Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is hanging in there. So what’s his position on solar energy?
Mike Huckabee’s stance on environmental policy centers solely on energy independence. From his point of view, energy independence is a vehicle toward national security. He supports activities that promote energy independence: solar power, nuclear power, “clean coal,” natural gas, and biofuels.
Unlike McCain, Huckabee does not necessarily believe global warming is the result of human activity. Instead Huckabee is motivated to protect the earth for religious reasons. In a MSNBC hosted Republican debate in 2007, Huckabee expressed his view on how the environment relates to global warming, “our responsibility to God means to be good stewards of this earth, be good caretakers of the natural resources that don’t belong to us we just get to use them, we have no right to abuse them.” (Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep0DGbrwdzw if you’re interested in hearing Huckabee’s view firsthand.)
Huckabee’s campaign website is light on specifics on how he will achieve his plans toward energy independence. He does, however, set forth a bold plan: “The first thing I will do as President is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence. I’ll use the bully pulpit to inform you about the plan and ask for your support . . . The plan will get underway during my first term, and we will achieve energy independence by the end of my second term.”
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One thing I noticed in some of his speeches and interviews is that he has a holistic approach to governing in general, seeing for example the relation of alternative energy to not just environmental stewardship but economics and even foreign policy (in terms of independence from being beholden to oil-producing nations that might link oil to other issues).