The downside of electing McCain. He will get legislation with with the Dems in charge of Congress unless the outcry builds enough by then. The upside is that we don't get Obama. And that's a BIG upside.
McCain Repeats Call for Cap-and-Trade System
WSJ WASHINGTON WIRE
Laura Meckler reports on the presidential race from Portland, Ore.:
The U.S. is fighting the clock as the Earth warms to dangerous levels, Sen. John McCain says in a speech today in environmentally conscious Oregon. Reaching out to independent and moderate voters, he repeats his call for a cap-and-trade system whereby carbon-emitting companies would have to reduce emissions or pay for credits that allow them.
In excerpts prepared for delivery, Sen. McCain says that he won't allow the reluctance of China and India to reduce their emissions stop him from taking action in the U.S. "I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears," he says. And in a not-to-subtle swipe at President Bush, he adds: "I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges… The United States will lead." Mr. Bush and other Republicans have resisted mandatory controls as long as developing nations fail to control their carbon emissions.
The speech comes after several weeks of red-meat conservative speeches on Iraq, taxes, health care and judges and is part of Sen. McCain's effort to break from President Bush on certain issues even as he embraces other of his policies. (See preview of the speech in today's Wall Street Journal.)
Sen. McCain has backed cap-and-trade legislation in the past. Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama also support cap-and-trade, though they differ with Sen. McCain on how the system should be structured.
He also directly addresses those —many of whom are in his Republican Party— who question whether global warming is of concern and whether humans are to blame. "We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring," he says.
"We know that greenhouse gasses are heavily implicated as a cause of climate change. And we know that among all greenhouse gasses, the worst by far is the carbon-dioxide that results from fossil-fuel combustion."
The unofficial Republican presidential nominee said he would impose specific goals to controlling carbon emissions. He said by 2012, he would seek to return to 2005 levels; by 2020, to 1990 levels. By 2050, he says, the U.S. should reduce emissions to 60% lower than they were in 1990.
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