On first blush, I think John Edwards plan for energy conservation and for licensing carbon emissions is a good plan. However, the devil will be in the details. It is one thing to be on CNN touting a new plan. It is another to have a plan that policy wonks, environmentalists, and business can all agree on.
But his main thrust is: global warming is happening: We can slow it down by changing how we operate.
Miles O’Brien asked one question that Edwards sidestepped: What about the loss of jobs if other nations do not limit carbon emissions and are therefore a cheaper place to have industry set up shop? I have the right answer right here: “We have to work with other nations. We are all living on the same planet and this is not just an American problem, but a worldwide problem. I propose that we use each and every international forum since this will affect every facet of our lives to decide how we are going to reduce our carbon emissions and slow global climate change.”
His goals in a nutshell: 80% reduction on CO2 emissions by 2050. Conserve 25% of electricity use by 2050. Lofty goals, but worth striving for.
Realistically speaking. Electric energy comsuption is not going to go down by 2050.
The US is one of the developed countries that is doing the least to help clean the air.
Even though we live in the same planet, economic interest is well above any politics, and governments are not going to implement globablly anything that does not makes sense ecoomically to them. Until, catastrophes of biblical proportion hits the world.