Directly from Barack’s website. While Edwards and Obama’s policies are good, so far I think Richardson’s are superior because he recognizes that we all have to stop EMITTING. period!

 http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/

Barack Obama has proposed bold initiatives to put America on the path to a clean and secure energy future. Obama supports implementation of a bold market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce dependence on foreign oil and nonrenewable, polluting sources of energy. Obama will also dramatically increase federal investment in advanced clean-energy technologies and energy efficiency. The Obama plan to create an energy independent America will cut U.S. oil consumption by 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, take 50 million cars worth of pollution off the road, and save American consumers more than $50 billion at the gas pump.

Addressing Global Climate Change

We need to take steps to stop catastrophic, manmade climate change. If we do not act, the consequences will be devastating for future generations, especially for the poorest global populations. As president, Barack Obama will act decisively and creatively to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Barack Obama supports implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. The cap-and-trade system will include an initial partial auction of pollution credits to raise money to upgrade our energy infrastructure, create hundreds of thousands of new, high-wage jobs, and make America truly energy independent.

Tackling U.S. Dependence on Foreign Oil

Raise Fuel Economy Standards

“Today, there are two kinds of car companies – those that mass produce fuel-efficient cars and those that will. The American auto industry can’t afford to be one of those that will anymore. And America can’t afford to follow the world. For the sake of our economy, our security, and our planet, we must lead it.”

Due to congressional gridlock, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards have remained frozen for 20 years. As president, Barack Obama will gradually increase CAFE standards while protecting the financial future of domestic automakers. In the Senate, Barack Obama introduced a bold new plan that brought Republicans and Democrats, CAFE supporters and long-time opponents together, and offered what the New York Times editorial page called “real as opposed to hypothetical results.” As president, Barack Obama will:

Increase and Strengthen CAFE Standards. Obama will establish a targeted 4 percent increase each year in CAFE standards – a rate that the National Academy of Sciences has determined is possible without changes in vehicle weight, safety or performance – unless the experts at NHTSA justify a deviation in that rate by proving that the increase is technologically unachievable, cannot maintain overall fleet safety, or is not cost-effective.

Provide Flexibility for Manufacturers. Obama will provide fairness and flexibility to automakers by establishing different standards for different types of cars. Currently manufacturers have to meet broad standards over their whole fleet of cars. Obama’s plan provides further flexibility by giving NHTSA the authority to allow companies to earn credit for improving fuel efficiency beyond the CAFE standard in one type of car, and using those credits to meet goals for other vehicle models.

Achieve Real Results. If the 4 percent per year target is met for 10 years after the continuous provision improvements go into effect, Obama’s plan will save 1.3 million barrels of oil per day and 20 billion gallons of gasoline per year. If gasoline is just $2.50 per gallon, consumers will save over $50 billion per year at the pump by 2020.

Help for Consumers

Under current law, tax credits of up to $3,150 are available for consumers who buy hybrid vehicles — but only if they buy one of the first 60,000 ultra-efficient vehicles produced by a given manufacturer. This irrational rule reduces both consumer incentives to buy efficient vehicles and manufacturer incentives to make them on a massive scale. Toyota reached the 60,000 mark in the summer of 2006. As president, Barack Obama will lift the 60,000-per-manufacturer cap on buyer tax credits to encourage more Americans to buy ultra-efficient vehicles.

Help for Domestic Car Manufacturers

“Healthcare for Hybrids’ stroke of genius is in connecting the dots – decreasing oil consumption is clearly a top national priority but it will not happen without a national investment.”

-Walter McManus
Director of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute’s Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation

The auto industry must invest in more fuel-efficient cars if it hopes to compete with foreign competition and thrive in the future. With the challenges that U.S. automakers face, the federal government has a role in helping them do it. As President, Barack Obama will help American automakers meet these important goals. He will offer car makers a choice between the following two benefits:

Retiree health care relief. Participating automakers in the Health Care for Hybrids program could receive federal financial assistance to cover 10 percent of their annual legacy health care costs through 2017. Automakers would be required to invest at least 50 percent of these savings into manufacturing advanced, fuel efficient cars in the United States.

Generous tax incentives for retooling parts and assembly plants. Participating automakers could receive generous tax incentives for retooling their assembling plants to produce advanced parts.

Under Obama’s plan, autoworkers will get the health care they have been promised, the auto industry will be back on a competitive footing, and our reliance on foreign oil will be reduced.

National Low Carbon Fuel Standard

“It’s not enough to only build cars that use less oil – we have to start moving away from that dirty, dwindling fossil fuel altogether. . . . it’s time we produced, sold, and used biofuels all across America – it’s time we made them as commonly available as gasoline is now.”

Transportation accounts for 60 percent of U.S. oil consumption, and one-third of U.S. global warming pollution. As president, Obama will implement a plan to transition toward fuels that emit less carbon dioxide. In January 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order to establish a low carbon fuel standard for transportation fuels sold in California. Under the California standard, the carbon intensity of California’s passenger vehicle fuels would be reduced by 10 percent by 2020.

Barack Obama will create a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard (NLCFS), which will:

Set a National Standard for Low Carbon Fuels. The lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of the pool of passenger vehicle fuels sold in the U.S. will be reduced by 5 percent in 2015 and 10 percent in 2020.

Let the Market Work. The market, rather than the government, will determine which fuels are used by fuel distributors and blenders to meet the NLCFS. Because biofuels generally have lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline, the NLCFS in effect would spur greater production of renewable fuels, such as corn and cellulosic ethanol, and biodiesel made from plant oils such as soybeans.

Real Results: Reduced Emissions. According to one estimate, the NLCFS would reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 180 million metric tons in 2020 compared to 2007 levels. This is the equivalent of taking over 30 million cars off the road in 2020. If enacted in conjunction with Obama’s proposal to raise fuel efficiency standards, the NLCFS would reduce emissions by about 530 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2020, the equivalent of taking over 50 million cars off the road.

Real Results: Reduced Gasoline Consumption. By making greater use of home-grown, renewable fuels, the NLCFS could reduce the annual consumption of gasoline derived from foreign oil imports by about 30 billion gallons in 2020.

Expand the Use of E85 and Other Renewable Fuels

While there are more than 167,000 gas stations across America, only about 1,200 offer E85 — a blend of 85 percent clean-burning, domestically grown ethanol and 15 percent petroleum gasoline. Thanks to legislation that Barack Obama championed, gas stations are now eligible for tax credits for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps. The tax credit covers 30 percent of the costs of switching petroleum pumps to E85. The tax credit will help create the infrastructure to support more flex-fuel vehicles. Obama also sponsored legislation requiring oil companies, that made at least $1 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2006 to invest at least 1 percent of their total reported first quarter 2006 profits into installing E85 pumps. Barack Obama also successfully authorized $40 million to bring a combined flexible fuel vehicle and plug-in hybrid car to the market within five years.

Building a Clean Energy Future

Require 20 Percent of Electricity to Come from Renewable Sources by 2020: Barack Obama will establish a 20 percent Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 20 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived by clean, sustainable energy sources. This requirement will spur significant private sector investment in renewable sources of energy and create thousands of new American jobs, especially in rural areas. As an Illinois state senator, Obama cosponsored a measure to create an RPS in Illinois that phased up to 10 percent.

Invest in Advanced Technologies: Obama will increase basic science and research funding for clean energy projects. Obama also will invest proceeds from his cap-and-trade proposal into improving the efficiency of our buildings and consumer products, investing into carbon capture and sequestration technology, and other advanced technologies that make use of our biomass, solar and wind resources.

Engage Disadvantaged Youth in Advanced Energy Job Sector: Barack Obama will create the 5-E (Energy Efficiency, Environmental Education and Employment) Disconnected Youth Service Corps. This program will directly engage disconnected and disadvantaged youth in energy efficiency and environmental service opportunities to strengthen their communities while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important career fields of expected high-growth employment. The program will engage private sector employers and unions to provide apprenticeship opportunities. The program also encourages summer high school students to stay in school, and provides GED help and other wrap-around social services for drop-outs.

OKOKOK so he probably did not steal it exactly but it is so much like the Richardson campaign statements that one has to wonder. He would make a pretty good Energy Secretary in the Richardson administration. AND as I always must say CES is endorsing no one for public office not even a dog catcher. We are posting stated public policy so people can find them in one place and compare…call it a public service. 

The League of Conservation Voters, which has not yet endorsed a candidate for president, described Edwards’ plan as the “most comprehensive global warming plan of any presidential candidate to date.“

“Senator Edwards’ plan demonstrates that he understands the magnitude of the challenge before us and the need for bold leadership to meet it,” LCV President Gene Karpinski said.

“Our generation must be the one that says, ‘we must halt global warming,'” said Edwards. “If we don’t act now, it will be too late. Our generation must be the one that says ‘yes’ to alternative, renewable fuels and ends forever our dependence on foreign oil. Our generation must be the one that accepts responsibility for conserving natural resources and demands the tools to do it. And our generation must be the one that builds the New Energy Economy. It won’t be easy, but it is time to ask the American people to be patriotic about something other than war.”

Edwards believes that with American ingenuity and resolve we can turn the crisis of global warming into an opportunity—ending our dependence on foreign oil and creating a new energy economy that embraces innovation, brings rural communities back to life and creates new, good-paying jobs.

The Edwards Plan halts global warming, achieves energy independence and jumpstarts a new energy economy by:

• Capping greenhouse gas pollution starting in 2010 with a cap-and-trade system, and reducing it by 15 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, as the latest science says is needed to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
• Leading the world to a new climate treaty that commits other countries—including developing nations—to reduce their pollution. Edwards will insist that developing countries join us in this effort, offering to share new clean energy technology and, if necessary, using trade agreements to require binding greenhouse reductions.
• Creating a New Energy Economy Fund by auctioning off $10 billion in greenhouse pollution permits and repealing subsidies for big oil companies. The fund will support U.S. research and development in energy technology, help entrepreneurs start new businesses, invest in new carbon-capture and efficient automobile technology and help Americans conserve energy.
• Meeting the demand for more electricity through efficiency for the next decade, instead of producing more electricity.

Click here for more details of John Edwards’ plan to Achieve Energy Independence & Stop Global Warming Through A New Energy Economy

CES CAN NOT ENDORSE CANDIDATES AND WE DO NOT! But when you compare Hillary to Bill Richardson the choice is pretty obvious if you advocate for energy isssues. Go to her website below if you do not believe me. There is even a cute little video but NO LAUGHTER.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/

America is ready for energy independence. Hillary is ready to lead the charge!

The choices we make about energy touch nearly every aspect of our lives. Our economy, our national security, our health, and the future of our planet are all at stake as we make a choice between energy independence and dependence on foreign sources of oil.

Hillary has championed policies that encourage development of alternative energy technologies and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. She has proposed an Apollo Project-like program dedicated to achieving energy independence.

Hillary recognizes that global climate change is one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. She supports policies to reduce carbon emissions and other pollution that contribute to global warming.

In the White House, Hillary will lead the charge to stop global warming by investing in clean energy technologies, establishing a national market-based program to reduce global warming pollution, increasing our fuel efficiency, and restoring the United States’ rightful place as a leader in international efforts to address the problem of climate change.

Hillary introduced a plan to Congress to create a Strategic Energy Fund that would inject $50 billion into research, development, and deployment of renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean coal technology, ethanol and other homegrown biofuels, and more.

We can create the fund without raising taxes by giving oil companies a choice: invest in renewable energy themselves or pay into the fund. She would also eliminate oil companies’ tax breaks and make sure they pay their fair share for drilling on public lands.

CES IS NOT ALLOWED TO ENDORSE POLITICAL CANDIDATES. THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT! But these are the best energy policies we have seen in the Presidentail race and we want to show you where he stands. 

What Follows is directly from Bill Richardson’s website:  http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/

We must “Act Boldly and Act Now” in order to make America a Clean Energy Nation like I made New Mexico a Clean Energy State. Consider this a call to action, for Congress, the energy industry, and the public. I am calling for a New American Revolution — an energy and climate revolution.

Cut Oil Demand: 50% by 2020

That means reducing oil imports from around 65% to 10-15%. We can do this in part by getting the 100 mile per gallon (mpg) car into the marketplace. We must work to double the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, or CAFE, to 50 mpg by 2020. And we will set a life-cycle low-carbon fuel standard that reduces the carbon impact of our liquid fuels by 30% by 2020.

Create New Efficiencies And Energy Sources in the Electrical Sector: 50% by 2040

I am calling for a national renewable portfolio standard of 30% by 2020 that will rise to 50% by 2040. This is aggressive, but necessary as we start using more electricity for automobiles. I will push for an energy productivity law requiring a 20% improvement in energy productivity by 2020. We could save customers $21 billion a year by 2020.

Dramatically Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 90% by 2050

20% by 2020, 80% by 2040 — ten years faster than scientists say is necessary because we must lead the world, and we can’t afford the possibility of backsliding and inaction. We will start with a market-based cap and trade system for greenhouse gas emissions to create incentives for the electric and industrial sectors to make significant reductions in their carbon emissions. Economists say the world can protect itself from drastic climate change at a cost of 1-3% of our economic activity. We can afford to protect the climate. Given the risks of catastrophic climate change, we can’t afford not to do it.

Lead By Example and Restore America as the World’s Leader

We must return to the international negotiating table and support mandatory world-wide limits on global warming pollution. We will work closely with fast-growing nations.  I will cooperate with the European Union, the World Bank, and other allies to help finance the incremental cost of “doing it right.” I will create a North American Energy Council with Mexico and Canada, which supply about 20% of our oil, and make sure our relations with these neighbors are firm and friendly. As we reduce our demand for foreign oil, we should work with the Persian Gulf nations, and our partners at the UN, to create a multilateral system for protecting the Persian Gulf so that within ten years, the U.S. presence there could be sharply and safely reduced.

Get It All Done Without Breaking the Bank

We will raise some revenue, from the sales of carbon permits, for example. Further, I will get out the “green scissors” to cut back on wrongly-placed tax subsidies. Over time, this program will yield huge productivity increases in our economy, as well as significant budget savings and revenues. We will create more than ten times as much value in the American economy by reducing our oil imports as we spend to make this program happen.

Invite the Oil Companies to Become Energy Companies

I know people love to hate the oil companies. They have been raking in huge profits. But I want to invite them to become energy companies, and invest in our thriving new energy economy. They are invited to the table, but they aren’t going to run the table the way they have for the last six years.

The Bottom Line

Americans need energy to get to work, we need heat and electricity in our homes, schools and workplaces. We are hurt by unpredictable energy price cycles, and by our nation’s energy policy failures. The way out of the cycle is to create competition, to support energy productivity, new technologies and alternative fuels. And everyone — every American — must make an effort to make us energy independent and combat global warming. Our national security and our planet depend on it. It’s about creating a new energy economy here in the United States, and doing it quickly, with broad, bold strokes. It’s the way to a bright, strong, prosperous future for the United States — and for the world. I called for an energy revolution — and now, today, I call on you to join it.

• An Action Plan for America’s Energy and Climate Future

• New America Foundation 05/17/2007
• Energy Speech to Bear Stearns 03/14/2007

more speeches »

• Side by Side Comparison of the Candidates on Energy (PDF)

• Bill Richardson on greening SUVs Salon.com | 09/03/2007
• Governor talks education, Iraq Seacoast Online | 08/09/2007
• Richardson pushes a tough oil policy Quad City Times | 08/03/2007
• Bill Richardson’s climate and energy plan Grist | 05/17/2007
• Democratic candidate Bill Richardson unveils plan to cut oil dependence, greenhouse gases Associated Press | 05/17/2007

more news »

• Governor Bill Richardson Blasts Bush Administration for Continued Rejection of Kyoto Protocol 08/31/2007
• Western Climate Initiative Members Set Regional Target to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions 08/22/2007
• Richardson Commends ReEnergizeUS 08/03/2007
• Richardson Campaign Outlines Bold Energy Plan in New TV Ad 07/31/2007
• Governor Richardson Issues Statement on Proposed Desert Rock Energy Facility 07/27/2007

more news »