Presidential wannabes: No carbon copies on environmental, corporate-responsibility platforms

By Jay Whitehead 

What if you were picking 2008 presidential candidates based solely on their corporate sustainability, governance, compliance, or CSR platforms? Then you might believe politicians really had firm convictions that won’t buckle under well-applied political pressure. But go ahead and read on anyway.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the “flipchart comedian” Demetri Martin on Comedy Central or YouTube. One of his easel-based shows opens with a hand-drawn page entitled “Hummer Owners,” listing “Tough Guys” at 43 percent, “Pricks” at 27 percent, and at the bottom of the list at 1 percent, “Poets.” Somehow, choosing a presidential candidate based on their CR positions feels a bit like this flavor of PowerPoint comedy.

Nevertheless, we at CRO magazine are dedicated to helping our seriously humor-challenged readers with shorthand tricks for making unfunny decisions amid complexity. This still-young presidential campaign fits the bill. It’s as confusing as, well, politics.

So here is CRO magazine’s short-short guide to the major candidates’ positions on sustainability and any other CR data points we could squeeze out of the candidates, their press offices, other publications or Google.

Republicans first (Heck, they’re the incumbents)

Rudy Giuliani. The former New York City mayor is clear in stating that he has no plan for cutting U.S. greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Guiliani is a big backer of nuclear power, ethanol, American coal (as opposed to Middle Eastern oil) and American oil (as opposed to Middle Eastern oil).

Mike Huckabee. The only candidate to pass a green tax (a 1/8 of one cent conservation sales tax to benefit natural resources when he was Arkansas governor). Huckabee is a big fan of faith-based socially responsible investment programs (mostly the “faith” part, since he’s an ordained Southern Baptist minister).  

John McCain. The incumbent Arizona U.S. Senator and former prisoner-of-war in Vietnam is the only Republican candidate to back mandatory limits on GHG emissions. If he were to win, McCain is the most likely Republican to set a price for a ton of carbon emissions. McCain is also the only GOP presidential
candidate to oppose drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

Ron Paul. The Texas congressman is anti-regulation, anti-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pro-private property, pro-renewable energy tax-break, and an anti-war libertarian.
Mitt Romney. The only candidate to actually cut a deal to whack carbon emissions (in 2005 while Governor of Massachusetts), but he reneged on the pact before it actually became law. Tellingly, the same thing happened on the corporate governance and compliance fronts. CR pedigree: whim of iron.

Fred Thompson. The NBC “Law & Order” star and former Tennessee senator is the campaign’s most noted global warming skeptic. Thompson is the only candidate to have publicly stated that putting a sustainability plan in place would mean certain economic destruction.

And now, the Democrats

Joseph Biden. Delaware Senator Biden gets lots of his green street-cred from co-sponsoring the Fuel Economy Reform Act of 2007 with fellow candidate Barack Obama, taking on Detroit and calling for a four percent annual hike in auto fuel economy.

Hillary Clinton. The former First Lady and current junior senator from New York is a regulation-firster who thinks of an activist EPA as the front line of green reform. Clinton is big backer of
federal funding for oil companies, yet Outside magazine reports that Clinton has accepted more contributions from the oil and gas industries than any other Democrat ($151,950 as of October). She joins John Edwards and Barack Obama in promoting the 80 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2050.

John Edwards. The former North Carolina senator and VP
candidate innovated with his plan for a $13 billion annual New Energy Economy Fund to back green-energy ventures paid for by carbon emission auctions. The New York Times reported that Edwards’ 28,200 square-foot house is a blemish on his green-backing record.

Dennis Kucinich. Famous among sustainability purists for his Works Green Administration green-energy proposals, the vegan Ohio congressman levels his enviro-anger squarely at big oil and puts full faith in the ingenuity of clean-energy entrepreneurs.

Barack Obama. Illinois Senator Obama was the first Democratic candidate to commit upon taking office to put a federally backed price on a ton of carbon emissions, which many believe would
create one of the world’s largest commodity trading markets. He backs the Clinton-and-Edwards-supported 80 percent carbon emission cuts by 2050 and on his own promotes 50 percent boosts in energy efficiencies by 2030. Obama reportedly gets significant support from Illinois coal mining interests.