{"id":950,"date":"2008-06-17T14:02:12","date_gmt":"2008-06-17T21:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=950"},"modified":"2008-06-17T15:47:03","modified_gmt":"2008-06-17T22:47:03","slug":"john-mccains-global-warming-plan-makes-the-globe-warmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=950","title":{"rendered":"John McCain’s Global Warming Plan Makes The Globe Warmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what is billed as a major policy speech<\/a> on energy and the environment, John McCain has introduced a plan that just makes things worse. His proposals only benefit the big oil companies that are amongst his biggest supporters and who are well represented on the staff of his campaign. In the advance text of his speech he says:<\/p>\n

“In the face of climate change and other serious challenges, energy conservation is no longer just a moral luxury or a personal virtue,”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wonder when energy conservation stopped being just a moral luxury or a personal virtue. Last week? Last year? Whenever it was that McCain decided to take up the issue? And is there anyone who has ever referred to in that way other than Vice-President Dick Cheney<\/a>?<\/p>\n

McCain claims that his plan will reduce harmful emissions 50% by 2050. Contrast that with Barack Obama’s plan to cut emissions by 80%. However, a key part of the McCain plan is to increase oil exploration and permit offshore drilling in environmentally sensitive coastal areas. How does increasing oil production lead to emissions reductions? McCain doesn’t say. That doesn’t stop the National Review’s Noel Sheppard from promoting offshore drilling<\/a> as a campaign issue that he says will help McCain. Sheppard cites a Rasmussen poll that finds that 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. There are couple of problems with this poll. First, the actual question asked began with a leading preface:<\/p>\n

“In order to reduce the price of gas, should drilling be allowed in offshore oil wells off the coasts of California, Florida, and other states?”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The question intentionally leads the respondent into a supposition that such drilling would reduce gas prices. There is no evidence to that effect offered by the pollster – or by economists. The survey results would have been very different had they prefaced the question by saying, “Despite having no impact on reducing the price of gas…”<\/em><\/p>\n

Secondly, this is a national poll. It would have been more enlightening to include survey results of just the residents of California and Florida, who will bear the brunt of the policies under discussion. Before assuming that this is a winning issue for McCain, Sheppard might want to take into account that the voters of a swing state like Florida are overwhelmingly opposed to offshore drilling. And nationally voters give Obama a 20 point lead<\/a> on the question of who will better deal with high oil prices.<\/p>\n

McCain’s other big energy initiative is his proposal for a gas tax holiday. The absurdity of this as an approach to lowering either prices or pollution is glaringly evident. Oil companies will quickly fill the gap made by any temporary tax break. In fact, the price of gas has already increased by a larger amount than the federal tax in just the days that have transpired since McCain first proposed his holiday. What’s more, Saudi oil producers have come out in favor<\/a> of tax cuts for petroleum products. Surprise! They know that lower prices will stimulate sales that fatten their wallets. And more sales produces more use which produces more pollution. It also exacerbates dependency on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

It ought not to be surprising that McCain is articulating the philosophy of his advisers, at least fifteen of whom have lobbied for Big Oil<\/a>. McCain is firmly on the side of the Bush administration and the Saudi oil barons on matters of conservation, climate change, and petronomics. If Republicans want to make this a campaign issue, I say bring it on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In what is billed as a major policy speech on energy and the environment, John McCain has introduced a plan that just makes things worse. His proposals only benefit the big oil companies that are amongst his biggest supporters and who are well represented on the staff of his campaign. In the advance text of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[152,1],"tags":[183,324,103,323],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","tag-barack-obama","tag-big-oil","tag-john-mccain","tag-noel-sheppard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-fk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1017,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1017","url_meta":{"origin":950,"position":0},"title":"John McCain and T. Boone Pickens Share A Racist Joke","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/15\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In a meeting today in Aspen, John McCain met with oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens to discuss his plan to address U.S. dependence on foreign oil and focus more on alternative energies including wind and natural gas (in which Pickens is heavily invested). Before they even sat down to talk,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35918,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=35918","url_meta":{"origin":950,"position":1},"title":"In mob-style threat Trump warns McCain and other critics that ‘People have to be careful’","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/17\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"America's most psychotic president has already deftly demonstrated his gross ignorance, mental disabilities, and sociopathic tendencies. Donald Trump is a textbook example of a malignant narcissist whose self-exaltation is as important as destroying his perceived enemies. While Democrats have long been concerned about Trump's aberrant behavior, Republicans are now joining\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump John McCain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-mccain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-mccain.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-mccain.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1057,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1057","url_meta":{"origin":950,"position":2},"title":"Shill Baby Shill: Fox News Pumps Up Big Oil","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/16\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"William La Jeunesse is rapidly becoming the most promising contender for the Excrements in Journalism award. Last week he did a report on congressional earmarking in which his primary source was a McCain front group that he identified as nonpartisan. This week his report on offshore oil drilling is just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1110,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1110","url_meta":{"origin":950,"position":3},"title":"The Fox Frame: October Surprise","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/29\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It is obvious to most honest observers that this is going to be a harsh year for Republicans. At the top of the list of victims, of course, is John McCain. His floundering campaign just gets more off track everyday. His aides are sending out resumes and looking to assign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1022,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1022","url_meta":{"origin":950,"position":4},"title":"John McCain And The Ambition To Be President","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/20\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As if there weren't already enough examples of John McCain's dishonesty and hypocrisy, he has delivered another strikingly brazen illustration of just how far he will go to promote himself and to demean his opponent, Barack Obama. And it's all captured on video: A News Corpse Video: The video above\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1044,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1044","url_meta":{"origin":950,"position":5},"title":"Copyright Protection: Another McCain Weak Point","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/6\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"During the course of John McCain's campaign, he has had a little trouble selecting music to accompany his public events. It seems that whatever he selects he ends up offending the artist who then objects to the use of the song and requests that McCain cease and desist. It has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}