McCain on the Issues

Updated 22 Aug 2008

John McCain has a mixed record on the environment, but he's long been outspoken about global warming. He introduced the first major bill in the Senate to address it: the Climate Stewardship Act of 2003, cosponsored with Joe Lieberman. In May 2008, he unveiled a new plan for tackling the problem, a cap-and-trade system with a series of targets for gradually reducing carbon emissions to 60 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050. The plan would give away many pollution credits instead of auctioning them off, and would give polluting entities expansive leeway to buy carbon offsets instead of reducing their own emissions. McCain used to oppose ethanol subsidies, but upon launching his current presidential campaign, he has changed his tune. He also changed his position on offshore drilling (but he still opposes drilling in the Arctic Refuge). McCain wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and spend big on "clean coal" technology; he also expresses support for wind, solar, and other renewables, but doesn't believe they need government assistance. The League of Conservation Voters endorsed McCain in his 2004 Senate campaign, despite the fact that he's gotten low voting scores from the group over the years (including a zero for 2007); McCain's lifetime LCV score is 24 percent. (This year, LCV endorsed Obama.)

Read an interview with John McCain by Grist and Outside.

Key Points

• Has said global warming would be one of three key issues for his presidency.
  
  
• His cap-and-trade plan for fighting climate change calls for gradual reductions in U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions from utilities, transportation fuels, and large businesses, with a target of cutting emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
  
  
• Cosponsored the first bill in the Senate calling for mandatory reductions of greenhouse-gas emissions, in 2003. The 2007 version, the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act, is less stringent than many other climate bills currently in Congress. It would cap global-warming emissions from utilities, industry, and transport at 2004 levels by 2012 and then gradually decrease emissions to about 30 percent of 2004 levels by 2050.
  
  
• Has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's lack of action against climate change.
  
  
• Believes the U.S. should embrace nuclear power as a way to generate energy without directly producing greenhouse-gas emissions. His climate plan would take some of the money raised from auctioning emission allowances and make it available for nuclear power R&D.
  
  
• In April 2008, began advocating for a summer "gas-tax holiday" to ease consumer prices at the pump. The proposal would suspend the 18-cent federal gasoline tax and 24-cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day and cost the government some $10 billion.
  
  
• Wants to "find a way to use our coal resources without emitting excessive greenhouse gases," and supports public-private partnerships to develop high-tech systems for coal gasification and carbon capture and storage.
  
  
• Used to criticize ethanol; now lauds ethanol, but still opposes government subsidies for it.
  
  
• Has opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  
  
• Has been endorsed by Republicans for Environmental Protection for his climate policies.
  
  

Video & Audio

Watch McCain answer a question about climate change at a Town Hall meeting in Gilford, N.H., on June 5, 2007:




Watch McCain talk about ethanol and global warming in New Hampshire on March 17, 2006:




Watch McCain talk about the importance of nuclear power:




Watch McCain flip-flop on ethanol:




Listen to a clip of McCain's interview with Grist and Outside:

Quotable Quotes

• "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 stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great."
  
  -- May 12, 2008 in a climate speech in Portland, Ore.
  
  
• "Like other environmental challenges -- only more so -- global warming presents a test of foresight, of political courage, and of the unselfish concern that one generation owes to the next. We need to think straight about the dangers ahead, and to meet the problem with all the resources of human ingenuity at our disposal."
  
  -- May 12, 2008 in a climate speech in Portland, Ore.
  
  
• "The burning of oil and other fossil fuels is contributing to the dangerous accumulation of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, altering our climate with the potential for major social, economic, and political upheaval. The world is already feeling the powerful effects of global warming, and far more dire consequences are predicted if we let the growing deluge of greenhouse-gas emissions continue, and wreak havoc with God's creation."
  
  -- April 23, 2007, in a speech on energy policy
  
  
• "The United States has coal reserves more abundant than Saudi Arabia's oil reserves. We found a way to cut down acid rain pollutants from burning coal, and we can find a way to use our coal resources without emitting excessive greenhouse gases."
  
  -- April 23, 2007, in a speech on energy policy
  
  
• "Nuclear power is safe, nuclear power is green -- [it] does not ... emit greenhouse gases. Nuclear power is used on Navy ships which have sailed around the world for 60 years without an accident."
  
  -- June 5, 2007, at the third debate between Republican presidential candidates
  
  
• "I would seek to establish an international repository for spent nuclear fuel that could collect and safely store materials overseas that might otherwise be reprocessed to acquire bomb-grade materials. It is even possible that such an international center could make it unnecessary to open the proposed spent nuclear fuel storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada."
  
  -- May 27, 2008, in a speech on nuclear security in Denver
  
  
• "I always have a glass of ethanol before breakfast every morning."
  
  -- June 5, 2007, at a campaign event in New Hampshire
  (it's a joke he's used at other campaign events, too)
  
  

Platform & Record In-Depth

• Supports halting additions to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to lower oil prices in the short term. The petroleum reserve is designed as an emergency stockpile and currently contains enough oil to offset some 52 days' worth of oil imports to the U.S. at current rates. Stopping additions to the reserve would free up 70,000 barrels of oil a day.
  
  
• Did not vote on the 2007 Senate-passed energy bill, which, among many other things, contained a provision to raise fuel economy for cars and trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
  
  
• A McCain campaign political adviser told Greenwire in March that McCain would consider taking Bush's updates to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules off the books.
  
  
• Introduced legislation in 2002 that would have raised vehicle fuel-economy standards to 36 miles a gallon by 2016, but would have let companies lower that by as much as 10 percent through trading of greenhouse-gas credits.
  
  
• Cosponsored bill to allow loaded firearms in U.S. national parks.
  
  
• Voted against the final version of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, a sweeping, oil-friendly energy bill opposed by enviros. McCain criticized it because he said it would raise gas prices in Arizona, it mandated too much ethanol use, and it contained too-generous tax incentives for people who buy alternative-fuel vehicles.
  
  
• In 2005, voted against a renewable portfolio standard that would have required the U.S. to get 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
  
  
• Cosponsor in 2005 of the EFFECTER Act (clever acronym alert! EFFECTER = Efficient Energy Through Certified Technologies and Electricity Reliability), which would have provided tax incentives for energy-efficient offices, homes, and appliances, and included various other energy-efficiency measures.
  
  
• Cosponsored resolutions in 2005 and 2006 that encouraged the International Whaling Commission to oppose commercial whaling.
  
  
• Held hearings on climate change in 2003 and 2004 in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which he then chaired.
  
  
• Opposed the "roadless rule" implemented by President Clinton in 2001, which put nearly 60 million acres of pristine national forests off-limits to most logging and road construction.
  
  
• Opposed President Clinton's creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah and two national monuments in Arizona, arguing that state residents should have been involved in the decision-making process.
  
  
• Cosponsored legislation in 1987 to limit flights over the Grand Canyon and require study of the proper minimum altitude that should be maintained by aircraft flying over areas of the National Park System. President Reagan signed the bill into law.
  
  

Still Haven't Gotten Enough?

• Read a Grist interview with McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin.
  
  
• Read the climate and conservation page on McCain's campaign website.
  
  
• Read McCain's official bio.
  
  

What did we miss? Tell us below in comments. We'll update this page as the presidential campaign continues.


Todd Hymas Samkara and Kate Sheppard contributed to this fact sheet.