Free Republic

When John McCain joined Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in jumping on the “cap-and-trade” bandwagon for carbon emissions earlier this month, he claimed that the proposal “will create jobs, improve livelihoods, and strengthen futures across our country.” How politically-astute of him. In addition to appeasing the energy and environmental lobbies in Washington – both of which favor cap-and-trade for equally self-serving purposes – Mr. McCain is also throwing a bone to the fiscal conservatives whose votes he needs in November if he is to have any chance of winning the White House. There’s only one problem with Mr. McCain’s...

The U.S.-Japan alliance has been the indispensable anchor of peace, prosperity and freedom in the Asia-Pacific for more than 60 years, and its importance will only grow in the years ahead. Deepening cooperation, consultation and coordination between Washington and Tokyo is the key to meeting the collective challenges that both of our nations face--from nuclear proliferation to climate change--and to advancing our common interest in building a safer, better world for all of our citizens. In many respects, the U.S.-Japan alliance has never been stronger. Polls consistently show deep support for the alliance among Americans and Japanese alike. Our security...

Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal strongly editorializes against the Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade plan that allegedly will solve our alleged problem with global warming — now called climate change. This plan is very similar to the one Sen. John McCain announced two weeks ago. The Journal argues that cap-and-trade “would impose the most extensive government reorganization of the American economy since the 1930s,” including a huge tax increase, higher prices across-the-board, and significant losses to economic growth in the decades ahead. But why do we need a planned economy for energy or anything else? Why not a fully deregulated free market for energy...

"Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, ... we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge." With that, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain threw his support - again - to a complex government program to reduce carbon emissions. He claims he can do this, without...

John McCain says he'll battle global warming as fiercely as he fought money in politics. But will his fellow Republicans join the crusade? atthew Stembridge graduated from Dartmouth College in May of 1999. He returned the next winter wearing red tights over orange long johns, a red knit stocking cap, yellow-painted galoshes that reached midcalf, and a red curtain -- his cape -- draped around his neck. "We were doing this global warming campaign for the presidential primaries, young people all across New Hampshire," says Stembridge. "I was Captain Climate, sent back from the future to educate our leaders so...

Climate Change John McCain will establish a market-based system to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, mobilize innovative technologies, and strengthen the economy. He will work with our international partners to secure our energy future, to create opportunities for American industry, and to leave a better future for our children. John McCain's Principles for Climate Policy • Climate Policy Should Be Built On Scientifically-Sound, Mandatory Emission Reduction Targets And Timetables. • Climate Policy Should Utilize A Market-Based Cap And Trade System. • Climate Policy Must Include Mechanisms To Minimize Costs And Work Effectively With Other Markets. • Climate Policy Must Spur...

"Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, ... we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge" With that, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain threw his support -- again -- to a complex government program to reduce carbon emissions. He claims he can do this, without...

Robert B. Bluey is director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation and maintains a blog at RobertBluey.com Exactly one year after angering conservatives with an amnesty bill for illegal aliens, Sen. John McCain managed to fire up the right again last week—only this time he’s proposing a massive plan to combat global warming that would have severe consequences for the U.S. economy. During a West Coast trip to Oregon and Washington state, McCain outlined his global warming strategy, which in many ways resembles legislation offered by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.)....

Contact: Press Office, 703-650-5550; www.JohnMcCain.com ARLINGTON, Virginia, May 12 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator John McCain will deliver the following remarks as prepared for delivery at the Vestas Training Facility, in Portland, OR, today at 12:30 p.m. PDT: Thank you all very much. I appreciate the hospitality of Vestas Wind Technology. Today is a kind of test run for the company. They've got wind technicians here, wind studies, and all these wind turbines, but there's no wind. So now I know why they asked me to come give a speech. Every day, when there are no reporters and cameras around...

It is really amazing to watch. You can make money on this: whenever politicians or church leaders glom on to a concept, it’s over. John McCain has fastened on the global warming hoax like a remora. It’s not just bad for the economy, for freedom and for the environment, it’s also incredibly bad timing for “Maverick” John McCain. Holman Jenkins points out in the Wall Street Journal: And yet every journalistic tendril senses that the fuss over warming is about to cool. Global mean temperatures have been flat for a decade. The biofuel folly has chased away any easy belief...

In his climate speech on Monday, Mr. McCain exhibited (as the press usually does) a complete lack of consciousness of the fact that evidence of warming is not evidence of what causes warming. Yet policy must be a matter of costs and benefits, adjusted for the uncertainties involved. Which brings us to today's irony: He who finds a six-figure earmark an affront to humanity is prepared to wave through a trillion-dollar climate bill without, as far as anyone can tell, a single systematic thought about costs and benefits. He who sees "corruption" behind every campaign check goes all compliant when...

Senator McCain gave a speech in Portland, Oregon Monday reiterating and explaining his longstanding support for a “cap-and-trade” approach to global warming. He proposes that the government require reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions but allow companies to trade emissions credits, supposedly creating an efficient, market-based distribution of the regulatory burden. Support for this policy is the biggest mistake his campaign has made so far. Early in this speech, Sen. McCain ran through a litany of woes that we can expect from global warming: “reduced water supplies, more forest fires than in previous decades, changes in crop production, more heat waves afflicting...

[Fax sent in CAPS] DEAR SENATOR MCCAIN: THANK YOU, FOR YOUR SERVICE IN VIETNAM AS WELL AS THE UNITED STATES SENATE. I WAS ALSO MEDEVACED OUT OF VIETNAM AND SPENT MANY MONTHS IN MILITARY AND VA HOSPITALS. IF I MAY, SENATOR, I WOULD LIKE TO STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU KEEP ONLY THE SLIGHTEST OPEN MIND TO THE INCREASING DATA THAT IS BEING RELEASED ON A DAILY BASIS SHOWING THAT MUCH OF THE CARBON SCARE IS BASED ON COMPUTER MODELS THAT ARE VERY, VERY SUSPECT, AT BEST. THIS IS AN EXTREMELY FRAGILE ECONOMIC TIME FOR AMERICA'S ENERGY NEEDS AND SO MUCH...

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain called Monday for reductions in carbon emissions and criticized the Bush administration for failing to lead the fight against climate change. "We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. … We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great," the Arizona Republican said in a speech delivered at a wind-energy facility in Portland, Ore. "The most relevant question is whether our own government is equal to the challenge." McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, proposed...

Sen. John McCain's Portland-based global warming manifesto now puts all three presidential candidates -- and both major parties' leaders -- firmly in favor of aggressive cuts to greenhouse gases. McCain's goals, including cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, are less aggressive than those of Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, his potential Democratic opponents. But they're a quantum leap from the goals in his home state. Under Arizona's plan, the state's emissions would still be 35 percent above 1990 levels by 2020. And they're a bit tougher than the combined efforts of the Western Climate Initiative, a...

May 13, 2008, 0:30 a.m. McCain’s Assault on ReasonAnother Al Gore for president. By Roy Spencer John McCain’s global-warming speech on Monday made it clear that there will be no presidential candidate this year willing to question the assertion that global warming (a.k.a. “climate change�) is manmade, or the assertion that we can fix global warming by passing a few laws. Along with Clinton and Obama, McCain’s proposal to attack global warming now gives voters three choices for a car color — as long as it is black. Like Clinton and Obama, McCain’s proposal involves a “cap and trade�...

GOP presidential nominee John McCain is using the idea of global togetherness to promote “a cap-and-trade system” to battle climate change. He said “Americans and Europeans need to get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand over a much-diminished world to our grandchildren.” According to the Arizona senator, whose opinion column appeared in the March 19 Financial Times, the United States needs to work with Europe to create a replacement for the Kyoto treaty. “We need a successor to Kyoto, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically...

• You say that even if global warming turns out to be no crisis (the World Meteorological Organization says global temperatures have not risen in a decade), even unnecessary measures taken to combat it will be beneficial because "then all we've done is give our kids a cleaner world." But what of the trillions of dollars those measures will cost in direct expenditures and diminished economic growth—hence diminished medical research, cultural investment, etc.? Given that Earth is always warming or cooling, what is its proper temperature, and how do you know? ..excerpted...

John McCain kicks off his “climate change tour” in Portland today. The Associated Press regurgitates the McCain emphasis on how he will push “free-market principles” to reduce global warming, which he is convinced is real and primarily man-made. (Update: Allahpundit’s got the new accompanying campaign ad.) Take this with a gi-normous grain of salt, my friends: In remarks prepared for delivery Monday at a Portland, Ore., wind turbine manufacturer, the presidential contender says expanded nuclear power must be considered to reduce carbon-fuel emissions. He also sets a goal that by 2050, the country will reduce carbon emissions to a level...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuRHRRYHKIY

(CNN) -- Kicking off a week-long push seen as outreach to independent and Democratic voters in crucial swing states, John McCain on Monday will deliver a speech outlining his vision for combating global warming. "We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great," McCain will say in Portland, Oregon, according to prepared remarks. "The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge." McCain's commitment to fight global warming puts him at odds with some Republicans in Congress and with the Bush administration, which...

PHOENIX (AP) - Republican John McCain, reaching out to both independents and green-minded social conservatives, argues that global warming is undeniable and the country must take steps to bring it under control while adhering to free-market principles. In remarks prepared for delivery Monday at a Portland, Ore., wind turbine manufacturer, the presidential contender says expanded nuclear power must be considered to reduce carbon-fuel emissions. He also sets a goal that by 2050, the country will reduce carbon emissions to a level 60 percent below that emitted in 1990. "For all of the last century, the profit motive basically led in...

PHOENIX - Republican John McCain, reaching out to both independents and green-minded social conservatives, argues that global warming is undeniable and the country must take steps to bring it under control while adhering to free-market principles. In remarks prepared for delivery Monday at a Portland, Ore., wind turbine manufacturer, the presidential contender says expanded nuclear power must be considered to reduce carbon-fuel emissions. He also sets a goal that by 2050, the country will reduce carbon emissions to a level 60 percent below that emitted in 1990. "For all of the last century, the profit motive basically led in one...

The reason John McCain turned green is because he met a little boy in a penguin suit who spoke to him about global warming. This came out while she had a guest on her show named Kris, and he also said that a paper recently compared McCain's energy policy to Obama's and McCain's is 99% of Obama's so the paper of course endorsed Obama's plan. Our man is really a complete idiot.

Sen. John McCain really does want to tempt the Republican base. ... We've gotten our hands on an advanced transcript of this weekend's "The Chris Matthews Show" on NBC and the British Broadcasting Corporation's Katty Kay offered this nugget during the show's "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" segment: "John McCain is going to be doing more of these themed tours of America, and one of them is going to be on energy and global climate change. It could get him into trouble with Republicans, of course, and with the base, who don't think there is much climate change going...

PARIS -- John McCain wrapped up his five-country swing to the Middle East and Europe by meeting with two familiar faces- one old and one new. In London this morning, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and McCain had breakfast together at the swanky Mandarin Oriental hotel. A quick photo-op for reporters before the official visit quickly became a reflection of McCain's recent travels. On the friendship with Britain, McCain said, "What I've learned from our trip is that our alliance and our relationship is still strong. There are areas such as climate change, transparency of international financial institutions, Israeli-Palestinian peace...

LONDON (AFP) - US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain Friday discussed the situation in the Middle East and global warming with former British prime minister Tony Blair, the ex-premier's spokesman said. Blair met with McCain in London as well as US senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, McCain's colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee who are travelling with him, the spokesman told AFP. "They met, but also, obviously with Senator Lieberman and Senator Graham. The subjects they spoke about were the Middle East and climate change," he said. McCain, who is on a week-long tour of Europe and the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here's what leading presidential candidates have said about climate change and energy policies, and what they want to do. REPUBLICAN ARIZONA SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: "I know that climate change is real ... we've got to address it, we can do it with technology, with cap and trade, with capitalist and free enterprise motivation." Co-authored bill to cut emissions by 65 percent by 2050, favors unspecified fuel efficiency increase and overall energy efficiency. DEMOCRATIC NEW YORK SEN. HILLARY CLINTON: "We need to start on a path to slow, stop and reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions." Supports...

Sen. John McCain and his staff have been adamant for days that his upcoming overseas trip to Britain, France and Israel is not political. /snip ...Apparently, though, there will still be room for fundraising. McCain's campaign has sent out an invitation for a March 20 luncheon at Spencer House -- the neo-classical home built for an ancestor of Diana, the late Princess of Wales -- "by kind permission of Lord Rothschild OM GBE and the Hon. Nathaniel Rothschild." The price to attend is $1000 to $2,300. And the dress code for the event? "Lounge suits" -- British for business...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Recent U.S. Senate hearings into alleged global warming, chaired by Arizona Republican John McCain, were among the "most biased" that a noted climatologist has ever seen - "much less balanced than anything I saw in the Clinton administration," he said. Patrick J. Michaels is the author of a new book "Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media." He is an environmental sciences professor at the University of Virginia who believes that claims of human-caused "global warming" are scientifically unfounded. Michaels spoke with CNSNews.com Thursday following a panel discussion sponsored by the...

Think you can sidestep the issue of “global warming,” simply by voting Republican? Think again. Now that Senator John McCain is officially the Republican nominee for President, global warming is, whether anyone likes it or not, an “issue” for both of our nation’s dominant political parties. McCain has been gravitating towards this issue for several years, and made his mark with it during his chairing of the U.S. Senate hearings on global warming back in 2004

... If there's a single thread that runs through the e-mails I receive from peevish Republicans, it's that none of the current candidates possesses the conservative purity of Ronald Reagan. One could almost get the idea that Dutch was betrayed by Pontius Pilate and crucified on Calvary. But that wasn't exactly the case. The fact of the matter is that Gov. Reagan gave Gov. Jerry Brown a run for his money – or should I say our money? – when it came to raising taxes here in California. But, in spite of the additional revenue, he was responsible in large...

WASHINGTON -- Imagining how John McCain, the Navy war hero, would play the role of commander in chief has been easy. Imagining how John McCain, the policy maverick, would lead as chief executive of the U.S. economy has been tougher. In a wide-ranging interview last week, Sen. McCain offered the most-detailed account to date of his thinking on economic issues. (snip) Climate Change Sen. McCain's biggest regulatory effort is likely to come in the field of climate change. Along with independent Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was then a Democrat, Sen. McCain introduced the earliest version of a cap-and-trade system...

The former Massachusetts governor also brought up a new attack going after his rival on his legislation, the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act: “Instead of seeing if there’s a way of stimulating the economy, McCain-Lieberman would depress the economy. His plan calls for a new financial burden to be placed on people who are purchasing gasoline or for that matter natural gas to heat their homes or to cook in their homes. The energy information agency has said that his plan would cost America 300,000 jobs. In addition, people would pay, they estimate, approximately 50 cents per gallon more for gasoline...

Governor Mitt Romney: "Well, he's spoken several times about it. He actually said that if he was going to select a Vice President, it would have to be somebody who understood the economy because that wasn't something he was terribly familiar with. "He spoke both in '05 and again in '07, both times saying that he was not terribly familiar with how the economy worked, and I think he's right. Frankly, I think the pieces of legislation he's noted for suggest a lack of understanding of how the economy works. "In particular, McCain–Lieberman, this is a bill that would add...

American Council For Capital Formation Study: McCain-Lieberman Could Hike Gasoline Prices By 50 Cents Per Gallon. "A study by an economic research institute, the American Council for Capital Formation, underscored these findings, estimating that under S. 139: ... By 2020, gasoline prices would increase 30 to 50 cents per gallon." (H. Sterling Burnett, "Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions," National Center For Policy Analysis, 11/18/04) The EPA Estimated Sen. McCain's Plan Would Hike Gas Prices By 68 Cents Per Gallon. "The EPA has estimated what the McCain energy tax would mean to consumers. Since the bill's provisions are phased in, the full...

<p>Former Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile lobbied the House yesterday on campaign finance, fulfilling a partnership she said began with Republican Sen. John McCain during the 2000 presidential race.</p> <p>Miss Brazile said she got to know Mr. McCain during the Republican South Carolina presidential primary in February 2000, when he was locked in a fierce contest with then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and she was coordinating strategy for Vice President Al Gore.</p>

Well, fun was had by all yesterday covering the stultifying Schoolmarm and the GOP candidates in Iowa. Fred Thompson earned his gold medal for refusing to follow Schoolmarm’s order for a show of hands on an inane global warming question. Now, let’s dig a little deeper. As I noted yesterday, the rest of the leading GOP candidates’ responses to Schoolmarm’s global warming query demonstrate a rather disturbing greening of the party. And not just mild green. But bright, neon, Gore green. Total enviro-nitwit-ization. Can these guys really belong to the same party as stalwart, anti-fearmonger Sen. Jim Inhofe? Have they...

The overriding environmental issue of these times is the warming of the planet. The Democratic hopefuls in the 2008 campaign are fully engaged, calling for large — if still unquantified — national sacrifices and for a transformation in the way the country produces and uses energy. The Republicans do not go much further than conceding that climate change could be a problem and, with the notable exception of John McCain, offer no comprehensive solutions. In 2000, when Al Gore could have made warming a signature issue in his presidential campaign, his advisers persuaded him that it was too complicated and...

Arizona Sen. John McCain will visit Greenland, Turkey, Georgia, Montenegro and Italy as part of a Senate delegation headed overseas during Congress' summer break. McCain and the other Republican senators want to observe the effects of global warming while in Greenland. They also will attend an A-list economic and political conference at a swanky northern Italian resort. McCain and U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., favor legislation to cap industrial emissions in an effort to curtail global warming. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Mel Martinez, R-Fla., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Richard Burr, R-N.C., and John Sununu, R-N.H., are slated to go on the...

THERE IS NOW a broad consensus in this country, and indeed in the world, that global warming is happening, that it is a serious problem, and that humans are causing it. The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded there is a greater than 90 percent chance that greenhouse gases released by human activities like burning oil in cars and coal in power plants are causing most of the observed global warming. This report puts the final nail in denial's coffin about the problem of global warming. In addition, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has identified...

A leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination declared the debate on global warming "over" yesterday and said that the US would act to save the environment. Senator John McCain's speech at a summit on green policies indicated a crucial change in US political opinion towards climate change. "I am convinced that we have reached the tipping point and that the Congress of the United States will act with the agreement of the administration," said Mr McCain, who is a favoured candidate in next year's presidential primaries. "The debate is over, my friends. Now the question is: what do we...

The Arizona senator criticizes White House decision-making during a tour of the L.A. and Long Beach ports. Republican presidential candidate John McCain was anything but subtle Wednesday as he took swipes at the Bush administration during a meticulously staged appearance with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the bustling docks of Los Angeles Harbor. President Bush's record on global warming? "Terrible," McCain declared. His pursuit of the Iraq war? "A train wreck."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said today that global climate change is real and Americans must deal with its effects. "Climate change is a fact," the Arizona senator told a crowd this morning gathered under a large tent outside the Iowa Machine Shed restaurant in Davenport. McCain argued for a system that would cap emissions but allow individual companies to trade credits, within that cap, to put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. A similar type of arrangement took place in the 1990s to battle acid rain. Several Democratic presidential candidates also approve of such an approach. "We can have an...

McCain Sides With Leading Dems on Global Warming By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer May 23, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - A panel discussion on global climate change Tuesday found Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) staff agreeing with representatives for the leading Democratic presidential contenders. A cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, they agreed, is the most promising solution to "global warming." A cap and trade system would involve limits or caps (lower than current levels) on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by polluters like power plants. But companies able to cut their CO2 output at a low cost would be...

In an interview in Backpacker magazine (Aug. 2007), Senator John McCain comments on global warming: "It’s the critical issue of our time. Perhaps the worst legacy of the last 10 years may be our government’s failure to meaningfully address the issue of greenhouse gases. Climate change is real...We are literally risking the future of our planet, our children’s and grandchildren’s future...The question is, will it be too late? My great fear is that we may reach a tipping point where the effects are irreversible." Is Al Gore writing McCain's material?

The Republican presidential candidates shown leading the race in recent polls all believe global warming is a serious threat and caused by human activity. When asked at today's Des Moines Register debate in Iowa to raise their hands if they believed climate change were indeed a real problem caused by people, Sen. John McCain, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Gov. Mitt Romney all responded in the positive. "Climate change is real. It's happening. I believe human beings are contributing to it," Giuliani said, calling for a "Manhattan Project" to wean America off foreign energy sources....

After hitting it in most every appearance he made in New Hampshire and Michigan, John McCain now rarely brings up the topic of global warming. McCain's strong views on addressing climate change play well among independents and Democrats, but most of the GOP base either disagrees with him about the issue or just has little interest in it. He didn't raise it often in South Carolina and, at a town hall meeting in West Palm Beach today, chose instead to focus his remarks on the economy and national security. South Carolina, of course, is a conservative state and even the...

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers took the first step Thursday on a bipartisan global warming bill that would impose mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases from power plants, industrial facilities and transportation. ADVERTISEMENT Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., pushed the legislation out of his global warming subcommittee by a 4-3 vote, agreeing to a number of changes aimed primarily at garnering the needed majority to advance it. The bill calls for setting limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are emitted from power plants, refineries, factories and motor fuels. Polluters could exceed the limits by buying credits from companies whose emissions are...