Climate change not a presidential election issue yet
WASHINGTON, 8 August 2012 (AP) – Barack Obama promised to tackle climate change when he first ran for the White House four years ago, but – battling this summer for a second term – he speaks little of the issue even as the United States suffers through a drought of historic proportions, wild storms and punishing heat that As late as April, Obama told Rolling Stone magazine climate change would be a central campaign issue. “I will be very clear in voicing my belief that we’re going to have to take further steps to deal with climate change in a serious way,” he said. But as the campaign against Republican challenger Mitt Romney reaches an early boil, even before the parties hold their nominating conventions, climate change is little spoken of by incumbent candidate Obama, who four years ago foresaw millions of new jobs through investments in “renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels.” Instead Obama is fighting a Romney challenge in a tight race over the struggling American economy and stubbornly high unemployment. Gallup polling repeatedly shows the economy as the chief concern among American voters at 65 percent, while environmental and pollution issues were mentioned by less than 1 percent of those polled. Even without a big push on climate change, Obama has the support of environmentalists. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said Obama “has done a substantial amount in his three years to fight the climate crisis.” Romney, he said, “is taking his lead from fossil fuel companies and does not even acknowledge there is a climate problem.” Romney has been accused of changing positions on the issue to curry favor with the most conservative Republicans, many of whom deny that climate change exists. As governor of the liberal-leaning state of Massachusetts, Romney imposed restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions on power plants in the state. But as a presidential candidate, he has said the “idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.” He acknowledges that the globe is warming, but says “we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet.” Early in his administration, Obama was more bullish on tackling climate change. He pushed through tough new fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and promoted alternative energy. […]
Obama hasn’t totally ignored climate change on the campaign trail. As recently as this week he was promoting a drive to expedite seven solar and wind energy projects in the American West. His interior secretary, Ken Salazar, said Tuesday that the administration had in the past three years “approved more utility-scale renewable energy projects on public lands than in the past two decades combined.” But there is little chance that the few undecided American voters who will decide the razor-close election will cast their ballots based on the candidates’ position on climate change. James Riddlesperger, a political scientist who studies the juncture of science and politics at Texas Christian University, said the political lines are already drawn. “Everybody already knows where the parties, the candidates stand on global warming,” he said. “What is done about it awaits the outcome of this election.”
