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McCain clarifies remark about oil, Iraq war
Libby Quaid, Associated Press
Republican John McCain was forced to clarify his comments Friday suggesting the Iraq war involved U.S. reliance on foreign oil. He said he was talking about the first Gulf War and not the current conflict.
At issue was a comment he made at a town hall-style meeting Friday morning in Denver.
“My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,” McCain said.
The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn’t mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.
“No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons,” McCain told reporters.
(2 May 2008)
Seems as though the “gaffes” made my politicans are a better guide to reality than their normal statements. -BA
Corn Ethanol Loses More Support
Siobhan Hughes, Ian Talley and Anjali Cordeiro; Wall Street Journal
GOP Senators Ask
EPA to Backtrack
As Food Prices Rise
—
Rising food prices are prodding lawmakers in Washington to rethink support for corn ethanol.
Two dozen Republican senators on Friday — including Republican presidential candidate John McCain (R., Ariz.) — asked the Environmental Protection Agency to ease requirements mandated by Congress in 2007 to blend more ethanol and other renewable fuels into the gasoline supply.
… The move by the Republican Senate group is the latest sign that Washington’s support for turning corn into motor fuel is wavering in the face of soaring food prices, despite the popularity of ethanol subsidies in farm states critical to the November election.
So far, it appears unlikely that Washington, in an election year, will make the drastic cuts sought by critics of U.S. subsidies for corn ethanol. Any loosening of recently passed mandates for increased ethanol production will have to overcome opposition from senators representing farm states.
(3 May 2008)
EWG Reveals Who Benefits Most from Direct Subsidy-Laden Farm Bill
Jeremy Elton Jacquot, TreeHugger
It’s not often we find ourselves agreeing with President Bush’s viewpoint but, in the case of the subsidy-larded farm bill, we’ll make an exception. As Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, notes in his always informative blog, Bush is — for once — right on the money with this issue. Here’s what he had to say about it at a recent Rose Garden appearance:
“The bill Congress is now considering would fail to eliminate subsidy payments to multimillionaire farmers. America’s farm economy is thriving. The value of farmland is skyrocketing. And this is the right time to reform our nation’s farm policies by reducing unnecessary subsidies.”
Now there are those of us who tend to disagree with him on most issues — particularly those relevant to energy policy and the environment — but there’s no arguing here about the sheer folly of subsidizing rich farmers and large agribusinesses. With commodity prices surging in recent months, it’s becoming harder than ever to justify shoveling gobs of taxpayer money to such a highly profitable sector.
(2 May 2008)
Contributor Joseph Neri writes:
It’s too bad Bush didn’t display this kind of reasoning oil company subsidies were increased.
Luxury community of “conscience”
Fred Haefele, Salon
When the locals cried green-wash, the elite developer cried class envy. Welcome to Paradise Valley.
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Somewhere on his 9,500-acre ranch in Montana’s Paradise Valley, maybe as he watched the sun-dazzled Yellowstone River slide by the 12,000-foot Absaroka Mountains, Wall Street tycoon and self-described conservationist Wade Dokken must have had a vision: He would create a new kind of luxury community in the heart of the American West. Different from the typical recreation-based developments, utopian in concept, his Ameya Preserve would be a place of unsurpassed beauty, where bright and uncommonly well-heeled people could, however briefly, take their ease in a community implementing the kind of cutting-edge technology that could one day save the planet.
Along these lines, Ameya (Sanskrit for “without boundaries”) would be powered entirely by solar, wind or geothermal sources, the buildings would be constructed according to the most advanced environmental specifications. Most prominently, Ameya would also be designed to “zero out,” which means that the carbon emitted in the construction process would be scrupulously calculated, then offset by planting forest tracts somewhere else in the West.
(3 May 2008)
