Topics in the News: Kyoto Treaty
Bill Richardson on Energy & Oil
: Oct 26, 2007
Carbon auction: use market to make emitter pay for emissions
We need to build a market in which it costs to emit global warming pollution. We need to manage the carbon market.Now, carbon emissions have no economic consequences except to benefit the individual emitter who gets to sell a produce or service.
In that sense society is subsidizing not only climate change, but the emitter's individual business decision.
The formula needs to be reversed. Carbon emissions must cost the emitter.
Once this step is taken, there will be a different type of economic race--no longer a race to the bottom, a race to produce and sell more products regardless of their carbon impacts, but instead a race to the best, most affordable options that
reduce carbon emissions.
I propose the concept of a "carbon auction." The tents are simple: it will cost to emit carbon, and the aggregate amount of carbon pollution rights will diminish year-to-year.
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Source: Leading by Example, by Bill Richardson, p.131-132
Dennis Kucinich on Energy & Oil
: Jul 23, 2007
Current approach to energy results in war for oil
Q: What about global warming?A: We have to understand the connection between global warring and global warming. Because when we start talking about wars for oil, we're essentially keeping the same approach to energy. We need to move away from reliance
on oil and coal and toward reliance on wind and solar. That's the basis of my WGA, Works Green Administration, where we take an entirely new approach to organize the entire country around sustainability, around conservation.
Q:
Are your fellow candidates green enough?
A: No. If you support, for example, in Iraq, if you say that Iraq should privatize its oil for the US oil companies, then what you're doing is you're continuing a commitment to use more oil.
If you believe that all options should be put on the table with respect to Iran, that's about oil. So we need to move away from reliance on oil. And that's really connected to our defense policy, and I'm the one who gets the connection.
Click for Dennis Kucinich on other issues.
Source: 2007 YouTube Democratic Primary debate, Charleston SC
Chris Dodd on Energy & Oil
: Jul 23, 2007
Impose corporate carbon tax; need price incentives for GHGs
[I support a] corporate carbon tax. You've got to tax polluters. You've got to separate the price differential so that we can move away from fossil fuels that do so much damage to our environment, to our economy, to our future, to jobs in this country.
Until you deal with the issue of price, until you impose a corporate carbon tax, we will never get away from fossil fuels. It's the only way this can be achieved. You have to advocate that if you're serious about global warming.
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Source: 2007 YouTube Democratic Primary debate, Charleston SC
John Cox on Energy & Oil
: Jul 2, 2007
Support domestic drilling; oppose Kyoto Treaty
Diversity is the key to our energy future. We are too dependent on expensive fossil fuels. I support alternative fuels and domestic drilling. Free market incentives and sensible regulation can address the problem of pollution.
I oppose the Kyoto Treaty, which would devastate the U.S. economy. Fiscal responsibility and respect for property rights is key to environmental protection. Polluters should bear economic penalties.
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Source: Campaign website, cox2008.com
Dennis Kucinich on Energy & Oil
: Jun 20, 2007
Twin threats of global warring and global warming
We need to understand the connection between peace and the environment. We know that life on our planet is threatened by the twin threats of global warring and global warming. They are linked, and we have to understand that as we recognize the world as
being interconnected and interdependent, we know that resource wars are passe and that the focus on sustainability will create peace.We know that as we move away from an addiction to oil and coal and go to green energy, to wind and solar and fuel
cell technology, we reduce our carbon footprint; we reduce this quest and lust for oil. We move forward with harmony with each other and harmony with nature.
As we reduce our carbon footprint, simultaneously we work with the world community.
The Kyoto Climate Change Treaty is just the first step. We need to go beyond Kyoto. We need to reach out to the world and reduce our carbon emissions, and we need to have environmental protection to secure our food supplies.
Click for Dennis Kucinich on other issues.
Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference
John Edwards on Energy & Oil
: Jun 19, 2007
80% greenhouse emissions reductions by the year 2050
We have a crisis on this planet, and that crisis is global warming. America has got to show that we can be an example for good, not an example for bad. We're 4% of the world's population emitting 25% of the world's greenhouse gases. We're a terrible
example. We're the worst polluter on the planet. China is catching us, but they're still behind. I think we ought to cap greenhouse emissions in the US. We ought to ratchet that cap down every single year. We ought to reduce greenhouse emissions by at
least 80% by the year 2050.
Below the cap, we ought to auction off the right to emit any greenhouse gases. The proceeds of that auction ought to be used to transform the way we produce energy in this country, a national investment in wind, solar,
cellulose-based biofuels.
America needs to put at least a billion dollars into the development and implementation of carbon capture, carbon sequestration technology, and until we do, there should not be another coal-fired power plant built.
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Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference
Bill Richardson on Energy & Oil
: Jun 19, 2007
Bush won't follow the Kyoto treaty, but my state does
I'm proud of making New Mexico the clean energy state. We're doing something about global warming in New Mexico. We're requiring utility companies to produce energy from renewable sources. We've invested directly in energy efficiency.
We're promoting renewable energy with tax credits for wind, solar and biofuels. We've eliminated taxes on hybrid cars. And I set tough standards to reduce greenhouse emissions. Maybe the country and President Bush don't follow the
Kyoto treaty, but my state does.In his typical fashion, after years of refusing to admit that global warming exists, the president has started lecturing developing nations and telling them to clean up their act. Now, Mr. President, we don't need
half-hearted measures like the European agreement that just came out of the G-8 summit. The Kyoto treaty has been sitting on your desk for six and a half years. You might as well sign it now because in a year and a half, if you haven't, I will.
Click for Bill Richardson on other issues.
Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference
Hillary Clinton on Energy & Oil
: Jun 8, 2007
Extensive funding into alternative energy
At a Sept. 2005 global warming conference, Hillary told the audience there had been an "absence of leadership" by the Bush administration on climate change. She offered her own solution: "I would advocate a much more concerted effort on our government's
part to fund an extensive research project into alternative forms of energy."The next day there was a plenary session on global warming. The marquee attraction was Al Gore. Hillary and Gore had vied for
Bill's attention during his presidency, and that rivalry had only intensified after the Clintons left the White House. Bill privately told confidants that he believed that if Hillary emerged as the likely Democratic presidential nominee,
Gore would enter as a left-of-Hillary alternative.
One month later, Hillary unveiled a comprehensive clean-energy plan, tailed along the lines she had mentioned at the conference. She suffered the same fat as Gore: Nobody paid attention.
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Source: Her Way, by Jeff Gerth & Don Van Natta, p.276-277
Rudy Giuliani on Energy & Oil
: Jun 3, 2007
Accept global warming & work toward energy independence
Q: Is science wrong on global warming? And what, if any, steps would you take as president to address the issue of climate change?GIULIANI: I think we have to accept the view that scientists have that there is global warming and that humans contribute
to that. And the fact is that there is a way to deal with it and to address it in a way that we can also accomplish energy independence, which we need as a matter of national security. It's frustrating and really dangerous for us to see money going to
our enemies because we have to buy oil from certain countries. We should be supporting all the alternatives. We need a project similar to putting a man on the moon.
ROMNEY: Rudy Giuliani is right in terms of an
Apollo project to get us energy independent, and the effects of that on global warming are positive. It's a no-regrets policy. It's a great idea. [We need,] as a strategic imperative, energy independence for America. And it takes that Apollo project.
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Source: 2007 GOP debate at Saint Anselm College
Mitt Romney on Energy & Oil
: Jun 3, 2007
No-regrets policy: biofuel, nuclear power, drill ANWR
Q: Is science wrong on global warming? And what, if any, steps would you take as president to address the issue of climate change?GIULIANI: I think we have to accept the view that scientists have that there is global warming and that humans contribute
to that. It's frustrating and really dangerous for us to see money going to our enemies because we have to buy oil from certain countries. We should be supporting all the alternatives. We need a project similar to putting a man on the moon.
ROMNEY:
Rudy Giuliani is right in terms of an Apollo project to get us energy independent, and the effects of that on global warming are positive. It's a no-regrets policy. It's a great idea. [We need,] as a strategic imperative, energy independence for America.
And it takes that Apollo project. It also takes biodiesel, biofuel, cellulosic ethanol, nuclear power, more drilling in ANWR. We have to be serious also about efficiency and that's going to allow us to become energy independent.
Click for Mitt Romney on other issues.
Source: 2007 GOP debate at Saint Anselm College
Tom Tancredo on Energy & Oil
: May 15, 2007
Global warming could be from humans, or could be nature
Q: Do the US and Europe bear a special responsibility for global warming because we put most of the stuff up there?A: First of all, the whole issue of global warming, for every single scientist that tells you it's happening and that it's our fault
-- and they'll stack up to here in reports -- I can stack up another group of reports that say just the opposite. I don't know whether or not we are responsible, we the human race, are responsible for global warming.
It certainly could be happening, it certainly could be a natural phenomenon. If it's the latter, of course there isn't much we can do about that. If it's the former, there is something that we can do about it, and I'm all for it, and that is
of course to reduce our dependence on petroleum products. If we do that, we automatically reduce the carbon emissions that people claim are causing global warming. And I'm all for doing that.
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Source: 2007 Republican Debate in South Carolina
Tom Tancredo on Energy & Oil
: May 15, 2007
FactCheck: Global warming has dissent, but not 50-50 split
Tancredo claimed that scientific studies were equally split on the existence of global warming and whether humans are responsible. Actually, we find that an overwhelming majority of the scientific community agrees that global warming is taking place and
that human activity is predominantly to blame. Most recently the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), overseen jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization, released a report representing the
work of 600 authors from 40 countries and 113 government representatives, saying, "The primary source of the increased atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial period results from fossil fuel use."
It's true that there are dissenters to this consensus view. But the split is by no means 50-50 as Tancredo claimed.
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Source: FactCheck.org on 2007 Republican Debate in South Carolina
Chris Dodd on Energy & Oil
: May 6, 2007
Carbon tax of $50B/year to make alternatives competitive
Q: To fight global warming, your somewhat controversial idea is a corporate carbon tax on big polluters which you say would raise $50 billion a year. Wouldn't a lot of that be passed on to consumers and also put a real drag on the economy?A:
Well, not really. Look, the great barrier to moving away from our dependency on foreign oil coming out of the Middle East and elsewhere is price. The great elasticity in the price of oil can be anywhere from $70 a barrel down to
$20 a barrel at still make profits at it. So any time renewable & alternative energies come along to be competitive economically, that price of fossil fuels can drop & make them less competitive. A tax on polluting emissions would allow alternative ideas
to be competitive with them economically. You can't do that unless there's a carbon tax. I know it's tough. But the carbon tax and a 50-mile-per-gallon standard that I'm also advocating here on automobiles will help us get there very quickly, in my view.
Click for Chris Dodd on other issues.
Source: Fox News Sunday: 2007 "Choosing the President" interviews
Duncan Hunter on Energy & Oil
: May 3, 2007
Take taxes down to zero for the alternative energy sources
Global warming & the need to be energy-independent gives us a great opportunity. We should bring together all of our colleges, the private sector, government laboratories, & undertake what will be a great challenge to remove energy dependence on the
Middle East & at the same time, help the climate. We need to take taxes down to zero for the alternative energy sources. We need to make sure that all the licensing from our laboratories goes to the American manufacturing sector for these energy systems.
Click for Duncan Hunter on other issues.
Source: 2007 GOP primary debate, at Reagan library, hosted by MSNBC
Fred Thompson on Energy & Oil
: Apr 13, 2007
Solar system is warming, not earth
Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem
to be heating up a bit, including Pluto. NASA says the Martian South Pole's ice cap has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter's caught the same cold, because it's warming up too, like
Pluto. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non-signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to
recycle.
Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our SOLAR system have in common. Solar? I wonder. Nah, the science is absolutely decided. There's a consensus. Ask Galileo.
Click for Fred Thompson on other issues.
Source: Thompson's blog on ABCradio.com, "Plutonic Warming"
Rudy Giuliani on Energy & Oil
: Mar 26, 2007
No new energy tax; focus on alternatives instead
Q: Al Gore wants carbon caps and a carbon tax. What's your take?A: I don't like taxes. I don't know how to make that any clearer. I don't like taxes. Inventing new ones is a very big mistake. Find other ways to do it. If you want to deal with
global warming, the way to deal with global warming is to develop these alternative technologies. Get serious about energy independence, so we wouldn't have to send money to our enemies. Let's put the resources in to catch up on ethanol.
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Source: Interview on "Kudlow & Company", RealClearPolitics.com
Rudy Giuliani on Energy & Oil
: Mar 26, 2007
Signing Kyoto would just move CO2 emissions to China & India
Q: If we sign Kyoto, wouldn't then a lot of factories and jobs and investments just move offshore to China and India?A: They would move offshore to China and India and it would have no impact on global warming.
Whatever your scientific conclusion about global warming, whether it's manmade or it isn't or whatever, the reality is that if you don't have restrictions on
China, if you don't have restrictions on India, our contribution, ultimately, is going to be minor. We could put all these restrictions on ourselves and have just as much arguable global warming if
China, India, some of these other countries that are going to be contributing a lot more to this don't become part of some kind of system to create alternatives.
Click for Rudy Giuliani on other issues.
Source: Interview on "Kudlow & Company", RealClearPolitics.com
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Feb 15, 2007
Ocean warming causes stronger hurricanes, like Katrina
Scientists have been using evermore accurate computer models that long ago predicted a much higher range of ocean temperatures as a result of man-made global warming. The actual ocean temperatures are completely consistent with what has been predicted,
and they're way above the range of natural variability. As the oceans get warmer, storms get stronger. In 2004, Florida was hit by 4 unusually powerful hurricanes. That same year, Japan set an all-time record for typhoons. The previous record was 7.
In 2004, 10 typhoons hit Japan.
The emerging consensus links global warming to increasingly destructive power of hurricanes, increasing the strength of the average hurricane a full half-step on the well-known 5-step scale. As water temperatures go up,
wind velocity goes up. One major study came out less than a month before Hurricane Katrina hit.
When Katrina first hit, it was only a category 1 storm. Then, it passed over the unusually warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico [and became category 5].
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p. 78-94
Mike Huckabee on Energy & Oil
: Jan 4, 2007
Kyoto was a mistake, but "Earth in the Balance" is not
You do not have to hug a tree to appreciate one. It would have been a mistake to sign the Kyoto Treaty since it would have given foreign nations the power to impose standards on us. But Al Gore was not entirely wrong when he spoke of earth "in the
balance." Balance is exactly what we need more of in this discussion. All of us need to have a healthy respect for our resources, a responsible level of use of those resources, and a comprehensive plan for either preserving or renewing those resources.
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Source: From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p. 70
Mike Gravel on Energy & Oil
: Dec 25, 2006
Make Global Warming a matter of national security
The Gravel Agenda: When elected President by the American people, I will:- Make Global Warming a matter of national security;
- Rebuild our gridlocked transportation system and our crumbling national infrastructure;
-
Launch and leading a massive global scientific effort to end energy dependence on oil and integrating the world's scientific community to this task.
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Source: Campaign website, www.gravel2008.us, "Issues"
Newt Gingrich on Energy & Oil
: Dec 1, 2006
Kyoto treaty is bad for the environment and bad for America
Kyoto is a bad treaty. It is bad for the environment and it is bad for America. It sets standards that will require massive investments by the US but virtually no investments by other countries. The Senate was right when it voted unanimously against the
treaty. We should insist on revisiting the entire Kyoto process and resolutely reject efforts to force us into an anti-American, environmentally failed treaty.The US should support substantial research into climate science, managing the response to
climate change, & in developing new non-carbon energy systems. It is astounding to watch people blithely propose trillions of dollars in spending on a topic on which we have failed to spend modest amounts to better understand.
It is astounding to have
people focus myopically on carbon as the sole source of climate change. The world's climate has changed in the past with sudden speed and dramatic impact. Global warming may happen. On the other hand it is possible Europe will experience another ice age.
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Source: Gingrich Communications website, www.newt.org
Mike Gravel on Energy & Oil
: Nov 1, 2006
Immediately sign the Kyoto protocol
Energy and environment are two sides of the same coin. But it is a global problem, not just an American problem. The U.S. should immediately sign the Kyoto protocol and seek its ratification by the Senate. Carbon energy should be taxed
to provide the funding for a global effort led by the US, with willing allies, to bring together the world's scientific and engineering communities to develop energy alternatives to remove the world's energy dependence on carbon.
Click for Mike Gravel on other issues.
Source: Speech at the N.H. Institute of Politics, Manchester NH
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: May 26, 2006
Global warming causes more floods & also more droughts
There has been record flooding in China, which, as one of the planet's oldest civilizations, keeps the best flood records of any nation in the world. Recently, for example, there were huge floods in Sichuan and Shandong provinces.
Paradoxically, however, global warming also causes not only more flooding, but also more drought. The nearby Anhui province was continuing to suffer a severe drought at the same time the neighboring areas were flooding.
One of the reasons for this paradox has to do with the fact that global warming not only increases precipitation worldwide but at the same time causes some of it to relocate.
A second reason for the paradoxical effect of global warming
is that while it produces more evaporation from the oceans to fill the warmer atmosphere with increased moisture, it also sucks more moisture out of the soil. Partly as a consequence, desertification has been increasing in the world decade by decade.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p.112&118
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: May 26, 2006
Skeptics point to historical warming--but today is hotter
The correlation between temperate and CO2 concentrations over the last 1,000 years--as measured in the ice core record by Thompson's team--is striking.Nevertheless, the so-called global warming skeptics often say that global warming is really an
illusion reflecting nature's cyclical fluctuations. To support their view, they frequently refer to the Medieval Warm Period. But as [the historical] thermometer shows, the vaunted Medieval Warm Period was tiny compared to the enormous increases in
temperature of the last half-century.
In any given year, it might seem as if the average global temperature is going down, but the overall trend is very clear. And in recent years, the rate of increase has been accelerating.
In fact, if you look at the 21 hottest years measured, 20 of the last 21 occurred within the last 25 years. The hottest year on record during this entire period was 2005.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p. 64&72-73
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: May 26, 2006
Dealing with global warming inconvenient for rich & powerful
As for why so many people still resist what the facts clearly show, I think, in part, the reason is that the truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives.
The truth about global warming is especially inconvenient and unwelcome to some powerful people and companies making enormous sums of money from activities they know full well will have to change in order to ensure the planet's livability.
These people--especially those at a few multinational companies with the most at stake--have been spending many millions of dollars every year in figuring out ways of sowing public confusion about global warming.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p.284
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: May 26, 2006
Consensus on global warming, but newspapers fabricate doubt
Politicians often confuse self-interested arguments paid for by lobbyists & planted in the popular press with legitimate peer-reviewed studies published in reputable scientific journals. For example, the global warming skeptics cite one article more than
any other in arguing that global warming is just a myth: a statement of concern during the 1970s that the world might be in danger of entering a new ice age. But that article was published in Newsweek and never appeared in a peer-reviewed journal.
There is a misconception that the scientific community is in a state of disagreement about global warming. In fact, there is virtually no serious disagreement on the central points.
The misconception of disagreement is actually an illusion that has
been deliberately fostered by oil & coal companies. These companies want to prevent any new policies that would interfere with their current business plans that rely on the massive unrestrained dumping of CO2 into the Earth atmosphere every day.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore, p.260-3
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Apr 28, 2006
Global warming captured Gore's interest as student
This could be the ultimate remake for Gore, whose struggles with his persona during the 2000 campaign made him an object of ridicule. He seems more approachable now, and he's a first-rate teacher as he explains in "An Inconvenient Truth" about the
inescapable march of global warming, along with its consequences, that first captured his imagination as a college student. The film is not apocalyptic; you don't leave the theater feeling all is lost. Gore says he deliberately left out recent scientific
predictions that the world has just 10 years to reverse global warming or a tipping point will be reached beyond which it cannot be stopped. Reflections about the 2000 presidential race ("It was a hard blow, but you make the best of it"), a childhood
split between farm life and a hotel room in Washington and his beloved sister's death from lung cancer interspersed with the slide show give the movie a biopic feel that makes viewers wonder what might have been if history had taken a different turn.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: 2008 speculation: Eleanor Clift, Newsweek, "Gore Redux"
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Apr 28, 2006
An Inconvenient Truth: Gore's movie about global warming
A movie about Al Gore giving a PowerPoint presentation about global warming doesn't sound all that exciting [in Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth."]. Getting the country to face up to global warming is his life's mission, and it could be his ticket to
the presidency. Voters yearning for a principled leader who truly believes in something may find what they're looking for in the former vice president. Gore said that he's in the middle of a campaign, but it's not a campaign for a candidate. "Been there,
done that," he said. Nobody believes him. By not playing the overt political game, Gore may be putting in place the first issue-driven campaign of the 21st century, one that is premised on a big moral challenge that is becoming more real with soaring
gas prices and uncertain oil supplies.
Whether he is or isn't running almost doesn't matter. Gore has the luxury of waiting until late in the political season to announce. He has universal name recognition and a proven ability to raise money.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: 2008 speculation: Eleanor Clift, Newsweek, "Gore Redux"
Dennis Kucinich on Energy & Oil
: Aug 1, 2003
Would sign Kyoto climate change treaty
As a citizen of Planet Earth, I want this project for the same reason I will sign the Kyoto climate change treaty -- because we need it for our children and our grandchildren.
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Source: Campaign website, www.Kucinich.us, "On The Issues"
Dennis Kucinich on Energy & Oil
: Jun 17, 2003
Double our energy from renewable sources by 2010
Q: What is your view on our dependence on fossil fuels? A: There are many political obstacles - but the oil, auto and electric utility corporations won't be directing energy policy in a Kucinich White House. I will spur research and investment
in "alternative" energy sources - hydrogen, solar, wind and ocean - and make them mainstream. Clean energy technologies will produce new jobs. We can easily double our energy from renewable sources by 2010. I will sign the Kyoto climate change treaty.
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Source: MoveOn.org interview
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Feb 22, 2001
Press gives credit to discredited ideas in name of fairness
In his second journalism class at Columbia University, Gore asked students to critique media coverage of global climate change. Gore asked his students to read [several news pieces including] a piece that questioned the “gloom-and-doom” warnings about
global warming, which was ridiculed as an example of biased journalism. The prep material, also listed a few questions for students to ponder, such as, “Is it your view that scientists who are the minority on this issue and who remain unconvinced about
the seriousness of the climate change problem should be given space in any and all coverage of this issue?“ In class, Gore suggested it was a cop-out for journalists to include skeptical views in reports about global warming. In the name of balance,
Gore said that journalists give credit to discredited ideas. In writing a story about AIDS, for example, is it necessary to include someone questioning whether HIV produces AIDS, even though some still say it doesn’t? Gore asked his students.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: David Abel, Boston Globe, p. A5
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Nov 3, 2000
For Kyoto; for national parks; against drilling ANWR
| | Bush | Gore |
|---|
| Climate Change | Opposes Kyoto agreement; wants more research on causes & impact of global warming | Supports Kyoto agreement; believes human-induced global warming is
a real threat and must be remedied |
|---|
| Arctic Wildlife Refuge | Supports opening 8% of refuge area to oil exploration | Opposes opening the refuge to oil exploration |
|---|
| Conservation | Supports Land and Water
Conservation Act; opposes new national monuments; backs tax breaks and incentives for private conservation | Supports Land and Water Conservation Act; Clinton/Gore created 13 new national parks |
|---|
| Energy | Backs increased
domestic exploration of natural gas & oil; more research on clean-coal technology | Supports tax credits & incentives for renewable-energy or efficiency improvements in homes, cars, power plants; backs aid for cleaner mass transit |
|---|
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: Boston Globe, p. A28
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Oct 27, 2000
UN report confirms global warming; Gore revives the issue
Gore revived the issue of global warming, a subject from his past that he has generally ignored this year. Seizing on a new UN report asserting that pollution appears to be raising world temperatures, Gore tried to portray global warming as a populist
issue. He called the effort to stop global warming a fight against big polluters, in an attack similar to those he has made on drug companies, insurance companies, & health-maintenance organizations. “It does not have to happen and won’t happen if we put
our minds to solving this problem,“ Gore said of the predicted rise in temperature and problems that would create.Gore’s turn to global warming suggests he now thinks he can use the subject to cast an unfavorable light on Bush, who has expressed
skepticism about the danger. Global warming has long been a central concern of Gore’s. But he has rarely raised environmental issues during his presidential campaign. When he has, he’s cast them as measures to reduce energy dependence on foreign sources.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: Bob Davis & Glenn Simpson, Wall Street Journal
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Oct 11, 2000
Carbon dioxide causes global warming and we should act
Q: What about global warming?BUSH: It’s an issue that we need to take very seriously. I don’t think we know the solution to global warming yet and I don’t think we’ve got all the facts before we make decisions.
GORE: But I disagree that we don’t know the cause of global warming. I think that we do. It’s pollution, carbon dioxide and other chemicals that are even more potent. Look, the world’s temperatures going up, weather patterns are changing,
storms are getting more violent and unpredictable. And what are we going to tell our children?
BUSH: Yeah, I agree. Some of the scientists, I believe, haven’t they been changing their opinion a
little bit on global warming? There’s a lot of differing opinions and before we react I think it’s best to have the full accounting, full understanding of what’s taking place.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: (X-ref Bush) Presidential Debate at Wake Forest University
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Sep 12, 2000
$150B Energy Security and Environment Trust Fund
Q: What would you do to promote the use of cleaner energy? A: Encouraging consumers and producers to use cleaner energy is critical to ensuring we have clean air and fighting the threat of global warming. That is why I have proposed a bold,
unprecedented Energy Security and Environment Trust Fund - a $150 billion fund to help develop clean new technologies. This fund will provide tax credits and financial incentives to power producers who reduce pollutant emissions; consumers who
purchase energy-efficient vehicles, homes and home appliances; and communities that build energy-saving forms of public transportation. These measures will stimulate
economic growth, create new jobs, reduce our nation’s dependence on unreliable foreign sources of oil and clean up the nation’s air and water.
Click for Al Gore on other issues.
Source: Associated Press
Hillary Clinton on Energy & Oil
: Sep 9, 2000
Ratify Kyoto; more mass transit
As Senator, I will work for New York to get its fair share of federal mass transit funds and to increase the amount of money that goes to transit funds. And, I will vote to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to bring all nations
together to address global warming and build a better future for us all.
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Source: www.hillary2000.org, “Environment”
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Apr 23, 2000
Kyoto goals are an indispensable first step
As record floods alternate with record ice-storms, as record-breaking hot months are followed by even hotter months a year later, who can afford to wait? The US took the lead in convincing other nations that a voluntary international agreement to reduce
carbon pollution was no longer enough--that we needed to negotiate a binding timetable to meet specific goals. When I led the US delegation to the Kyoto Conference in 1997, we worked with 180 other nations to put the world on track to reduce the carbon
pollution pouring into the atmosphere. The Kyoto agreement isn’t the final answer to global warming, but it is the indispensable first step. Our next step is to seek meaningful participation from developing nations and submit the Kyoto agreement to
the Senate for ratification. I will stay and fight on this issue until we overcome the special-interest opposition, abroad and at home, that threatens to extend and worsen global warming. The Kyoto goals are both practical and economically beneficial.
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Source: New foreword to Earth in the Balance, p. xvii
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Apr 23, 2000
Global Warming is a clear & present threat; but preventable
Global warming is no longer a distant threat; it’s as real, as clear and present an issue, with profound effects on people’s lives, as war and peace or recession and poverty--and the effects are only just beginning to be felt.
There are still some
scientists--a shrinking but vocal minority, invariable invoked by special interests--who deny or doubt climate change or its relationship to carbon dioxide pollution. The flaw in the argument this time is that if the skeptics are as wrong as it appears,
and if we do not act now, the crisis of global warming will inflict enormous, even irreversible damage. And it is preventable if we act now, wisely and boldly.
It is worth remembering that big changes can occur quickly. There will probably be
some climate surprises. Melting of the arctic tundra could release huge quantities of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, which would greatly amplify climate change. Who can afford to wait?
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Source: New foreword to Earth in the Balance, p. xiv-xvi
John McCain on Energy & Oil
: Jan 13, 2000
Strength Clean Air & Water Acts; but not Kyoto
McCain supports the following principles regarding environmental issues:- Strengthen the regulation and enforcement of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, in order to “improve efficiency and effectiveness”.
- Require
states to fully compensate citizens when environmental regulations limit uses of privately-owned land, “consistent with Constitutional takings clause.”
- Does not support the United Nations (Kyoto Conference) treaty regarding global climate change.
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Source: Vote-Smart.org 2000 NPAT
Al Gore on Energy & Oil
: Oct 7, 1999
Public/private initiative to triple auto fuel efficiency
Environmentalist supporters noted that Gore:- Supported global warming research long before the issue was recognized as a serious threat
- Joined with Big Three automakers to create the Public/Private Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles
to triple the fuel efficiency of vehicles without increasing cost or reducing quality or safety
- launched a “livability initiative” to help communities preserve green space, ease traffic congestion and pursue regional “smart growth” strategies.
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Source: Associated Press, “Environmentalists Endorse”