Environmental Stances Are Balancing Act For McCain

Visiting a science center in Jersey City on Friday, Sen. John McCain said, "I'm proud of my record on the environment." (By Robert Sciarrino -- Associated Press)

When Karpinski tells audiences about McCain's environmental scorecard rating, he said, "jaws drop. . . . I tell them, 'He's not as green as you think he is.' "

Obama has already sought to exploit this on the campaign trail: While campaigning in Bend, Ore., on Saturday he said McCain "opposed real solutions to our dependence on oil time and time again." In response, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds noted that Obama had supported the 2005 energy bill, which provided tax breaks for oil companies, while McCain did not.

The Republican's backers, and some environmentalists, say McCain deserves credit for taking the political risk of talking about these issues both on the Senate floor and in a GOP primary where he stood out as the only candidate committed to a specific target for reducing greenhouse gases. McCain supports cutting greenhouse gases 60 percent by the middle of this century compared with 1990 levels; Obama and Clinton back an 80 percent cut over the same period.

"There's no question he was both moved and troubled by the visible impact of climate change," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), who has traveled with McCain to investigate the effects of global warming. "This is inside him now. . . . He stood up against the president of his own party, and the majority of members of his own party. I think that makes him an environmental leader."

On the campaign trail, McCain is more than eager to go toe-to-toe with skeptics of global warming who attend his town hall forums. When a man in Michigan asked him last week why the United States was not drilling in the Arctic refuge and off California's coasts, McCain replied that, as a federalist, he thinks states have the right to make those decisions.

"I can't say we should drill in the most pristine parts of America," he told the questioner, adding that he believes in finding new sources of oil, "But I also believe sooner or later we have got to become energy-independent, we've got to reduce greenhouse gases. That means nuclear, wind, solar, tide, et cetera."

Holtz-Eakin said McCain is flexible in his federalist approach when it comes to the question of drilling because, while many Alaskans support opening the Arctic refuge to oil and gas exploration, the senator has concluded that it's not worth exposing 250 species of wildlife there to damage.

For the most part, McCain follows a fairly instinctive approach to deciding environmental questions. In recent interviews he has said he thinks the government should list polar bears as endangered because shrinking sea ice threatens their survival, that sharks deserve protection because they're a crucial part of the marine food web, and that the nation needs to act on climate change because it risks an environmental catastrophe if it doesn't.

The senator does not boast an extensive staff of experts on these issues, however, and doesn't delve into the scientific and policy details the way former vice president Al Gore or some of his Senate colleagues do. In one conversation on his "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus, he voiced his frustration with activists who oppose nuclear power plants.

"We start building nuclear power plants, we'll have cheaper energy. Duh," he said.

Tim Profeta, who directs Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and served as Lieberman's counsel on the environment from 2001 to 2005, said McCain feels strongly about addressing climate change but often resists wading into the legislative weeds.

"He's really focused on the impacts and the problems climate change will beget, and the need for action," Profeta said, "but he has, I believe, worked with what Lieberman and his staff saw as the appropriate policy approach."

As a result, many advocates said they remain uncertain as to how McCain would tackle environmental issues if elected president this fall. They are still waiting to see whether he will vote in favor of Lieberman's latest climate bill, which is headed to the Senate next month.

"Global warming is the most pressing environmental issue facing the country, and Senator McCain carved a path of leadership on the issue in the past," said Jeremy Symons, who directs the National Wildlife Federation's campaign on global warming. "A lot of people are looking to see how he's going to handle it in his campaign, and as president."