The sad reality of modern-day political wrangling seems to make the development of a progressive, sustainable energy policy almost impossible.

We need bold and transcendent leadership, a blueprint that will not only revitalize our economy, but reverse the damage we’re doing to the planet.

Instead we get … John McCain advocating offshore drilling! Woo!

At this point, it should be blatantly obvious to just about everyone that change is inevitable - the only question is whether it will be a quick transition to an economy powered by new energy sources, or a slow and painful decline, powered by our inability to read the increasingly clear writing on the wall…

NOTE: This political cartoon was created by and is property of journalist, cartoonist and friend of Donkey Dish, Andrew Wahl. Visit his blog, Off the Wahl, for more!

The American media has, for better or worse, embraced the criterion that if a given subject tells us anything - no matter how broadly - about the kind of president a particular candidate might be, it’s fair game.

That’s how it’s been for Sen. Barack Obama in the past several months, and for rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a lot longer than that.

Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, has been more or less exempt from such scrutiny, in large part because won the GOP nomination long ago.

The honeymoon’s over, though.

As we shift towards general election mode, the Boston Phoenix came up with a list of 10 John McCain stories worth pursuing in the next few months …

1. He doesn’t “get” economics.
Not that we do, but we’re not running for president - and he himself said this! More than once! Beyond a wide array of tax cuts, what makes John McCain think he can keep America’s economic woes from worsening?

2. He doesn’t “get” Islam.
McCain touts his experience hammers Obama for his willingness to meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but McCain’s foreign policy aptitude is also highly questionable. He’s confused Sunnis and Shiites on multiple occasions. Understanding Islam and the Middle East is essential to our national security. Does McCain grasp them well enough to be president?

3. His “reformer” rep is questionable.
Hatchet-job hints of extramarital affair notwithstanding, the New York Times‘ Vicki Iseman story posed a valid question: does John McCain’s reputation as a reformer dedicated to reducing the influence of money on politics really correspond with the man’s own actions? Or is it just a contrived act?

Continue reading this article …

Just kidding. He didn’t make one of his Iran-style missteps.

But when a Republican campaigns on an environmental issue, it makes news. To that effect, John McCain signaled a split with both the Bush administration and environmentalists in a major global warming speech today.

The Arizona Senator and presidential nominee declares climate change undeniable and urgent, saying that the U.S. hasn’t acted quickly enough.

George W. Bush famously refused to sign the Kyoto global warming accord. McCain pledges to return America to international negotiations.

In the new campaign ad below, which he will begin airing this week, McCain places himself between what he describes as two warring factions on climate change. He paints it not only as an environmental issue, but a national security problem.

John McCain says he would set limits on greenhouse gases and allow the sale of rights of excess emissions - known as a cap and trade system.

Continue reading this article …

The long-term goal may be saving Earth, but a short-term one for Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is winning the backing of Al Gore.

The former Vice President, who won a Nobel prize for his work to combat rising temperatures, is also one of the superdelegates and one of the most influential Democratic Party leaders likely to determine who wins the nomination.

So the dueling candidates praise Gore during campaign speeches, offer up roles for him in future administrations, and, of course, keep in touch.

“They both call. And I appreciate that fact,” Gore said on 60 Minutes.

Barack Obama says he keeps in regular contact with Al Gore and has pledged to make him a major player on global warming in an Obama administration.

“I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem,” Obama said.

Hillary Clinton says she does not know whether Al Gore wanted to get back into government but is certain the American people would welcome it.

“I am very dependent upon the work that Al Gore has done for so many years on behalf of climate change,” the former First Lady said.

Al Gore’s spokeswoman, Kalee Kreider, declined to comment on the Obama offer but was complimentary about all three of the presidential candidates.

“Former Vice President Gore thinks that both candidates are very strong. Both of them have offered plans to address the worsening climate crisis … as has Senator John McCain,” she said. “It’s a real turnaround to have candidates on both sides of the aisle offering, you know, solutions and plans to the climate crisis.”

Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush, has dedicated most of his professional life since then to fighting climate change.

Although he may not be eager to get back into the political fray as the tight race between Obama and Clinton rages on, Gore definitely has an agenda: to make certain that global warming on the top of the president’s priority list.

Continue reading this article …

Experts are taking heed at Shell Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer’s statement that the world is running out of cheap oil.

Here is what van der Veer writes about the two new future energy scenarios that have been developed by the Shell corporation:

“We are experiencing a step-change in the growth rate of energy demand due to rising population and economic development. After 2015, easily accessible supplies of oil and gas probably will no longer keep up with demand. The future will be either a scramble for resources or a cautious, well-planned ride into a changing future.”

Given the absurd profits Shell and its industry counterparts are making, it is the clearest acknowledgment of the reality of peak oil, and should sound alarms throughout Washington and everyday Americans, too.

Says the group Climate Progress: “The oil company with the best strategic planning says the day of reckoning is nigh.” Indeed. The question is, who has the best plan to do something about it?

As we’ve learned from years of inactivity from government officials, talk is cheap when it comes to climate change.

State of the Union rhetoric is one thing, curbing carbon emissions and developing alternate energy sources quite another.

As George W. Bush prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address Monday, a group of nearly 200 U.S. climate scientists, policy experts and mayors are calling on the president - and his potential successors - to take stronger action to combat global warming.

The State of the Climate paper is an offshoot of the Presidential Climate Action Project - or PCAP - which last December released a report suggesting ways the next president could begin to tackle climate change within the first 100 days of his or her taking office.

In places like Greenland, climate change is not a far-away problem.

One signer, James Hornaday, the mayor of Homer, Alaska, has seen massive glaciers melt away, bark beetle infestations destroy large swaths of spruce trees and encroaching sea levels erode 2.5 feet of shoreline every year - for the last 40 years.

Humans, of course, are visual creatures. If you can’t see it, what’s the harm? But imagine if that happened to, say, New York City …

Scary. Follow this link for more climate change simulations and see if that changes your perspective on this issue a little.

For the first time in its history, the U.S. Supreme Court has waded into the political debate on global warming.

Under the George W. Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has argued that carbon dioxide and the like aren’t pollutants under the Clean Air Act, and therefore, the agency has no power to regulate them.

But in a sweeping 5-4 decision released Monday, the Supreme Court rejected that position, declaring that Clean Air Act gives the EPA the authority to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion, and was joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

The majority decided motor vehicle emissions make a “meaningful contribution to greenhouse gas concentrations” and thus, to global warming.

“A well-documented rise in global temperatures has coincided with a significant increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Respected scientists believe the two trends are related,” Stevens wrote.

Environmental groups applauded the Court’s decision.

“It’s an important signal that the Bush administration cannot continue to ignore the problem of global warming for political reasons when the science is so clear and there’s clear pressure from the public to move forward,” said Josh Dorner, spokesperson for the Sierra Club in Washington D.C.

“An enormous victory for the fight against global warming,” said Doug Kendall, whose group Community Rights Counsel filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

“The Supreme Court has recognized both the importance of the problem and the need for the federal government to act on the solution,” Kendall said, arguing the decision is a major victory for states who want to rely on the congressional Clean Air Act.

“The Supreme Court’s decision, in Massachusetts v. EPA, repudiates the Bush administration’s do-nothing policy on global warming,” said David Doniger, Natural Resources Defense Council’s attorney in the case.

Greenpeace, the well-known environmental group, viewed the decision as a political victory against the administration’s policy on climate change.

“This ruling shows the degree to which the Bush administration continues to be out of step, not only with the science, but with congress and public opinion,” said Chris Miller, director of global climate change at Greenpeace.

“All of these years that the Bush administration has been in office, instead of trying to find out ways that they can combat global warming, they’ve been denying the science, they’ve been fighting lawsuits … so this is a big defeat for them, and it’s also a big defeat for the automotive industry that spent a lot of time, energy and effort trying to beat this back,” said Miller.

Continue reading at ABCNews.com …

Al Gore has a plan.

What that is, only he knows.

But when he says he has “no plan to run again,” he knows very well that by not taking himself out of the 2008 race completely, he can remain in the Democratic field (if only in speculation) - and continue to enjoy the unparalleled media buzz and positive PR he’s receiving to advance his first priority: global warming.

From what we gather, most of Gore’s friends believe he will not run, that he has no desire to welcome back the scrutiny a top-tier candidate has to withstand (see Mrs. “1984,” the current frontrunner).

Assuming that’s true, Gore will not say he’s out because he’ll then lose some of the resources needed to fight global warming, maintain his role as climate change ambassador of Earth and respected elder of the Democratic Party.

Regardless of his intentions, Al Gore returned to Capitol Hill today, asking lawmakers to consider their place in history when rising to the challenge of fighting what he calls a “climate crisis.”

“I promise you a day will come when our children and grandchildren will look back and they will ask one of two questions. Either they will ask, ‘What in God’s name were they doing? Didn’t they see the evidence?’”

Continue reading this article …

Sure, it’s becoming the “in” thing to recognize global warming and say we should do something to stop it.

But we all know that the only thing that will make Washington really take notice and act to solve the climate change crisis is the unprecedented prospect of millions of committed citizens taking action.

It’s time to join Al Gore and make that happen.

Follow this link to virtually sign a postcard and the former Vice President will personally deliver it to Washington… tomorrow.

In what may be the blockbuster hit of the spring political season, Gore is testifying to Congress tomorrow - twice. Not only is his testimony expected to influence the direction of coming legislation, but it may also reveal something of his intentions on the 2008 presidential race.

That said, we’re postponing our weekly rankings of the Democratic presidential candidates until after Al Gore’s testimony. One way or another, this is certainly going to be interesting.

Presidential candidate Tom Vilsack offered a plan Tuesday to ween the nation off of fossil fuels and roll back greenhouse gas emissions to a fraction of current levels.

The former Iowa governor, who has tried to get Barack Obama to debate him in an attempt to gain greater exposure, said he would force new power plants to emit no carbon dioxide — one of the greenhouse gases blamed for rising earth temperatures — by 2020.

Vilsack said as president he would cap U.S. carbon dioxide emissions and create a credit-trading program to meet the cap.

“Energy security is the single most important issue facing America today,” Vilsack said.

“It affects us every minute of every day. It affects our health, our personal finances, our economy and our quality of life.”

Among his proposals was a 75 percent reduction in greenhouse gases produced by the United States by 2050, principally through a mandatory “cap and trade” program among businesses and other institutions.

President George W. Bush made a similar pledge to cap carbon emissions in his 2000 campaign, but broke it in 2001 after getting elected.

Bush continues to oppose mandatory emission caps, arguing that industry through development of new alternative energy technology can deal with the problem at a lesser cost.

We applaud Vilsack’s devotion to this monumentally important issue, but worry that his campaign will never gain the momentum needed to bring it enough attention. Anyone seen Al Gore lately?

[Cartoon above by Linda Eddy, courtesy of Iowapresidentialwatch.com. Follow the link to view many more of her creations.]