Big Shocker: McCain Has Missed 8 Crucial Votes on Renewable Energy

John McCain is a hypocrite. He tours the nation proclaiming himself to be a forward-thinking, green politician who cares deeply about the environment, attempting to paint himself as a reformer. He puts on a big show for his constituents, yelling about how Congress needs to come back from vacation and get started on legislation that will aid America in this energy crisis. And yet, he has personally missed eight – yes, EIGHT – crucial votes on a renewable energy bill.

The bill in question, S. 3335, would have extended investment tax credits for installing solar energy as well as the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems. It’s absolutely vital to the emerging renewable energy industry, which depends on such credits to be competitive with the current polluting industries like coal and oil.

On July 30th, when McCain once again failed to show up to vote for the bill, it failed for the eighth time. As The New York Times reports, McCain missed all eight votes – and one of the times, he was in his office and couldn’t be bothered to saunter on down to participate in the vote.

From The New York Times:

What impact does this have? In the solar industry today there is a rush to finish any project that would be up and running by Dec. 31 — when the credits expire — and most everything beyond that is now on hold. Consider the Solana concentrated solar power plant, 70 miles southwest of Phoenix in McCain’s home state. It is the biggest proposed concentrating solar energy project ever. The farsighted local utility is ready to buy its power.

But because of the Senate’s refusal to extend the solar tax credits, “we cannot get our bank financing,” said Fred Morse, a senior adviser for the American operations of Abengoa Solar, which is building the project. “Without the credits, the numbers don’t work.” Some 2,000 construction jobs are on hold.

Big Oil uses the ‘it’s not cost effective’ excuse to keep solar and wind energy down, but making it cost effective is exactly what this bill is designed to do. No doubt the oil industry has something to do with all the ‘nay’ votes – our congressmen and women can’t seem to keep their hands out of Big Oil’s pockets.

This just goes to show that McCain is all talk and no action – he wants voters to believe that he’s an open-minded, middle-of-the-road Republican who’s out to protect the environment. It’s simply not true. When it comes down to it, McCain is clearly not passionate about turning this country around and bringing clean energy and millions of green collar jobs to American citizens.

If elected, there’s no question that he’d settle immediately into Big Oil’s cozy bosom and remain there until his term was up. Luckily, that’s not going to happen.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Flickr user Hot Rod

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