8/27/08 Press Release from www.lcv.org :The League of Conservation Voters has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States because of his record-setting plans for a clean energy future and his proven record as an environmental champion. As the party conventions highlight the differences between Senators Obama and McCain, LCV presents the Top Ten Energy and Enviromental reasons why every American should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden on November 4:
10. Look to the future: Senator Obama offers the most comprehensive energy plan of any Presidential nominee in history, it will end our dependence on foreign oil and create as many as 5,000,000 jobs. Senator McCain’s plan continues the Bush Administration’s policy of appeasement to Big Oil, does nothing to reduce our dependence on oil, and isn’t as good as Paris Hilton’s.
9. You pollute, you pay: Obama and Biden support plan to make polluters pay for pollution credits and to clean up toxic waste. McCain wants us to foot the bill for clean-up and to give polluters billions in tax breaks and subsidies.
8. Keeping us healthy: Obama and Biden have fought to keep our air and water clean. McCain has voted against clean water ten times and voted six times to make it harder for states and the EPA to keep our air clean.
7. Listening to the scientists: The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that America must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 in order to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Obama’s plan will reach that goal. McCain’s plan falls far short.
6. The record speaks for itself: Senator Barack Obama earned a lifetime environmental voting score of 86%. Senator Biden earned an 83%. Senator John McCain earned a 24% score.
5. Decisions are made by those who show up: In the last two years, John McCain missed EVERY SINGLE major vote on energy. One vital 2007 bill, to move billions of dollars in tax credits from the oil industry to wind, solar and other clean energy sources, failed by one vote: John McCain’s. Obama and Biden, also running for President, voted for it.
4. Saving money at the pump: Obama proposes to double the fuel efficiency of our cars in 18 years, reducing our oil consumption by at least 35% or 10 millions barrels per day. McCain voted against increasing fuel efficiency in 2003 and 2005. He missed the 2007 vote. Presumably, he ran out of gas.
3. We’re not alone: For more than 20 years, Joe Biden has been at the forefront of the fight against global warming. In 1986, he offered the first Senate bill to fight global warming pollution. Since then, he has been the Senate’s strongest voice for making America the international leader in reducing global warming pollution and exporting clean technology.
2. Higher standards: To create millions of new jobs, we must boost production of renewable electricity. Obama plans create 25% of our electricity from clean energy by 2025. McCain opposes any national renewable energy standard.
1. Judge him by his friends: Senator McCain accepted more than $2 million from the oil and gas industry, more than half of that since he changed his position on offshore drilling last month. His forthcoming plan to open America’s playgrounds and sandboxes to drilling is expected to net another $1.2 million.
10. Look to the future: Senator Obama offers the most comprehensive energy plan of any Presidential nominee in history, it will end our dependence on foreign oil and create as many as 5,000,000 jobs. Senator McCain’s plan continues the Bush Administration’s policy of appeasement to Big Oil, does nothing to reduce our dependence on oil, and isn’t as good as Paris Hilton’s.
9. You pollute, you pay: Obama and Biden support plan to make polluters pay for pollution credits and to clean up toxic waste. McCain wants us to foot the bill for clean-up and to give polluters billions in tax breaks and subsidies.
8. Keeping us healthy: Obama and Biden have fought to keep our air and water clean. McCain has voted against clean water ten times and voted six times to make it harder for states and the EPA to keep our air clean.
7. Listening to the scientists: The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that America must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 in order to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Obama’s plan will reach that goal. McCain’s plan falls far short.
6. The record speaks for itself: Senator Barack Obama earned a lifetime environmental voting score of 86%. Senator Biden earned an 83%. Senator John McCain earned a 24% score.
5. Decisions are made by those who show up: In the last two years, John McCain missed EVERY SINGLE major vote on energy. One vital 2007 bill, to move billions of dollars in tax credits from the oil industry to wind, solar and other clean energy sources, failed by one vote: John McCain’s. Obama and Biden, also running for President, voted for it.
4. Saving money at the pump: Obama proposes to double the fuel efficiency of our cars in 18 years, reducing our oil consumption by at least 35% or 10 millions barrels per day. McCain voted against increasing fuel efficiency in 2003 and 2005. He missed the 2007 vote. Presumably, he ran out of gas.
3. We’re not alone: For more than 20 years, Joe Biden has been at the forefront of the fight against global warming. In 1986, he offered the first Senate bill to fight global warming pollution. Since then, he has been the Senate’s strongest voice for making America the international leader in reducing global warming pollution and exporting clean technology.
2. Higher standards: To create millions of new jobs, we must boost production of renewable electricity. Obama plans create 25% of our electricity from clean energy by 2025. McCain opposes any national renewable energy standard.
1. Judge him by his friends: Senator McCain accepted more than $2 million from the oil and gas industry, more than half of that since he changed his position on offshore drilling last month. His forthcoming plan to open America’s playgrounds and sandboxes to drilling is expected to net another $1.2 million.
For original post source, click here to go to The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) site
Photo source, click here.
WOW! Thank you so much for posting this information. I'm going to copy and send it out to my family and friends.
ReplyDelete-Elsie
I am interested in facts. I don't think that there is any truth to this vote.
ReplyDeleteIf you watched Obama’s speech and think it is great ? You might want to verfiy for the facts and the actions that have been done by clicking here.
ReplyDeleteFor those statement that Obama said that he would support troops when he ACTUALLY voted against the $94.4 billion dollars funding for both wars.
Gas Relief ? Maybe not .
Barack Obama Opposes Immediate Gas Tax Relief For American Families. Obama: “I think John McCain’s proposal for a three month tax holiday is a bad idea.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Campaign Event, Blue Bell, PA, 4/21/08)
He wants to institute the windfall profit tax upon the oil companies similar to carter’s adminstration which have forced americans to suffer with the raising gas prices back in 1970s.
There are tons more facts and misleading claims on the page by clicking the link above!
McCain 2008!
anonymous,
ReplyDeleteyou bring a very valid perspective to this discussion - i checked the link you posted, and see misleading claims #6 - as relevant to the discussion here...since it discusses energy. do you want to elaborate on that and write up a post for ecodeaf? we would be honored. email us at ecodeaf@gmail.com!
raychelle
I strongly recommend doing some reading outside of the JohnMcCain.com or BarackObama.com web sites. Go to different newspapers articles and web sites to get the feelings from different people around the country.
ReplyDeleteThis article is a good example...
McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy
Source: http://yubanet.com/opinions/Sierra-Club-McCain-VP-Pick-Completes-Shift-to-Bush-Energy-Policy.php
Washington, DC: Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope issues the
following statement in reaction to Senator McCain's pick of Governor Sarah
Palin for Vice President:
"With the pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for his running mate, John
McCain's race towards the Bush administration's failed energy policy is now
complete."
"John McCain was once willing to stand up to his own party, but now that he
is running for President, he supports the same Bush policies and powerful
special interests that put us in the grip of the oil companies. One of the
last remaining independent policies putting him at odds with Bush was his
opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, yet he has
now picked a running mate who has opposed holding Big Oil accountable and
been dismissive of alternative energy while focusing her work on more oil
drilling in a wildlife refuge and off of our coasts."
"Palin herself told Roll Call earlier this week, 'When I look every day, the
big oil company's building is right out there next to me, and it's quite a
reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil
industry.'" (Roll Call, 8/25/08)
"No one is closer to the the oil industry than Governo Palin. Along with
her support for drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts,
she also opposes a windfall profit tax on the richest oil companies. Under
her leadership, Alaska has sued the federal governent for considering
listing the Polar Bear as a threatened species even though global warming
threatens its very existence. She has been dismissive of alternative energy,
saying "alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require
more than 10 years to develop" (The Post and Courier Charleston, SC,
8/16/08), when in reality it is the oil she would like to drill that would
take a decade to bring to market."
"Senator McCain has lost any chance of having a balanced or moderate ticket
with this choice and has instead opted for the same, business-as-usual
reliance on the outdated oil companies that has been the hallmark of the
Bush-Cheney administration. On the third anniversay of the hurricane that
knocked loose oil rigs and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf
Coast that is bracing for another hit, McCain is sending a terribly
indifferent message by selecting a candidate who only repeats Big Oil's
talking points."
"Senators Obama and Biden share the common goals of putting America back to
work by building a balanced clean energy economy, taking on Big Oil and
meeting the challenge of global warming. Under their leadership, our economy
can become stronger, and our world cleaner and safer."
-----
I personally feel we would have much better eco-successes under Obama/Biden than McCain/Palin.
Biden spoke loudly against global warming since late 1980s!
Palin has strong relationships with oil companies and that's not a good news for global warming. She doesn't care about the future existence of polar bears, too!
~A
To the anonymous McCain supporter;
ReplyDelete1) When voting on a bill, you have to take into consideration exactly how it is structured, rather than generalizing it into the idea of "You either support the troops or you don't with your vote on this bill". Politicians can and do refuse to vote for flawed bills. You cannot ignore this fact while trying to make the argument you were trying to make.
Which bills specifically are you speaking of? If it was HR 1591 in the spring of 2007, McCain also voted against the bill because he also didn't like how the bill was structured either.
2) Jimmy Carter's initiatives for the environment which seem so popular again today stalled in the era of cheap oil. When did we finally start thinking about alternative energy and conserving again? Not until these prices soared.
Are you telling me that a gas tax holiday is going to help the problem, when consumers have clearly shown they are only moved to act when prices are this high?
3) The 1973-1974 oil crisis was during the Nixon administration. It may be common to blame the entire 1970s on Carter, but he was only President for 4 of those years. Are you seriously blaming him for the oil crisis?
We haven't implemented any of those taxes, yet prices have soared anyway. This reflects less on the taxes themselves and more upon our ignorance/apathy about conservation, alternative energy sources, and an awareness of how dependent our petroleum based economy is on foreign oil.
Forgive me if this is too blunt, but you seem more concerned about your wallet than about dealing with the actual source of the problem.
I tend to vote third party as I want more change than the Republican/Democrat stranglehold gives us.
My opinion of Barack Obama is that he is a born leader. That much you can see from his resume and how cleverly he took upon the Clinton camp in this race. Whatever beliefs he may hold, the critical component for me is his sense of doubt; being able to question his beliefs and improve on them.
This would be a refreshing change from our current President who has stubbornly refused to believe that he has ever been wrong [and by consequence is unable to change].
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, thank you for sharing the video. It was painful and sad to see wolves being slaughtered. That was not nice of Palin. It was good to see some captions in this video, so I passed it along to friends.
ReplyDeleteTyson, I liked your rebuttals. I learned a little more about the HR 1591 bill. And Jimmy Carter's initiatives. I wondered what the 'anonymous' person has to say after you refuted with good points.
In the meantime, I discovered an interesting article about Canada that is worth the while to read. Steve Harper, who is the Prime Minister under the Conservative party in Canada, called for an early election. I do not fully understand the process of Canada election as much as American election, however I've been following Canada politics closely in the past few years. The Liberal party was in power for twelve years, from 1994 to 2006, before the Conservative took over. Since then, Steve Harper is considered as 'the Bush's baby' as he is following the general American failed policies mostly imposed by the Bush Administration.
For instance, the Liberals opposed the Iraq War before the Conservatives took over and expanded Canadian's involvement by sending their troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. That's one thing.
The very important issue I want to bring to attention is that Steve Harper had the Conservatives pull Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol, which was a very bad move. We know the world needs to follow the Kyoto Protocol or something similar to reduce carbon emissions and slow down Global Warming.
Anyway, Steve Harper is calling for early election because the Conservative party fears if Obama/Biden wins, then it would be more likely for the Liberal party to win the next Canadian election. This is one smart and selfish political move by the Conservative Party.
In conclusion, I am holding a very grave concern if the Conservative party wins the early election in Canada on October 14th and McCain/Palin wins here in America on November 4th, then the world would be in much more trouble when those people, the Conservative Party in Canada and the Republican Party in United States, are unlikely to care about the world environments and Global Warming as much as their personal interests over oil and such things like that.
This is a good article to read:
Canada's Prime Minister Calls Early Election - Buffalo News, September 7, 2008
http://www.buffalonews.com/260/story/433208.html
PLEASE VOTE THIS YEAR.
Namaste,
Anthony
In addition to Anthony's post, I want bring everyone's attention to Palin's record when it comes to animals rights and welfare when she was a Governor of Alaska. Go to:
ReplyDeletehttps://secure.defenders.org/site/
SPageServer?pagename=c406_090308
palinwolf
It is upsetting and imagine what McCain/Palin's administration would do on a larger scale to the innocent, defenseless and voiceless animals when they get elected.
Obama/Biden, on the other hand, recognizes the need to have animals and people to co-exist and that the animals are very much part of the ecosystem.
Katherine
Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist
ReplyDeletebest known for 'The Vagina Monologues', wrote the following about
Sarah Palin.
Drill, Drill, Drill
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a
member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of
drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a
particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or
their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have
never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that
they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar
bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life
trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence
against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the
Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people
who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of
Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical
to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving
the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls
options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence
and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous
choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates
the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas
that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the
impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately,
this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the
inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor.
In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets
better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting
of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the
pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is
fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The
earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves
and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be
taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she
said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women
who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should
have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or
not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I
imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many
babies that makes.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she
has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense
with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an
environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and
might very well be the next president of the United States . She would
govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle.
She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds
of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right.
But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is
declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his
name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the
undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election
in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not
just of the U.S. , but of the planet. It will determine whether we
create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for
humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and
diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through
invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for
oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives
that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine
if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build
more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is
a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism
and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your
power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the
hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of
teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction.
I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force
mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity
or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor
of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations
and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call
life?
Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008