sciencedebate2008.com that they accept the
scientific agreement that greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are
changing Earth's climate.
Obama: "There can no longer be any doubt that human activities are
influencing the global climate and we must react quickly and effectively."
McCain: "We know that greenhouse gas emissions, by retaining heat within the
atmosphere, threaten disastrous changes in the climate."
Here's what the candidates say they would do:
-On mandatory emissions reductions: Both want a mandatory cap-and-trade
system.
McCain broke from the Bush administration's opposition to mandatory controls
on emissions in 2003 and was among the first senators to push for a
cap-and-trade plan.
He also chaired the first hearings that brought leading climate scientists
to the witness table on Capitol Hill, and he led trips to remote parts of
the globe to bring Senate colleagues to where scientists studied polar ice,
oceans and the atmosphere.
-On coal: Coal produces half of America's electricity. McCain and Obama say
the U.S. should invest in technology that would capture carbon-dioxide
emissions from coal-burning power plants. It's the only way to keep CO2 from
coal out of the atmosphere, but it isn't close to commercial viability.
Obama would spend $150 billion on clean energy over 10 years. He also would
create a program to transfer clean technologies, including capture and
storage of emissions from coal plants, to developing countries.
Cambridge Energy Research Associates, which advises governments and energy
companies, has estimated that it will be at least two decades before the
technology to capture and store carbon dioxide from coal combustion is
widely used.
Phasing out coal, except where the carbon can be captured and stored
underground, "is the primary requirement for solving global warming,"
Hansen, the NASA scientist, told a congressional panel in June.
McCain's Web site says that "we cannot stop our use of coal" before carbon
capture and storage becomes widely available.
His campaign launched a Coalition to Protect Coal Jobs to talk about the
"advantages of tapping the country's vast coal reserves" and protecting coal
jobs, according to his campaign Web site.
McCain has said he'd invest $2 billion per year for 15 years to find ways to
permanently store the greenhouse gas emissions from coal.
Obama's energy plan says the U.S. should "prevent a new wave of traditional
coal facilities."
-On federal investment in clean energy: Obama's $150 billion over 10 years
would also cover such things as cleaner cars and more efficient buildings.
McCain has called for a $5,000 tax credit to people who buy zero-emission
cars and a $300 million prize for better batteries for plug-in hybrids and
all-electric cars.
-On renewable energy: Both presidential candidates say that they support tax
benefits for wind and solar. McCain voted against them in the past, or
didn't vote. In December 2007, the Senate failed by one vote to move ahead
with a measure to extend tax credits to wind and solar energy and cut tax
advantages for the oil industry. McCain was the only senator who didn't
vote. Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, voted for it.
-On nuclear power: It's a primary element of McCain's emissions-reduction
plan. He wants 45 new reactors built by 2030. Obama has said that more
nuclear energy likely will be needed, but problems with nuclear-waste
disposal must be resolved first.
-What their running mates say: McCain's choice, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin,
questions whether fossil-fuel combustion causes global warming.
"I'm not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in
our climate on human activity," she said in December.
Or, as she put it in the vice presidential debate: "I'm not one to attribute
every ... activity of man to the changes in the climate. There is something
to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature
changes on our planet." She went on to say that it wasn't important to know
the cause.
Biden said in the debate that recent climate changes are man-made. He also
has said that the U.S. must decrease emissions and lead in international
climate talks.
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MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
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U.S. taps Canada's oil sands - but at what cost?: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/53653.html
Science platforms offer similar goals but different paths: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/53699.html
An MCT OnePage summary of where McCain and Obama stand on 17 issues is
available at: http://www.mctdirect.com/onepages/search.php?s=issuespg
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