Greenpeace Backgrounders on the VP Nominees

Here's the scoop on the VP nominees according to Greenpeace:

Delaware Senator Joseph Biden

Climate Crisis

• Biden is a cosponsor of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, which would reduce climate pollution 80 percent by 2050, the level scientists say is necessary to avoid climate catastrophe.

• Biden favors a cap, auction and trade system for greenhouse gases and wants to use the proceeds to support large-scale development of clean energy resources.

Oil

• Biden has supported protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, America’s Serengeti.

• Biden has opposed drilling off America’s fragile coasts.

Coal

• Biden opposes the construction of new coal-fired power plants that don’t capture and store their greenhouse gas emissions. However, he has supported exporting carbon capture technology to countries like China.

• Biden has opposed subsidies to coal companies for turning coal into an automotive fuel, an energy-intensive process that would produce up to double the global warming pollution of regular oil.

Nuclear

• Biden has opposed increased subsidies for nuclear power, although he believes nuclear could play a role in the future energy supply.

• Biden has recognized some of the safety problems with nuclear energy and has called for tougher oversight of the government’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Clean Energy & Efficiency

• Biden is a co-sponsor (with Senator Obama) of the Fuel Economy Reform Act, which would raise fuel efficiency standards to 40 mpg by 2017, reducing greenhouse gases significantly and save drivers over $1 trillion.

• Biden supports a Clean Energy Standard that would require utilities to produce 20 percent of their electricity from clean sources like wind, solar, and geothermal power by 2020.

LCV Score

• In 2006, Biden had a lifetime score of 84 from the League of Conservation Voters.

Additional Resources

Grist.org environmental profile and interview of Joe Biden: http://www.grist.org/feature/2007/08/29/biden_factsheet/

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin

Climate Crisis

• Just hours after the McCain campaign announced that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be the GOP vice presidential nominee, Palin told Newsmax she doesn’t believe in man-made global warming, a positionthat puts her out of touch with both McCain, the Bush administration, and the scientific consensus.

Oil

• Palin is a strong proponent of oil drilling, regardless of its environmental consequences. She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in offshore beluga whale and polar bear habitat. Polar bears in Alaska already have been observed drowning and cannibalizing each other due to the melting of their sea ice habitat. The Southern Beaufort Sea population of polar bears off Alaska’s north coast has already declined by 17 percent.

• Palin has proposed giving an Italian oil company a major financial break on its planned Beaufort Sea oil field.

“When I look every day, the big oil company’s building is right out there next to me, and it’s quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry,” Palin said.

Endangered Species

• Under Palin’s leadership, the State of Alaska filed suit against the Department of Interior to undo the listing of the polar bear as threatened, even though polar bears are under extreme threat due to the melting of sea ice from global warming and expanding oil drilling activities.

• Palin also opposed listing beluga whales, which are threatened by seismic testing and potential oil spills. The governor endorses and defends the aerial shooting of wolves and bears in her state. The practice chases the animals until they are exhausted and recently included the slaughter of 14 wolf pups in their den.

Mining

• The Pebble Mine project — proposed by foreign mining companies Anglo-American and Northern Dynasty — would build one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines in southwest Alaska. Pebble Mine would sit at the headwaters of two major rivers that drain into Bristol Bay, America’s most productive salmon fishery. Even without a major disaster in the earthquake-prone region, the toxic chemicals that would be used in the mining process pose a major threat to salmon by interfering with their ability to migrate. Palin opposed a ballot measure that would have prohibited mines that contaminated salmon streams.

Grist.org environmental profile of Sarah Palin: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/29/83614/5859