Looking at the Candidates Energy Policies - Kucinich

[NashVegas]

Thanks to advances in renewables, there are fewer technical obstacles to energy independence for our country. There are many political obstacles -- but the oil, auto and electric utility corporations won't be directing energy policy in a Kucinich White House. I will spur research and investment in "alternative" energy sources -- hydrogen, solar, wind and ocean -- and make them mainstream. Clean energy technologies will produce new jobs. We can easily double our energy from renewable sources by 2010. And we can soon have hybrid and fuel cell cars dominating the market. When I was Mayor of Cleveland, I defended public ownership of utilities; when I'm President, I will expand it.

As a peace advocate, I will launch a major renewables effort because then Middle East oil fields will not loom so large as strategic or military targets. As an environmentalist, my view is always holistic and global: a Kucinich Administration will launch a "Global Green Deal" -- a major initiative to use our country's leadership in sustainable energy production to provide jobs to Americans, to reduce energy use here at home, and to partner with developing nations to provide their people with inexpensive, local renewable energy technologies. As a citizen of Planet Earth, I want this project for the same reason I will sign the Kyoto climate change treaty -- because we need it for our children and our grandchildren.

[goodhue]

1. Easily double our renewables by 2010!

Now that's an energy policy I can get behind!

[NashVegas]

2. Yes

But I'd like to see more of the details.

[diamondsoul]

3. Lots of people would like to see more

of the details on some of Kucinich's policies. Trouble is if he spent all his time writing detailed positions papers he wouldn't have any support. Read the supporting news articles and some of the debate transcripts. He's expanded on it in public appearances.

[snoochie]

4. In this interview I think he fleshes some of it out...

(I included four question and answer pairs. Hope this fits the fair use guidelines of the site)

Dennis the Menace, A Grist interview with Democratic presidential contender Dennis Kucinich

Grist: That's a very strong statement. Many environmentalists, and certainly most politicians, believe that there have to be tradeoffs between environmental and economic concerns. The Bush administration has led us to believe that these two goals of growing the economy and protecting the environment are radically incompatible. That's untrue, but still, you can't deny that big business at large fundamentally does not like environmental regulations. How would you balance these issues as president, knowing that you can't fully antagonize big business?

Kucinich: Well, wait a minute, you have to have enforcement of air and the water. Many big businesses are not using sustainability, we have to show big business where can make money by being sustainable. That's where the profits are in the future. You know, the thinking of the future shows that you can make money from clean air and clean water -- improve productivity. And we have to recognize that air pollution and water pollution find some sort of transfer of wealth away from the people of the country toward corporations. That's not fair and that's not just. So I intend to challenge that thinking and lead America to new thinking on sustainability.

(I have seen him cite examples of companies that put sustainable practices in place and profitted, so he's not just blowing smoke in the above paragraph.)

Grist: You have a 90 percent lifetime voting record from the League of Conservation Voters, which is strong. But many of the candidates have strong records and are wrapping themselves in the environmental mantle. Can you elaborate on how your record and vision on the environment differentiates you from the other candidates?

Kucinich: I have a long and consistent record of working for protecting the environment. I was active in helping draft the first environmental law protecting the air as a member of the Cleveland City Council 30 years ago. I led the effort in Ohio challenging nuclear power as being unsafe, unreliable, and unsustainable, and I'm still leading the effort in challenging it. And, most recently, I was at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, advocating a plan with Mikhail Gorbachev for a Global Green Deal that would enable the introduction of $50 billion of new solar projects around the world. It will be a major initiative to use our country's leadership in sustainable energy production to provide jobs to Americans, to reduce energy use here at home, and to partner with developing nations to provide their people with inexpensive, local renewable-energy technologies.

Grist: How would you extend that international clean-energy vision to the United States?

Kucinich: As a peace advocate, I will launch a major renewables effort Middle East oil fields not loom so large as strategic or military targets. There has to be a renewable energy portfolio of 20 percent by 2010. And that means introducing wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, biomass, and all of the options that must be available and need incentivizing. That also means withdrawing incentives for the production of nonrenewable energy. I'm not talking about building new hydro dams; I'm not talking about damming up more rivers and streams.



(thanks for mentioning this thread in another one - I would have missed it! :) )