McCain: "I voted against the Kyoto Treaty before I wanted to vote for it....

Yet again, McCain opens his mouth and drives away the GOP base......

The United States Senate refused to ratify the Kyoto Treaty. It was dead BEFORE arrival. President Clinton, seeing the writing on the wall, did not submit the treaty. Senator McCain was a member of that august body. So, if the Kyoto treaty was bad for America then, why is it such a good idea now, Senator McCain?

The Kyoto Treaty advocated reduced "greenhouse" gas emissions to a certain level below the 1990 levels. Kyoto is a 'cap and trade' system that imposes national caps on the emissions of Annex I countries. On average, this cap requires countries to reduce their emissions 5.2% below their 1990 baseline over the 2008 to 2012 period. Kyoto created a framework and a set of rules for a global carbon market, there are in practice several distinct schemes or markets in operation today, with varying degrees of linkages among them. (And we know how Al Gore made out from that. There's noooo chance of fraud in this scheme.....)

Now here's McCain's take:(sound familiar?)
"I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges. I will not accept the same dead-end of failed diplomacy that claimed Kyoto. (Uh, weren't YOU a Senator that refused to ratify? And what's with this "8 years" crap? Clinton is the one that didn't submit it. Still crapping on your own side to look like one of the cool kids, again....)

McCain's major solution is to implement a cap-and-trade program on carbon-fuel emissions, like a similar program in the Clean Air Act that was used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions that triggered acid rain.
Industries would be given emission targets, and those coming in under their limit could sell their surplus polluting capacity to companies unable to meet their target.
McCain wants the country to return to 2005 emission levels by 2012; 1990 levels by 2020; and to a level sixty percent below that by 2050.

"As never before, the market would reward any person or company that seeks to invent, improve, or acquire alternatives to carbon-based energy," he said. "More likely, however, there will be some companies that need extra emissions rights, and they will be able to buy them. (Al Gore must be insane with glee......)

More McCain Wisdom:
“We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, or the precise timeline 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 know that greenhouse gasses are heavily implicated as a cause of climate change. And we know that among all greenhouse gasses, the worst by far is the carbon-dioxide that results from fossil-fuel combustion.” (Apparently he hasn't heard the latest: that the world is entering a cooling period, there is record snow fall and ice coverage, and that CO2 IS NOT the most effective "green house gas", but water vapor is. Idiot)

The worst part is this: McCain has long expressed a belief in global warming, arguing that even if he is wrong, acting as if the planet's temperature were increasing would only benefit the environment if scientists subsequently proved he was mistaken.
(So in other words, "its ok if I destroy the economy on a flawed theory and junk science because I think it will make the environment better."

From Powerline: If McCain is looking for a sensible energy policy, he might start with these recommendations from the Science and Environmental Policy Project:

Our policy recommendation is to phase out natural gas (methane) for electric power generation (now about 20% in US and 40% in UK), replace it with coal/nuclear, and use gas as a clean transportation fuel (in the form of Compressed Natural Gas -- CNG) for buses, trucks, and all fleet vehicles. In the US case it would cut oil imports by 30%. Further cuts would come from the use of plug-in and hybrid-electric cars.

I'm wrong. The worst part is that McCain is STILL the more "conservative" of the three main candidates.......

That's why I bought a shirt with the proper elections message. And I will be wearing it on election day.