Tips 4 Teachers

Google's keyword search Hear the Candidate speak: Enter "climate." Select Obama or Biden.

On The Issues.org Choose "Issues" from the top tab.

Websites:




Barack Obama http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy_more#emissions

Reduce our Greenhouse Gas Emissions 80 Percent by 2050

• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. Obama's cap-and-trade policy will require all pollution credits to be auctioned, and proceeds will go to investments in a clean energy future, habitat protections, and rebates and other transition relief for families.


• Make the U.S. a Leader on Climate Change. Obama will re-engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) -- the main international forum dedicated to addressing the climate problem. He will also create a Global Energy Forum of the world’s largest emitters to focus exclusively on global energy and environmental issues.

Review of their positions:


Issue: On reducing US greenhouse gas emissions

Obama aims to bring domestic greenhouse gas emissions down to 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80% below these levels by 2050. He supports a strong limit on greenhouse gas emissions - also known as a "carbon cap" - and believes businesses should trade the right to emit greenhouse gases in a cap-and-trade scheme similar to the European one.
Unlike the European scheme, Obama believes polluters should not be given a number of free permits which they can then trade. Instead, he believes permits should be auctioned off to the highest bidder. "The choice not to auction is, in effect, a choice to give the permits to the incumbent polluters," says Dan Esty, an environmental law professor at Yale University who spoke on Obama's behalf in a debate in September. "Auctions create the incentive for people that can provide solutions to come into the market and help others solve their problems, help others not have to pay."
Obama says a carbon tax would be redundant to an effectively designed cap and says he would not pursue a combination of the two policies.



Issue: On agreeing to binding emission limits within an international treaty

Obama believes the US must rejoin the international climate change negotiations. He does not believe the US should wait for China and India to agree to binding emissions before it does so, but he believes that those nations must not be far behind in making their own commitments. Obama believes that the immediate challenge is to develop the consensus in Congress needed to cap domestic emissions, and that domestic action will strengthen the US's ability to engage the international community in the Copenhagen process set to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.



Issue: On investments into alternative and renewable energy

Obama says he will invest $150 billion over 10 years in the development and deployment of renewable energy, including a long-term extension of the production tax credit for renewable energy and the doubling of federal research and development funds for clean energy.





Issue: On managing the costs of rising energy bills and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Obama says he will take steps to reduce the burden of rising energy prices on US families, including an emergency energy rebate, a plan to reduce price speculation in the oil market and a programme to protect one million low-income homes from the effects of the weather.




Issue: On exploiting domestic oil reserves

Obama has reservations about drilling for oil development off US coastlines. He will however consider a package that provides meaningful advances towards a clean-energy future, while allowing for limited outer-continental shelf drilling.





Issue: On coal power stations and carbon capture and sequestration

Obama would also devote part of the revenue from the auction of emissions permits to the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage technology. He supports developing five commercial-scale, coal-fired power plants capable of capturing their carbon emissions and storing them away with the private sector.




Issue: On nuclear power

Obama told Nature that it will be difficult to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions without nuclear power and that all-non-carbon forms of energy (which include nuclear) must be investigated. Obama does not believe that the Department of Energy's proposed underground nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for the permanent disposal of the entire nation's nuclear waste. "Let's not torque the choice toward nuclear," said Esty. "McCain favours a big commitment to nuclear power that could involve expenditures of $300 billion that may or may not be the right path forward."







Source: NEW SCIENTIST review of the candidates http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn14804-climate-change-how-obama-and-mccain-compare.html