Democratic Presidential candidates traveling the state have made addressing global warming one of their top priorities.
Most candidates have specific plans -- from supporting increased fuel efficiency standards in cars to setting caps on greenhouse gases.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton reports on what Democratic voters in the Peterborough area – a region that leans Democratic - are looking for in a candidate.
(nat sound)
During a campaign stop in Peterborough, Democrat John Edwards told the crowd that he was the first candidate to come out with an aggressive plan to combat climate change.
Edwards is trying to distinguish himself from front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
“Unlike some of my colleagues running for president, I am not for building more nuclear power plants, I do not think we should do that. And I’m not for the development of other carbon based fuel like liquid coal, I think that’s also a mistake.†16
Among the Democratic candidates, only Edwards and Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich are in favor of phasing out nuclear power entirely.
And that’s an important distinction for Peterborough resident John Free -dee.
1254 :35 I came to talk to Senator Edwards about nuclear policy, it’s an energy policy that doesn’t get a lot of discussion, last week in Iowa he started to talk about nuclear abolition, so I came down here to commend him.
Drawing a difference in global warming policies among the Democrats is difficult on the surface.
All are in favor of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson supports the biggest reduction – 90-percent by 2050.
And all want more investment in alternative energies like wind, solar, and biomass.
Bruce Clendenning, Projects Director of Granite State Conservation Voters, says voters will have to look at five specific energy policies to really see distinctions.
The League of Conservation Voters has set up a website to do just that called heat-is-on-dot-org that looks at carbon caps, fuel efficiency targets, renewable energy standards, energy conservation targets and candidates’ positions on new coal plants.
1270 1:42 the only candidates that have really laid out very specific plans on all five of those elements are, the first one to do it was Senator Edwards, the second and third ones pretty quickly after that was Senator Dodd and Governor Richardson and three of them have all five of those across the board, they’ve got very specific proposals
Clendenning says Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and most of the other candidates have positions on some of those issues, but not all.
And it seems some voters - like Peterborough resident Michael Morse, a registered Democrat - are looking for those details.
1251 1:00 The one thing that I haven’t really heard and seems the most obvious is raising the fuel mileage standards, the Café standards for cars, it’s a quick fix, and yes some automotive companies are going to have to make some major changes, but if we really want energy independence, one of the easiest ways to get there is to raise the mileage standards for gasoline.
And the Democratic candidates do differ on raising miles per gallon standards.
All favor it, but by varying degrees.
Governor Richardson supports the highest standard, wanting 50 miles per gallon by 2020.
Bruce Clendenning says listening to which global warming position the candidates talk about the most will also give voters an idea of the importance they place on it – that’s especially true in trying to distinguish between front-runners Clinton and Obama.
1273 Obama talks more strongly about fuel efficiency standards, Senator Clinton is talking a great deal about how we get our country more efficient, not just cars but in building structures and things like that.
//
(1262 Energy policy is probably the most important issue to me right now…)
That’s Democrat Lisa Bowdwin of Temple New Hampshire.. She says she’s disappointed in the Democratic candidates because she’s not hearing enough about global warming.
1263 :50 At this point I’m not favoring any particular candidate based on their energy policy, I don’t feel as if any of them have a strong enough energy policy.
But as one voter said, it’s up to New Hampshire citizens to challenge the candidates with global warming questions and demand specifics.
They have to answer you; after all, you’re in a primary state.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.
