BaRockin' the White House!

Ok, I have to admit that at first I was surprised by some of the similarities between the two visions of the candidates, but I think there are pretty definitive differences between their perspectives of the environmental crisis and actions they plan on taking.

In regards to McCain, it is pretty clear that he is a market liberal. While he claims to focus on scientifically-sound, mandatory emission reduction timetables, he believes that climate policy should focus on a market-based cap and trade system (although so does Obama). (If that doesn't scream market liberal then I'm not sure what does!) McCain also says that international efforts must be made to solve the climate problem, but my main concern with that is that I can see him using the need for the international community to take more action as a way of taking the heat off the United States.  

McCain also focuses a lot of his attention on reducing dependence on foreign oil, which is incredibly important, but at the same point the focus is not on reducing the need for oil in general. He supports offshore drilling in Alaska, which may serve as a temporary fix, but it is not the direction that we should be taking. Again, is market liberal perspectives are evidenced when his websites says, "there is no easier or more direct way to prove to the world that we will no longer be subject to the whims of others than to expand our production capabilities". I think his word choice says it all: prove to the world, subject to the whims of others, expand our production capabilities. First things first, Mr. McCain please recognize that policies should not be adapted as a means of "proving" ourselves to anyone else.

Some positive aspects of McCain's policies include his clean car challenge, the fact that he wants the U.S. to be a leader in a new international green economy, greening the federal government a priority. FOr these three things I give Mr. McCain a thumbs up!

In regards to Obama he also supports a cap and trade system which is set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, which I believe is more than McCain. He supports short term fixes for gas costs, which I think is necessary because thousands of livelihoods are virtually destroyed because of unaffordable prices (although the phrase short term continues to scare me since we live in a country that always seems to focus short term).

One aspect that I really like about Obama' policy is that he wants to save the amount of oil we export from the Middle East and Venezuela over the course of 10 years, which I think is great considering we never seem to hear the word "save" anymore.

All in all I was surprised both for the good and bad from both candidates, but encourage everyone to vote for Obama if they don't want to see their rights taken away by the next administration.