The Number One Campaign Issue

We've all heard it time and time again. The number one campaign issue this year (well, every year) is the economy. People care about other things - the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, abortion, education - but primarily, as Brett said "Voters and vote seekers almost always make their decisions based on how fat their wallet feels."

Energy and the environment has become a campaign issue this year because gas prices have made everyone's wallets a little thinner. Therefore, for the candidates, creating energy platforms is inextricably tied with the economy. John McCain is clearly a market liberal because he wants to use the environment as another means of creating jobs. He supports off-shore drilling, the taping of our oil and natural gas reserves, use of "clean coal," creation of more nuclear plants, and further development of ethanol-based biofuels. All of these ideas may create American jobs, which is why John McCain supports them. All of this would change the economy (by lessening our dependence on foreign oil), but all we all know that extracting more of the earth's resources is not a sound environmental policy. He supports renewable energy and more efficient automobiles, but does not set any targets in these sectors. The best part of his plan is the cap-and-trade system for green-house gas emissions.

Obama shares John McCain's support for a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, only he has a bigger goal of 80% reduction by 2050. Unlike McCain, he has a goal for increasing the fuel economy of cars and integrating renewable energy into the power grid. He supports clean coal, but only if it is 20% cleaner than other energy sources. He also supports the advancement of biofuels. His plan, overall, is much more clear than McCain's and is much more environmentally friendly (though I strongly disapprove of the advance of cellousic ethanol.)

Barack Obama's plan does not tie as closely to the American's wallet (gas prices) as John McCain's does. John McCain focuses more on the short term of getting gas prices down, while Barack Obama seems to be looking ahead to the future of the environment in American politics. But if we've learned anything about American voting patterns, lightening the financial burden on Americans in the short run is far more important than helping them in the long run. Hopefully, Americans will recognize that Barack Obama's environment plan is stronger. I doubt it though.