No, sorry, I’m not buying your version of a moderate Republican.

Opening up more land for oil and coal extraction. Does that really mean that the world will extract more oil and coal? I don’t think so. The amount extracted will be determined by demand. Blocking access on US land would have meant taking a political hit without producing any gains. We get rid of coal and gas mainly by substituting cheaper energy sources.
Personally I would rather we drill for oil on US soil where the environmental controls are stronger than, say, some under-developed country where the government can be paid to turn a blind eye to spills and other bad practice.

I’m not a starry-eyed fan, I’m someone who tries to be a realist. Unless a Democrat is in the White House no progressive, left-leaning legislation will be signed into law. A Democrat in the White House cannot sign legislation into law unless that legislation is first written and passed by Congress.

I’m afraid too many on the left have suffered from too high expectations that they, themselves, set. We elected PBO but we failed to give him a cooperative Congress. Even in his first two years the Democratic caucus majority in the Senate was a filibuster-proof majority for only 96 days and when there were 60 votes some of those were people like the Senator from Louisiana who votes the way big oil wants.

The House passed an climate bill. Republicans in Congress had the votes to kill it. The climate bill did not make it to the President’s desk for a signature.

In 2010 we did not turn out an vote in a better Congress, in fact far too many of us showed up to vote in a barely adequate Congress and progress ground to a halt once Republicans gained control of the House.

One cannot blame the carpenter they hired for making slow progress building their new house when they furnish him warped lumber and bent nails.

(same sort of thing on numerous issues.)

he’s a moderate, and in another generation, very well might have been a moderate Republican. is that the best way to move us forward in today’s extreme political environment? in some instances, yes. in others, no.

i’ll be voting for him. we’ll have more policy- and politics-related posts in the coming months. much to the chagrin of some readers, unfort. but i’m not a starry-eyed head of the fanclub. wish i felt i should be.

I’ve use this analogy before, but I still like it…

PBO went to where the wagon was stuck in the mud. He pulled it out, cleaned it off and has started driving it toward the left’s goals.

He did not go to where those goals are located and wait for the wagon to show up on its own.

i genuinely have no hard feelings towards GOP voters who support cleantech and support current Republican leaders — i’m just completely confused as to how they do so. and, in general, completely confused why anyone other than a super rich white dude would support them… and even if i were one of those, there’d only be one logical reason to do so.

i wish more than anyone that we never had to post a single thing related to politics on here.

i’m just in shock that a cleantech supporter can not be appalled by the current leaders of the Republican party. Obama is far from a saint for me — seems like he would have been a Republican just a couple decades ago (many of his policies are of GOP origin).

anyway, i think all of our American writers have independently spoken up about their complete dissatisfaction with GOP leadership, and they have since the beginning of this blog. but i basically just repost stuff when it is based on clear facts, and especially when it dispels myths.

there are long discussions to be had on what intelligent governmental philosophy and policy are. far more than we can cover. but we try to do our bit.

Plus, even much of the choir doesn’t know many of the points above.

I can say that I agree that both candidates are terrible choices, but the facts are at the time the numbers were great so great the Bush and Obama wanted credit for it. Having no real love for the current administration, there is plenty enough that was done wrong to call the guy out on this isnt one of them.

So please explain to me how as a renewable energy supporter you can support republicans, now i would love for this to be one side wants more wind and the other wants solar or what ever but its not that, its one side wants renewable and the other wants to destroy the industries because they are “liberal scams”

Got it.

Speaking of caring about reckless spending, how did you enjoy what happened to the federal debt the last two times Republicans had control of the White House? You get a warm fuzzy feeling about the way Reagan/Bush I and then Bush II took declining national debt and turned things around, running our debt level up and up and up?

Reckless spending. That would be something like starting two wars and financing them with public debt, would it not?

Furnish proof for your claims.

We can disagree about whether government programs or private entrepreneurship are leading this revolution. We may even disagree about whether this huge debt we are accumulating as a nation is going to burden our children for years to come. But I am not here to listen to your pro-Obama cheer leading. You are alienating a significant portion of your audience with your constant political ranting. There are fiscal conservatives who care about our planet and about the deficit.

Of course, this is your blog. You are free to use it as you please. There are other blogs out there (Green Car Congress, Biofuels Digest, Renewable Energy News) for those of us who care about the reckless spending that is going on in Washington as much as we do about peak oil or global warming.