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Going Green: America in Agreement?

This November, the administration in Capitol Hill will change and no one knows what that will mean for the future. The president will either be Republican nominee John McCain or, most likely, Democratic candidate Barack Obama. While both promise to bring about change, the methods they implement seem polar opposites: one favors cutting taxes while another states that we direly need to raise them, one wants to continue the Iraqi occupation while the other has strongly advocated otherwise. Amidst their seemingly polar opposite stances on everything, one of their points of agreement receives much less attention: both seem committed to bettering the environment.

For those who don't already know, Obama has the most liberal voting record in the senate and McCain, his conservative opponent, has supported fellow conservative President George W. Bush with 95 percent of his votes, a figure that seems to contradict his reputation as a political maverick. Thus, it is unlikely the two would agree on anything. However, one issue where McCain has repeatedly criticized the Bush Administration is in its lack of action against climate change. McCain, who says global warming would be one of his three key issues, has a cap-and-trade plan for fighting climate change. This plan calls for the gradual reductions in U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions from utilities, transportation fuels, and large businesses, with a target of cutting emission to 1990 levels by 2020, and 60 percent below that by 2050.

Obama, on the other hand, proposes a similar but stricter cap-and-trade plan. If in office, Obama intends to cut emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels. This would auction off 100 percent of emissions permits and make polluters pay of the CO2 they emit.

For alternative energy, McCain believes that the U.S. should embrace nuclear power as a way to generate energy without directly producing greenhouse-gas emissions. This plan would take money raised from auctioning emission allowances and making it available for research and development of nuclear power. Furthermore, he wants to "find a way to use our coal resources without emitting excessive greenhouse gases," and supports public-private partnerships to develop the technology to do so. McCain has also opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Because of his record, he has been endorsed by Republicans for Environmental Protection.

His opponent also has impressive visions for the environment,

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