John Edwards 2008: What’s not to like

Loyal Edwards Fundraiser Killed Ethanol Initiative In Wisc.

Scott Tyre, a Wisconsin lobbyist who sits on John Edwards’ national finance committee, has worked to kill ethanol mandates in Madison. In fact, Tyre’s own firm, Capitol Navigators, advertises his efforts to tank that bill next to quotes from longtime Edwards loyalists Ed Turlington and Nick Baldick praising Tyre’s “work ethic” and “brain power.”

“Scott is regarded as one of the top contract lobbyists at the Capitol. When it comes crunch time and you need votes as we did during the ethanol mandate debate in the 2005-06 session, Scott was one of the first persons I called for help. His contacts and lobbying skills are certainly one of the reasons we were able to kill the bill in the Senate.”
–Erin Roth, Executive Director of Wisconsin Petroleum Council/Division of the American Petroleum Institute

Tyre is an Edwards bundler, according to Public Citizen.

Edwards has said on the campaign trail that ethanol is one key to moving the country toward energy independence.

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But Tyre’s anti-ethanol efforts — his firm has also represented the American Petroleum Institute — contradict Edwards’ campaign trail pitch for expanded production of renewable energy sources. And Edwards, as we all know, slams lobbyists at every diner, community center, debate and school rally. It seems perplexing at best then that he’d have one on his team who is fighting his very policies.

Hotline 12/21/07

The former 2004 vice presidential nominee’s has a mixed record on the issue.

After he was selected as Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s running mate, Edwards announced he would defer to Kerry’s anti-Yucca position and promised Nevada Sen. Harry Reid he would fight the project.

The former North Carolina senator has said he was trying to protect his constituents, who didn’t want to store nuclear waste in their state, when he voted in favor of the project.

Edwards now says faulty science was used to support the Yucca Mountain project, and he doesn’t believe nuclear energy is a safe energy source.

Associated Press 11/13/07
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkRv5G9MNDoPpuqffLVp83tZmvMAD8SSLP480

It’s a bird, it’s a plane …

Like other Democrats, Edwards named his top three priorities as ending the war in Iraq, enacting universal health care and overhauling the American energy system. “Those are three things instantly I would do,” he said.

Edwards also ripped fellow Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton, who leads most polls nationally and in New Hampshire by a wide margin, for taking campaign contributions from federal lobbyists and for her recent vote in favor of naming Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group. Edwards barely mentioned Sen. Barack Obama.

Both Edwards and Clinton have proposed universal health care plans that mandate insurance for everyone, while Obama has proposed a plan that requires coverage only for children. Edwards, who was first to propose a plan, called Clinton’s a “carbon copy” of his but said he is better positioned to negotiate because he has the “clean hands of not taking money from lobbyists.”

“Senator Clinton has over the years has taken millions of dollars from lobbyists and defends the status quo system,” he said. “She just basically says the system works and her argument is, ‘I’m experienced, I can operate within the system.’ “

Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand questioned the line Edwards has drawn. He takes money from state lobbyists and from a variety of industry groups; according to a Washington Post roundup, he’s taken more than $8 million this year from lawyers and law firms, including some that also employ lobbyists.

“It is disappointing that instead of taking the opportunity to lay out his ideas to New Hampshire voters, John Edwards is consistently choosing to engage in misleading, desperate attacks against Senator Clinton,” Strand said.

Concord Monitor 10/26/07
http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/FRONTPAGE/710260384

Dem presidential candidate Chris Dodd has called for such a policy in blunt language: “The Dodd Plan requires all new plants to capture and sequester CO2. No exceptions.”

Most enviros seem to think that John Edwards has also called for such a moratorium, and have lauded him for it.

Only he hasn’t.

Edwards would require that all new coal plants be compatible with sequestration — that they be IGCC plants, which make CO2 easier to separate and bury — but he would not require them to actually sequester their emissions.

Is this worth worrying about? Yes. As Big Coal author Jeff Goodell says, “There is a big difference — a rhetorical Grand Canyon — between supporting coal plants that are ‘compatible with’ CCS and actually requiring them to do it.”

The key thing to note is that IGCC plants emit 80-90% as much CO2 as old-school dirty coal plants (they are somewhat more efficient). An IGCC plant without sequestration is almost as bad as a dirty coal plant, from a climate-change perspective (though it emits less NOx, SOx, and mercury).

If we build a bunch of coal plants — whether they’re IGCC or not — we will be committing to sequestration (if we’re to have any hope of slowing global warming). It’s either that or shutting them down. So if President Edwards requires energy companies to build IGCC plants, he will have done very little to slow global warming. What he will have done is lock us into a policy path we’ve never rationally assessed or chosen.

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If Edwards is serious about climate change, he will follow Dodd and support a ban on coal plants that don’t have operating sequestration facilities.

Grist Magazine 9/10/07
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/9/10/172519/037

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is making it more and more clear that, in his mind, there indeed are ‘‘two Americas.’’ One of them is for the vast majority of us, who should make lifestyle changes simply because Edwards believes it’s the right thing to do. The other one is for Edwards, who seems to have decided that he is exempt from any such ethical mandates.

During a candidates’ forum held by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Edwards said that he believes ‘‘Americans are actually willing to sacrifice’’ in order to meet energy and environmental challenges. ‘‘One of the things they should be asked to do is drive more fuel-efficient vehicles,’’ he explained.

Edwards was asked if that means that Americans should give up the sport utility vehicles millions drive, in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. ‘‘Yes,’’ he replied. Later, he was asked how that suggestion can be reconciled with his own lifestyle. Specifically, his 28,000-square-foot mansion was mentioned.

‘‘I have no apologies whatsoever for what I’ve done with my life,’’ Edwards responded. He pointed out his humble beginnings and said he has worked hard to achieve his lifestyle.

We suspect that most SUV owners work hard, too. Many of them have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, and believe that they’ve earned a luxury or two in life.

But not according to Edwards. While he and his family use more energy and create more pollution than some entire neighborhoods elsewhere in America, it’s the rest of us who need to make sacrifices, in his mind.

It seems that Edwards does believe there are ‘‘two Americas’’ — one for him and one for the rest of us.

Tribune-Chronicle/editorial

http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/Editorials/articles.asp?articleID=22297

John Edwards — a guy who owns a 28,000-square-foot mansion in North Carolina on a 100-acre property formerly inhabited by a large number of trees; a guy who spends $400 for a haircut; a guy who flies around in a fuel-guzzling, environment-polluting private jet; and a guy who owns at least three SUVs — has the audacity, gall, procacity, et al, to tell me to give up my SUV and trade it in for something like a “Nanocar.”

And save the world in the process.

The location where the Democratic presidential candidate made his plea last week was appropriate, I thought — Disney World.

This man definitely lives in fantasy land.

snip: After his Florida fantasy land speech, Edwards was chauffeured away in a Cadillac SRX Crossover, which swallowed gas at the rate of 15 mpg, to get him to his private jet, so he could make a $400-haircut appointment, so he could look all spiffy for dinner at his 28,000-square-foot adobe in North Carolina on 100 acres that’s now missing a few trees.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to head on over to my favorite car dealer to trade in my SUV for ANOTHER SUV.

(Pssst — in case you’re wondering, the “Nanocar” is the world’s smallest car — a single molecule that actually contains a chassis, axles and four buckyball wheels — whatever they might be. I hear it gets pretty good mileage. I’m serious. I looked it up.)

Gaylord Herald Times

http://www.gaylordheraldtimes.com/articles/2007/09/07/opinion/columns/doc46e19fc1ca3a2159671004.txt

Democratic candidates Clinton, Dodd and Edwards have declared “carbon neutral” campaigns, achieved by purchasing offsets — which include the use of renewable energy such as methane and wind — to neutralize the carbon emissions the campaign is producing. However, there are no uniform standards for the growing carbon offset market, making it difficult to measure the results achieved by offset companies.

Candidates recognize that the biggest source of those emissions is typically air travel.

Democrat Sen. Barack Obama uses a charter airline company that adds the price of offsets to his bill, according to how many miles he flies, said Erin Fitzgerald, an Obama campaign spokewoman.

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Edward’s bill for offsets has been the highest, with the campaign paying a total of $21,997 (€16,302) to offset provider Native Energy, according to the campaign and Federal Election Commission records. Hillary Clinton was billed $2,367 (€1,754) by the same provider, according to FEC records from July. Dodd has paid $650 (€482) to another offset company, Carbonfund, from April to June. Campaigns note that offset payments will continue throughout their run.

-snip

She also said that using a sustainability expert is a “key indicator” that corporations, as well as campaigns, are serious about reducing their impact on the environment. “That’s the way to get to it,” she said.

The Obama campaign lists a sustainability consultant who is “auditing operations at headquarters and implementing policy and behavior changes,” according to the campaign. Those campaigns paying for carbon offsets may receive advice on reducing energy use from the companies they pay.

Campaigns have yet to accept green advice offered from one group of experts, according to Julia Bovey, federal communications director for the National Resources Defense Council Action Fund, a political arm of the environmental group. The fund sent letters to declared or potential candidates in February and has not had one response, she said.

Associated Press 9/6/07
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/06/america/NA-POL-US-White-House-Campaign-Carbon-Footprint.php?page=1

TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

“It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care,” he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. “If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK.”

snip: Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans.

snip: Edwards said his plan would cost up to $120 billion a year, a cost he proposes covering by ending President Bush’s tax cuts to people who make more than $200,000 per year.

Edwards, who has been criticized by some for calling on Americans to be willing to give up their SUVs while driving one, acknowledged Sunday that he owns a Ford Escape hybrid SUV, purchased within the year, and a Chrysler Pacifica, which he said he has had for years.

“I think all of us have to move, have to make progress,” he said. “I’m not holier-than-thou about this. … I’m like a lot of Americans, I see how serious this issue is and I want to address it myself and I want to help lead the nation in the right direction.”

He said he would not buy another SUV in the future.

The Ford Escape, the first hybrid SUV on the market, gets an estimated 36 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway.

Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/09/02/ap4075654.html

The word “yes” got presidential candidate John Edwards a lot of negative attention among the auto industry and his conservative critics last week. After Edwards told a union gathering in Florida that Americans should be asked to drive more fuel-efficient vehicles, he was asked specifically if he’d tell people to give up their SUVs.

His answer was “yes.”

The reaction was swift. What does he drive? (The answer: a Ford Escape hybrid and Chrysler Pacifica, but he is seen in pictures in a Cadillac SRX.) What about the energy needed to maintain his 28,000-square-foot mansion? (Several bloggers showed aerial pictures of his mansion with circles around SUVs in the driveway.)

“You can have my SUV keys when you pry them from my cold green fingers,” said one blogger.

“Edwards flips Michigan the bird,” said rightmichigan.com.

Perhaps the funniest was the Chrysler public relations folks who posted a picture on the company’s media Web site. The image was of the Trabant, an East German-produced joke of a car made during the Cold War. The implication: If Edwards has his way, we’ll all be driving those some day.

Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070902/BUSINESS01/709020592/1014

Brit Hume, writing on FoxNews.com, points out that Edwards is, in fact, an SUV owner himself. The Edwards campaign admitted to Hume that the former senator owns a Ford Escape Hybrid SUV and a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica SUV, but said he is driving them less frequently.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=122410