Earlier this month, we posted an item suggesting that Republican presidential candidate John McCain appeared to be backing away from his long-standing support for mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
When asked by CBS news anchor Katie Couric if McCain supports a mandatory or voluntary program, his running-mate Governor Sarah Palin, was non-committal. "[T]he details are being hashed out even right now," Palin said. "We're gonna keep working on how it can be implemented to actually make sense and make a difference."
Palin's latest attempt to address the issue came in an speech delivered today: "And we will control greenhouse gas emissions by giving American businesses new incentives and new rewards to seek, instead of just giving them new taxes to pay and new orders that they must follow."
The key word is "just." Drop it from the sentence, and it means that under a McCain/Palin administration there will be incentives and rewards, but no "new taxes to pay and new orders" to follow. Including the word adds a note of ambiguity, and the sentence could mean that under a McCain/Palin regime, there will be incentives, rewards as well as new taxes and new orders.
Of course Palin, who remains skeptical that human activities are the primary cause of global warming this century, was chosen by McCain as a running mate because of her appeal to the conservative base of the Republican party. The base opposes new taxes and government regulations generally. It is also skeptical or dismissive of the links between human activities and global warming; and is opposed to mandatory policies to address climate change. Climate change was one of the issues that clearly divided McCain from many of his Republican brethren before the campaign began.
However, are Palin and McCain now signaling the base that it should have no worries about a McCain presidency on the climate issue? Of course, after election day, November 4, it may not matter. Or, it could matter a great deal.
Oct. 30/08
For most people, the issue of emissions, how and why - are too complex. I am Canadian and the Liberals lost so badly because of this supposedly incomprehensible"carbon tax".....but people prefer sound bites in lieu of analysis and reasonable discourse.
Politicians- who are not exactly close to my heart - although I have relatives in politics - will do anything, say anything - obfuscate, mislead - to win!
Politics (taken collectively) is not for the faint-hearted; or people to whom integrity and dignity matter and matter tremendously.
Willy B. Concepcion
BSC, BSJ,B.ed