By CARL CAMPANILE
May 13, 2008
Promising to be a "green" president, John McCain yesterday unveiled a plan to combat global warming - and took a shot at President Bush for not tackling the issue.
"I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges. I will not accept the same dead end of failed diplomacy that claimed Kyoto," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said, referring to a global treaty to reduce greenhouse gases.
Speaking at a wind-power plant in Portland, Ore., McCain proposed a market-based "cap and trade" system that would reward firms that cut fossil-based gases and force others to pay more. The Arizona senator also proposed expanding nuclear power, citing its "zero emissions" of fossil fuels.
But not everyone's buying it.
Said Democratic National Campaign head Howard Dean: "Protecting the environment has taken a back seat to [McCain's] giving his donors sweetheart deals [and] appointing . . . right-wing judges who would gut environmental regulations."
