Why, it’s almost as if John McCain, after expressing no interest in energy policy at any point in his three decades in Washington, took a poll and realized it’s time to tackle an issue voters find the issue important.
That means unveiling a new TV ad that insists McCain “stood up to” Bush on global warming…
…and a speech that seeks to help McCain triangulate on the issue of oil exploration and conservation.
“We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States,” McCain will say, according to pre-released excerpts. “But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use.”
McCain will also say: “In the face of climate change and other serious challenges, energy conservation is no longer just a moral luxury or a personal virtue. Conservation serves a critical national goal. Over time, we must shift our entire energy economy toward a sustainable mix of new and cleaner power sources.”
All of this comes a day after McCain told reporters he’d like to see areas off the U.S. coasts open to “exploitation.” (I don’t think he’s got the lingo down yet.)
There are, of course, a few problems with all of this.
First, as we discussed this morning, McCain is touting a cap-and-trade system, despite not knowing what a cap-and-trade system is.
Second, as I am wont to do, it’s worth noting that the old McCain held the opposite position embraced by the new McCain: “During his last run for the presidency, in 1999, McCain supported the drilling moratorium, and he scolded the ‘special interests in Washington’ that sought offshore drilling leases.” I guess he’s changed his mind.
Third, I don’t think McCain fully appreciates the kind of impact drilling is likely to have. He said yesterday, for example, that drilling “would be very helpful in the short term in resolving our energy crisis.” Maybe he defines “short term” differently than the rest of us — it would take at least a decade for off-shore drilling to produce oil.
Fourth, a key piece of McCain’s policy is a gas-tax holiday that, you know, doesn’t make any sense at all.
And finally, the central message of McCain’s policy roll-out seems to be an awkward combination of conservation and exploration. As Yglesias noted, those two don’t fit together comfortably.
Now there’s a coherent case for more drilling. It would say something like “the economic benefits of cheap gasoline exceed the environmental and other harms of massive gasoline consumption.” But McCain, whether he realizes it or not, has endorsed a carbon cap-and-trade program that will necessarily reduce consumption of fossil fuels and raise the price of gasoline. If you want cheaper gas, you don’t cap carbon emissions. And if you want to reduce carbon emissions, you don’t try to reduce the price of gasoline.
But McCain wants political credit for breaking with GOP orthodoxy on climate change, and he doesn’t want to bite any of the bullets involved in breaking with GOP orthodoxy on climate change, so instead he’s come up with an incoherent mess.
If only it were the first time.