3. CAMPAIGN 2008: Conservatives raise doubts about McCain's cap-and-trade commitment (Greenwire, 07/30/2008)

Darren Samuelsohn, Greenwire senior reporter

Sen. John McCain doesn't appear to be bending in his support for global warming legislation, but that hasn't stopped some prominent conservatives from offering their own read into how the Arizona Republican would handle the climate issue if he is elected president.

In a nationally televised interview Friday, Steve Forbes, a former GOP presidential candidate now advising McCain on economic issues, said he doubted McCain would have success if he tried to move a cap-and-trade bill that places first-ever limits on heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

"I think cap and trade is going to go the way of some other things," Forbes said on CNN's "Glenn Beck Program." "As you may remember, when he came into office, Bill Clinton had a proposal of tax carbons and stuff like that. I don't think those things are going to get very far as people start to examine the details of them."

When it comes to McCain's global warming stance, Forbes is not alone. Several top Senate and House Republicans have been parsing the presidential candidate's comments on global warming in search of any sign he would back away from a position established shortly after losing the GOP presidential nomination in 2000 to then Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

Appearing on CNN last Friday, Steve Forbes, an economic adviser to GOP presidential nominee John McCain, predicted a quick demise should McCain try to move cap-and-trade legislation as president. Click here to watch the clip.

"You're making an assumption, and I'm not sure that's the case," House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told Greenwire last month when asked for his opinion on McCain's plan to support cap-and-trade legislation if elected president.

Boehner insisted there was another message in the presumptive GOP presidential nominee's cap-and-trade pitch, outlined in detail in May during a speech in Portland, Ore. "Read it a little more closely," Boehner said.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is another lawmaker who thinks McCain would govern differently if he was working in the Oval Office. "There are other approaches," said Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, last week in an interview. "I look for him to think about sharing technologies, to go back to the Asia-Pacific concept" pursued during the Bush years.

McCain camp reaffirms commitment

McCain is giving no sign he is backing away from his global warming stance. The candidate has aired television commercials featuring global warming as the centerpiece of his environmental platform. Bucking conventional wisdom, McCain has even gone on the offensive to say he has been more proactive on climate legislation compared with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Campaigning in Nevada yesterday, McCain confronted a voter who said he was skeptical about the science linking man-made emissions to global warming. "Climate change, my friend, I have to tell you, with all due respect, is real," McCain said. "It's real, and the question is, how do we address it?"

Asked yesterday about recent comments from McCain surrogates such as Forbes, McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin said, "John McCain is committed to taking on the challenge of global climate change through a market-based cap-and-trade system that will curb greenhouse gas emissions and encourage new technologies that strengthen our economy."

For many McCain supporters, the conservatives' comments are nothing new. "I think that's wishful thinking," said David Jenkins, government affairs director for Republicans for Environmental Protection. "If you look at Sen. McCain's record, one thing he's been with respect to climate change, it's been valiantly consistent."

"They're all coming from the same place," Jenkins added of the conservatives. "They don't want to see climate change legislation pass. They're putting their own spin on it. I wouldn't expect them to do anything else."

Michael Whatley, an industry consultant and former Senate Republican aide, predicted McCain will not have an easy go of it in pursuing his environmental platform as president. He cited Bush's well-publicized reversal on a 2000 campaign pledge for mandatory carbon dioxide regulations for power plants.

"When [Bush] got in, there was an absolute immense pressure brought to bear by Republicans and the business establishment against that right off the bat," Whatley said. "You'll see that against McCain, as well."

Working across the aisle

To some, McCain's appeal is his unique view on climate change compared with that of the traditional GOP base.

"One of the reasons I'm supporting Sen. McCain is he's had this willingness to work across party lines," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) last month in an interview. "He also knows you can't get everything you want. We're dealing with an enormous problem like this that we'll be dealing with for a century. You got to get started. I think he has the ability to pull together a broad bipartisan coalition in support of global warming."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said yesterday she does not have any reason to believe McCain or Obama would walk away from the issue.

"They both have made a big deal out of it," Clinton said in an interview. "Sen. McCain was the author, along with Sen. Lieberman, of the very first bill ever introduced. Sen. Obama is very committed. I think it has to be stacked up against all the other priorities, like a deteriorating economy and the largest deficit in the history of our country. But it will be on the agenda for whoever is the president."

Clinton did have an opinion, however, on who has a better chance of moving global warming legislation. "I obviously think that President Obama and a Democratic Congress are more likely to move it and achieve legislation as soon as possible," she said.

Back to Public index page