John McCain is selling his new environmental policy in Oregon today. I've posted some thoughts over at Political Climate:
McCain pitched his plan - essentially a rehash of the cap-and-trade system he proposed back in 2003 - as a third way between the outright climate denial of the Bush years and the more ambitious climate strategies offered by his opponents. “One extreme thinks high taxes and crippling regulation is the solution; another denies the problem even exists,” he announced in a campaign ad accompanying yesterday’s speech. “There's a better way.”...
McCain might have done better to propose a straight-up carbon tax. That would have sliced through the “crippling regulation” of a cap-and-trade system, and allowed him to present himself as a straight-talking maverick opposed to hidden taxes, big government, and pork-barrel politics. Instead, he offered up a heavily diluted version of the plans already set out by his Democratic rivals: good enough to convince a few independent voters, perhaps, but hardly worthy of a politician who used to be a genuine environmental hero.
More here.
Leave a comment