While I myself have been very critical of Obama’s energy policy (I feel it doesn’t go far or fast enough and still contained dangerous concessions to big agra, and big coal) it is still on balance MUCH better than McCain’s. I never understood why people thought McCain was a “green” candidate, but I am glad that they are starting to change their minds.

With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.

Given the fact that Senator McCain deliberately avoided voting on all eight attempts to pass a bill extending the vital tax credits and production subsidies to expand our wind and solar industries, and given his support for lowering the gasoline tax in a reckless giveaway that would only promote more gasoline consumption and intensify our addiction to oil, and given his desire to make more oil-drilling, not innovation around renewable energy, the centerpiece of his energy policy — in an effort to mislead voters that support for drilling today would translate into lower prices at the pump today — McCain has forfeited any claim to be a green candidate.

So please, students, when McCain comes to your campus and flashes a few posters of wind turbines and solar panels, ask him why he has been AWOL when it came to Congress supporting these new technologies.

“Back in June, the Republican Party had a round-up,” said Carl Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club. “One of the unbranded cattle — a wizened old maverick name John McCain — finally got roped. Then they branded him with a big ‘Lazy O’ — George Bush’s brand, where the O stands for oil. No more maverick.(via)

Four words. Don’t Believe The Hype. This man, if he ever was, is no longer a maverick. He has gotten all his little republican ducks in a little conservative row and is now fully committed to doing the same dumb bullshit that we have suffered through for the last 8 years.

He himself has said he doesn’t understand economics. He has gone on to prove this point by missing the boat when it comes to renewable energy innovation.

Why? Because renewable energy technologies — what I call “E.T.” — are going to constitute the next great global industry. They will rival and probably surpass “I.T.” — information technology. The country that spawns the most E.T. companies will enjoy more economic power, strategic advantage and rising standards of living. We need to make sure that is America. Big oil and OPEC want to make sure it is not.

Palin’s nomination for vice president and her desire to allow drilling in the Alaskan wilderness “reminded me of a lunch I had three and half years ago with one of the Russian trade attachés,” global trade consultant Edward Goldberg said to me. “After much wine, this gentleman told me that his country was very pleased that the Bush administration wanted to drill in the Alaskan wilderness. In his opinion, the amount of product one could actually derive from there was negligible in terms of needs. However, it signified that the Bush administration was not planning to do anything to create alternative energy, which of course would threaten the economic growth of Russia.”(via)

So there you go, failing to develop strong renewable energy technologies will doom America to the economic “might have beens” of the future. Now is not the time to allow old ideas to carry us forward for the next four years. While it kills me to endorse Obama over my first choice (Dennis I still love you!), I must. Obama or bust America.