Is climate change McCain’s red-haired, ugly stepchild?

By Dan Haugen
Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 10:13 am

Sen. John McCain has been the most outspoken and aggressive of Republican presidential hopefuls when it comes to solving climate change. While Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are ready with sound bites when cornered by reporters or pressed in a debate, McCain is the only candidate who chooses to bring up the importance of cutting carbon emissions. Among his credentials, he’s co-authored a carbon cap-and-trade bill with Sen. Joe Lieberman that aims to cut emissions 65 percent by 2050.

So environmentalists aren’t happy with McCain for skipping a Senate vote Wednesday on an economic stimulus package that would have extended $3 billion in tax credits to the renewable energy industry. It failed by one vote. Both Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were present and voted yes.

The Solve Climate blog points out that it’s the second time in two months that McCain has missed an important energy vote that failed by a single tally. In December, he missed a vote to include clean-energy incentives in an energy bill. Writes David Sassoon on SolveClimate.com:

“Romney now wears the flip-flop crown in campaign-land, but it’s McCain who is the reigning King of Clean Energy Hypocrisy. It further darkens the threatening cloud of suspicion that already hangs over the sincerity of his positive rhetoric on climate action.”