McCain lies about renewable energy

"Our nation's future security and prosperity depends on the next President making the hard choices that will break our nation's strategic dependence on foreign sources of energy and will ensure our economic prosperity by meeting tomorrow's demands for a clean portfolio. John McCain has made the necessary choices - producing more power, pushing technology to help free our transportation sector from its use of foreign oil, cleaning up our air and addressing climate change, and ensuring that Americans have dependable energy sources. John McCain will lead the effort to develop advanced transportation technologies and alternative fuels to promote energy independence and cut off the flow of oil wealth to repressive dictatorships like Iran.

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John McCain Will Encourage The Market For Alternative, Low Carbon Fuels Such As Wind, Hydro And Solar Power. According to the Department of Energy, wind could provide as much as one-fifth of electricity by 2030. The U.S. solar energy industry continued its double-digit annual growth rate in 2006. To develop these and other sources of renewable energy will require that we rationalize the current patchwork of temporary tax credits that provide commercial feasibility. John McCain believes in an even-handed system of tax credits that will remain in place until the market transforms sufficiently to the point where renewable energy no longer merits the taxpayers' dollars."
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/17671aa4-2fe8-4008-859f-0ef1468e96f4.htm?sid=google&t=lexington

Repeatedly during the Three Day Hate-Fest of the RNC convention, McCain and his supporters claimed that they are for a comprehensive energy policy, as in the above statement from McCain's website, that includes explicit claims that McCain, in addition to wanting to drill everywhere regardless of environmental impact, supports initiatives to develop alternative renewable clean energy sources.

McCain's record is just the opposite: consistent opposition to federal funding of renewable energy initiatives.

Voting Against Clean Renewable Energy and Efficiency

McCain Skipped Vote on Green Tax Credits in Stimulus Package. In the 2008 Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act the Senate included provisions to renew and extend the Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax credit for power companies, businesses, and individuals who employ wind, geothermal, solar, and other types of renewable electricity. The February 6, 2008 Senate vote failed to invoke cloture by one vote, and the Senate was forced to drop the renewable electricity incentives. Sen. McCain was the only senator to miss the vote. He indicated that he would have voted against the package with the extension of the renewable electricity incentives. <2/6/08; New York Times 2/7/08>

McCain Skipped Vote on Renewable Energy. In 2007, McCain skipped a vote on a motion to invoke cloture (thus limiting debate) on the Energy Independence and Security Act, which included fuel economy, energy efficiency, and renewable fuels provisions. The controversial issue in the Senate was the House-passed provision to require electric utilities to produce at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. The previously mentioned clean energy tax package was also an issue. Sixty votes were required for passage. Sen. McCain was the only one of five senators then running for president who missed the vote. The motion was rejected 53-42.

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McCain Skipped Vote to Establish $32.1B of Tax Incentives for Renewable Energy and Efficiency. In 2007, McCain failed to vote on a motion to invoke cloture (thus limiting debate) on an amendment by Sens. Baucus (D-MT) and Grassley (R-IA) that would establish $32.1 billion of tax incentives for alternative energy sources. The amendment would have provided tax incentives for more energy efficiency and the development of carbon capture and storage technology to reduce global warming pollution from power plants. It would have paid for these tax incentives with savings from closing oil company tax loopholes and recovering unpaid royalties from oil and gas production in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Sixty votes were required for passage. Motion rejected 57-36: R 10-34; D 45-2 (ND 41-1, SD 4-1); I 2-0.

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NOTE: Sen. Reid switched his vote from "yes" to "no" to protect his ability to conduct a revote.

McCain Opposes Renewable Electricity. A renewable electricity standard would require utilities to generate a certain portion of their electricity from wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources. Twenty six states, including Arizona, have such requirements. In 2002 and 2005, there were votes in the Senate to require utilities nationwide to generate 10 percent or 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy resources. Sen. McCain voted against renewable electricity every time.

2005: Voted against a renewable portfolio standard

2002: Voted against 20 percent requirement:

2002 (Vote 55): Voted to gut 10 percent requirement:

2002 (Vote 59): voted to gut 10 percent requirement:

McCain Voted Against Important Efficiency Standards. In 2002, Sen. McCain voted against an amendment by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) that would have restored a standard to require a 30 percent increase in efficiency for air conditioners. It would have saved consumers $1 billion on their electric bills, reduced energy use enough to avoid construction of 45 new power plants, and reduced greenhouse gases by 2.5 million metric tons. President Bush had blocked this rule, and Sen. McCain's vote supported him. <4/25/02>

McCain Has No Plan To Increase Energy Efficiency. Though a recent study by McKinsey &Co. found that the best way to make deep cuts in carbon emissions is to improve energy efficiency of buildings, appliances, and other energy consumers, McCain's understanding of the problem is woefully lacking. He has proposed a program of "energy audits," a system Dr. Joseph Romm calls "a weak, uncoordinated, narrowly-targeted action. They will barely have any impact when it comes to large commercial users who can already afford them."


Voting Against the Environment
McCain Receives "0" on League of Conservation Voters 2007 Scorecard. The League of Conservation Voters rates senators and representatives on the most critical environmental votes, with scores ranging from 100 – voting with the environment every time – to 0 for voting against the environment on every vote. Absences count as a vote against the environment since the legislator did not cast a vote for the environment. In 2007, Sen. McCain missed all 15 critical environmental votes in the Senate, so he received a "0."

McCain Opposes Three Fourths of Environmental Votes. Sen. McCain has a lifetime LCV score of 24 percent. Even if one excludes his 2007 missed votes, his lifetime score only rises to 26 percent.



http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/mccain_gw_record.html

and his determination to continue unsupportable tax breaks for the rich and tax subsidies for giant corporations, and his determination to privatize social security, and his intentions to overturn roe v wade. There are quite a few things he is telling the truth about. His record indicates that he is flat out lying about renewable energy.