Renewable energy debuts on ballots October 30, 2008
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Courtesy USA Today:
Renewable energy is one of the top issues facing voters Tuesday, along with ballot proposals that would ban abortion, legalize marijuana, protect farm animals, end affirmative action and use gambling to fund education.Three states — California, Colorado and Missouri — have measures on their ballots that deal with alternative energy sources, including wind and solar power. “This is a fairly new issue to the ballot,” says Jennie Drage Bowser, who has been tracking ballot measures for more than a decade at the National Conference of State Legislatures. “It’s a direct response to the demand for energy independence and the rising cost of energy.”
Also new, she says, are a measure in South Dakota that would repeal eight-year term limits on state lawmakers and one in Colorado that would criminalize abortion by defining a person as “any human being from the moment of fertilization.”
Californians will consider animal rights. An initiative there would require farms to give egg-laying hens, calves and pregnant pigs room to turn around, lie down, stand up and fully extend their limbs. Florida passed a similar measure in 2002 that protected only pregnant pigs, and Arizona approved one in 2006 that covered pigs and calves.
On Tuesday, voters in 36 states will consider 153 ballot measures. Most are referendums placed on the ballot by legislatures; 59 are grass-roots initiatives that needed tens of thousands of signatures to qualify. Many citizen initiatives are controversial, and fewer than half have passed in the past decade. Three of every four referred by legislatures succeeded.
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Obama promotes alternative energy plan October 14, 2008
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Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor October 14, 2008 04:36 PM
Barack Obama focuses on his energy plan in a video message to supporters gathered at house parties to watch the fall campaign’s final presidential debate Wednesday night.
Obama highlighted his agenda to spend $150 billion over 10 years on alternative energy to create 5 million new jobs.
“Now is the time to declare our energy independence once and for all,” he says in the video. Source Article
Palin’s Stand on Mining Initiative Leaves Many Feeling Burned September 28, 2008
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Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 28, 2008; Page A12
For months, the confrontation mounted, a face-off that arguably held in the balance the fates of two of Alaska’s biggest industries. On one side were companies hoping to open Pebble Mine at a huge gold and copper reserve adjacent to one of the world’s largest salmon runs, Bristol Bay. On the other side were fishermen and environmentalists pushing a referendum that would make it harder for the mine to open.
The two sides spent more than $10 million — unprecedented for such efforts in Alaska — and throughout it all, the state’s highly popular first-term governor, Sarah Palin, held back. Alaska law forbids state officials from using state resources to advocate on ballot initiatives.
Then, six days before the Aug. 26 vote, with the race looking close, Palin broke her silence. Asked about the initiative at a news conference, she invoked “personal privilege” to give an opinion. “Let me take my governor’s hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop. 4 — I vote no on that,” she said. “I have all the confidence in the world that [the Department of Environmental Conservation] and our [Department of Natural Resources] have great, very stringent regulations and policies already in place. We’re going to make sure that mines operate only safely, soundly.” Source Article
MoveOn Ad Uses “My Friends” Tic On McCain Lobbyists September 16, 2008
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The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner | September 16, 2008 10:55 AM
A new MoveOn ad posits who John McCain is really talking about when he says “my friends” — his favorite lobbyists. Watch:
Obama meets oilman who funded ’04 attacks on Kerry August 17, 2008
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By Jeff Mason Sun Aug 17, 6:00 PM ET
RENO, Nevada (Reuters) – White House hopeful Barack Obama talked energy policy on Sunday with T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire oil investor who funded the “Swift Boat” attacks on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004.
Pickens, a lifelong Republican, has endorsed neither his party’s candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain, nor Democrat Obama in the November 4 election and wants to make energy a top campaign issue.
He has advocated a plan to cut U.S. oil use by converting cars to run on natural gas. Source Article
Bush, Iraq, Energy, Osama: McCain/Obama Speech War August 13, 2008
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August 13, 2008 11:42 AM
In presidential campaigns, words matter. With Barack Obama belittled as an empty-suit orator and John McCain stifled by rhetorical blunders, the influence of language has already been felt. But words also offer hints as to what issues the candidate prioritize, how they’ve evolved, the messages they deliver, and topics they avoid.
Since 2004, Obama has delivered 150 speeches with a grand total of 382,132 words, according to those listed on his Senate and campaign website. He is more loquacious than his opponent, McCain who has delivered 127 speeches encompassing 254,342 words.
As documented by the website Speech Wars, what the two candidates are talking about can be telling. Take, for example, the willingness to discuss the current administration. Obama, in his speeches, has uttered George W. Bush’s name 209 times compared to 51 for McCain. Taken as percentages, the presumptive Democratic nominee is 2.73 times more likely to remind listeners of the president than his Republican counterpart. But the tendency to evoke Bush is a relatively new phenomenon. As Speech Wars charts, Obama’s mentioning of the President has increased drastically since he started running for the White House, topping off in a June 9, 2008 speech in Raleigh, North Carolina. Source Article
Back On Offense: Obama Gets Personal On Energy Policy August 4, 2008
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August 4, 2008 01:03 PM
Barack Obama sought to regain the political offensive on Monday, painting John McCain as part of the problem when it comes to comprehensive energy reform. Quoting the Arizona Republican as saying that “our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been thirty years in the making,” Obama leveled one of the more direct criticisms he’s offered in this campaign.
“What Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those thirty years, he was in Washington for twenty-six of them,” said the Senator. “And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He voted against increased fuel efficiency standards and opposed legislation that included tax credits for more efficient cars. He voted against renewable sources of energy. Against clean biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind power. Against an energy bill that — while far from perfect — represented the largest investment in renewable sources of energy in the history of this country. So when Senator McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis, it’s important to remember that he’s been a part of that failure.” Source Article
Palin Pleased with Obama’s Energy Plan August 4, 2008
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August 4, 2008, Fairbanks, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today responded to the energy plan put forward by the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
“I am pleased to see Senator Obama acknowledge the huge potential Alaska’s natural gas reserves represent in terms of clean energy and sound jobs,” Governor Palin said. “The steps taken by the Alaska State Legislature this past week demonstrate that we are ready, willing and able to supply the energy our nation needs.”
In a speech given in Lansing, Michigan, Senator Obama called for the completion of the Alaska natural gas pipeline, stating, “Over the next five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production. And we should also tap more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process.” Source Article
Ad calls offshore drilling a ‘gimmick’ July 31, 2008
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Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor July 31, 2008 11:21 AM
With polls indicating that most Americans favor more offshore oil drilling to help ease energy prices, the antiwar group MoveOn.org is trying to help Democrat Barack Obama fight back on the issue.
Obama opposes lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling, calling it a gimmick. Republican John McCain, however, strongly supports it, reversing his stand from the 2000 presidential race, and has been hammering Obama on the issue.
MoveOn.org has launched a new TV ad that reprises an approach from an earlier ad that had a woman talking straight to the camera and saying that McCain would keep troops in Iraq indefinitely and telling him he couldn’t have her son Alex. Source Article
Obama calls offshore drilling a ‘scheme’ July 30, 2008
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July 30, 2008 Posted: 12:30 PM ET
From CNN Election Center’s Joe Von Kanel
(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama stood his ground Wednesday in opposing what he calls the “scheme” of offshore drilling, during a campaign event in Springfield, Missouri.
“The oil companies are shoving this thing down the throats of Congress, because they know everybody wants to try to pretend they’re doing something about the energy crisis,” Obama said. “This is not real. I know it’s tempting. The polls say its one of the ways that a majority of Americans think we’re going to solve this problem, but it’s not real.” Source Article
The Central Tabulator 