Anyways. Me being in a hospital waiting room for so many hours this past week has allowed me a lot of time to think about the We Campaign and the group, Demands for the Candidates, I have founded here. I would like to share some of these thoughts and opinions which I have had time to formulate. They go something like this...
While I have not had any time to post or write, I have had snippets of time where I was able to check my email. It would be and understatement to say the Demands for the Candidates group has had a significant response. Some of this response has been negative however. I have, so far, 83 emails from people telling me that while they (mostly) support what Demands for the Candidates objective is, their is no way they could join such a group because even though they support Al Gore's plan, they will vote this November for their favorite presidential candidate regardless of whether that candidate has adopted and endorsed Al Gore's plan.
This has been a real eye-opener to me. It made me think a whole lot about the purpose of the group, where it is headed, and how effective it can be in making change. I have come to two conclusions.
Conclusion 1:
The group, Demands for the Candidates, will ultimately be unsuccessful in its mission to affect the presidential candidates environmental policies.
Through a combination of Barack Obama not wanting to endanger losing votes in the 'Center' due to seeming extreme, and John McCain receiving large donations from companies that would be financially damaged by Al Gore's plan, we can safely assume that neither candidate would be willing to move very far at all away from their current environmental policies.
Along with this is the fact that, as I have already mentioned, people will (for the most part) vote for their favorite candidate regardless of whether that candidate supports Al Gore's plan. And the candidates know this.
Conclusion 2:
The continuation of Demands for the Candidates in its current form will be a futile effort.
The Demands for the Candidates group must either be reformed or deleted. After all, isn't the purpose of the We Campaign as a whole to put pressure on not only the presidential candidates, but to ALL public officials? So isn't it redundant to create an organization within another organization that has the same purpose as the first organization?
All that being said, I would love to here from anyone who has any thoughts on what can be done at this point. I will be looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts.
Thank you,
Michael
This post is inspired by Americans for a Coal-Free VP! and Demands for the Candidates group, but I am linking it to the other groups that I have joined ... Anybody who feels motivated to make a difference is invited to visit 350 Alternatives to a Pro-Coal VP and make two phone calls that will have impact if a bunch of us do it, then post a blog or comment about the calls, and invite your friends to join the effort. Please visit 350 Alternatives to a Pro-Coal VP.
Here is my suggestion for a demand for clarification from Senators Obama and McCain: Phone their campaign offices and ask to speak with a staffer -- ask the staffer if the senator supports a COAL MORTORIUM until and unless it has operational CARBON CAPTURE AND SEQUESTRATION (CCS). Remind the staffer that CLEAN COAL is an OXYMORON at this point in time because CCS is not included in any of the pending plants' designs. We must make our voices loud and clear: COAL MUST BE LEFT IN THE GROUND until CCS is installed and actually operational.
Barack Obama has the most responsible energy plan of the two. Let's take a look.
The following is found on BarackObama.com on the page Barack Obama's Plan. [Actually the following was on the page July 21, but has since been updated and may be downloaded as a pdf ... but the update on coal is not any clearer today than it was two weeks ago. Read August 7 comment about the updated language. Edit added August 8]
Invest in a Clean Energy Future
- Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology: Obama will significantly increase the resources devoted to the commercialization and deployment of low-carbon coal technologies. Obama will consider whatever policy tools are necessary, including standards that ban new traditional coal facilities, to ensure that we move quickly to commercialize and deploy low carbon coal technology.
I think three phrases need to be clarified ... to me, in light of Al Gore's carbon-free electricity challenge, these sound like business as usual weasle words ... and they are used together in what appears to be a contradictory, imprecise and noncommital statement:
- "will consider whatever policy tools are necessary"
- "consider ... standards that ban new traditional coal facilities"
- "commercialize and deploy low carbon coal technology"
This does not sound like a commitment to "carbon-free electricity" to me ...
In order to make sure Obama understands our fundamental concerns that he buys in to Mr. Gore's challenge, we need to hold his feet to the fire and demand full disclosure of his true intentions. We must demand that he be clear ...
Let's be clear on this, these words are not clear. We demand clarity.
Barack -- and John!-- needs to state clearly that he is against any new coal-burning power plants that do not -- from day one -- use carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). That means a MORATORIUM ON COAL that is not carbon-free.
Le's all call Obama's and McCain's campaign headquarter and tell them clearly that state that we support a COAL MORATORIUM until and unless CCS if installed and operational. McCain won't but Obama will if enough of us speak up.
Tell them coal that is not "carbon-free" must remain in the ground if we hope to pass to our children and grandchildren a planet that is not irreversibly damaged by global warming. Obama and McCan (there is no hope for McCain) need to let us know that they understand this imperative. Read more about this at 350 Alternatives to a Pro-Coal VP. Read the group description and the blog Join us!
Currently, each electricity provider has different procedures, requirements and pay rates.
We must begin to treat the Electricity grid as a national system. There must be a standard across the nation for interconnection as well as a National Electricity Backbone, that will connect the rural low electricity demand areas with their large and renewable resources in our countryside with our high electricity demand urban centers on the coasts.
So far there have been over 1.4 million members sign up on the We Campaign, all of them calling for change in our energy policies. Imagine now if we got some of those people calling for Obama and McCain to ramp up their energy policies or risk losing votes. Do you see what I see? I see both candidates scrambling to try and gain votes by doing exactly what I suggest and trying as hard as they can not to lose any votes by ignoring the issue.
We need to make this election revolve around one thing... climate change! And the only way we are possibly going to be able to do this is by using our power as individuals in a democracy, the power of the VOTE!
Let's send a message to the candidates telling them we demand, not want, but DEMAND that they pay attention to the millions of people out there wanting a shift in the way America works.
Join Demands for the Candidates and help me put some real pressure on those who want the White House.
Thanks,
Michael
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