Today the one and only debate between the Vice Presidential Candidates occurs. We thought we’d get a head start and examine Joe Biden’s views on energy and the environment. We looked at what Sarah Palin thinks shortly after John McCain announced his choice for running mate.
The first thing you see when you go to the “energy page” on Senator Joe Biden’s Web site is a photo of solar panels in a field. The photo looks like it may have been photo-shopped, but regardless that image singularly emphasizes Biden’s commitment to renewable energy.
Biden has long been a proponent of renewable energy. A Senator for 35 years, Biden was one of the first to introduce legislation to address global warming and incentives to jumpstart renewable energy markets. The League of Conservation Voters has given Biden a lifetime score of 83 percent for his consistently favorable stance on environmental initiatives.
Listening to Biden clips regarding renewable energy on You Tube, Biden repeatedly stresses the need to fund R&D toward all types of renewable energy markets. He wants to direct monies toward expanding markets for wind, solar, and other renewable forms of energy so that “we’re not importing them from overseas.” He wants to direct dollars toward research to develop technologies such as long-lasting lithium batteries (“that can get 100-miles per gallon equivalent and advocates creating technologies to advance clean coal (“not so much for us to burn the coal, but for us to sell the technology”).
Biden often raises examples how doable this all could be and what’s he’s trying to do to advance his vision. For instance, Biden talked about how he, along with Senator Tom Harkin, sponsored a bill to force carmakers to increase the fuel economy standards of their vehicles (cars and SUVs) by one mile per gallon each year. Biden claims that within 10 years the US would no longer need to import any oil from Saudi Arabia by “just increasing efficiency by one mile per gallon.”
Biden has gotten a lot of flack for his double-speak regarding clean coal. News media have reported on his seemingly inconsistent position from the Obama-Biden platform when Biden at a political rally told supporters “We don’t support clean coal.”
Yet Biden’s position has shown up before. In 2006 a woman in Ohio asked Joe Biden why “when wind and solar are flourishing here in Ohio” does he supports clean coal? Biden’s response was somewhat confusing though essentially he said that the US should develop clean coal technologies so that we could sell them to China where otherwise they will continue to burn coal each day that is, as Biden emphasized “killing you.”
On other environment and energy related issues, Biden’s stance is quite clear. On his Web site, Biden maps out his plan for “Energy Security.” Biden’s plan includes setting a National Renewable Portfolio Standard that would require that at least “20 percent of the country’s electricity comes from clean, renewable sources like wind, solar, biomass and geothermal.”
Biden proudly touts his early awareness and understanding of the impacts from climate change. In 1986, he was the first person in the Senate to introduce legislation that called for a “national strategy to understand and respond to the emerging threat of global warming.”
Joe Biden is indeed a champion of the environment who has demonstrated his command of its complex issues. His rhetoric gets muddled, but his commitment seems undeterred.