December 2, 2008 7:16:23 PM CST
(Newser) – John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin completes his transformation from the most green-leaning GOP candidate for years into just another mouthpiece for Big Oil, Thomas L. Friedman writes in the New York Times. Palin backs drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and she does not believe humans play any role in climate change, Friedman notes.
"Palin’s much-ballyhooed confrontations with the oil industry have all been about who should get more of the windfall profits—not how to end our addiction," Friedman writes. Barack Obama should be doing more to promote his green agenda, argues Friedman. With Palin putting the last nail in Maverick McCain's coffin, the choice for voters concerned about the environment is crystal clear, he notes.
Source New York Times
Oct 2, 08 7:30 PM CDT A new website from British energy company Npower is encouraging children to spy on their parents—to save the environment, Mark Ontkush writes on Treehugger. After completing a series of “missions” on the Climate Cops site, kids are kitted out with the necessities for keeping careful tabs on the energy-consumption habits of local adults, and are encouraged to track the folks' “energy crimes.” More »
Sep 23, 08 10:09 AM CDT Sarah Palin disagrees with both John McCain and scientific consensus on the causes of global warming, acknowledging that while Alaska has warmed by 4 degrees during the past 50 years, she’s not among those who “attribute it to being man-made.” McCain, meanwhile, has made a signature issue of capping carbon emissions in an effort to reverse climate change, the Washington Post reports. More »
Sep 3, 08 12:20 PM CDT Sarah Palin’s Alaska experience gives her just the right expertise for a year when the price of gasoline is going to be the hot-button issue, writes Larry Kudlow in National Review. Her energy policy? “I call it drill, drill, drill,” says Kudlow approvingly. "Our abundant country can produce more energy at lower cost if government gets out of the way." More »
Aug 29, 08 4:50 PM CDT Gov. Sarah Palin wants the US to drill for oil, offshore or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in her home state. Not only does recent drilling convert John McCain get backup, Andrew Leonard writes in Salon, but Dems will have a hard time branding Palin a pawn of Big Oil: She’s had a history of taxing oil companies and badmouthing lobbyists. More »
Aug 27, 08 1:37 PM CDT The committee assembling the Republican Party’s election platform has officially taken drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off the table, in an effort to help John McCain’s presidential campaign, the AP reports. McCain doesn’t support tapping the protected lands, and committee members say they’d rather convert McCain on the issue after he’s elected. More »
Back in June, the Republican Party had a round-up. One of the unbranded cattle—a wizened old maverick named John McCain—finally got roped. No more maverick. - Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive director
Barack Obama should be doing more to promote his green agenda, but at least he had the courage, in the heat of a Democratic primary, not to pander to voters by calling for a lifting of the gasoline tax. - Thomas L. Friedman
Students, when McCain comes to your campus and flashes a few posters of wind turbines and solar panels, ask him why he has been AWOL when it came to Congress supporting these new technologies. - Thomas L. Friedman
While the northern edge of her state literally falls into the rising Arctic Ocean, Sarah Palin says, ‘The jury is still out on global warming.’ She’s the one hanging the jury—and John McCain is going to let her. - Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope
John McCain • Sarah Palin • climate change • environment • environmentalism • oil drilling • energy policy
