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Environmental Advocates Want Climate Change Questions In Presidential Debates

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Barack Obama, John McCain and Jim Lehrer talk after the first 2008 presidential debate


The Hill reports on environmental advocates’ efforts to work climate change questions into this fall’s presidential debates:

The League of Conservation Voters has launched a petition drive pressing the moderator of the first presidential debate, Jim Lehrer of PBS, to ask about the topic. The first debate is Oct. 3.
“We urge you to ask President Obama and Gov. Romney how they will confront the greatest challenge of our generation — climate change,” states the online petition, launched Wednesday.

What would President Obama and Governor Romney have to say about the issue? Here’s FuelFix’s summary of the two presidential candidates’ alternative energy platforms:

Romney wants to ease regulations that he says have blocked alternative energy as well as development of traditional fossil fuels. He supports the renewable fuel standard and said he backs “eliminating regulatory barriers” that stand in the way of diversifying the electrical grid as well as the transportation sector.
While touting his energy plan Thursday, Romney told a crowd of supporters that the government shouldn’t be in the business of “picking winners and losers” _ a reference to tax incentives and grants aimed at alternative energy producers.
Under the Obama administration, federal regulators for the first time have approved an offshore wind farm that would be built along the Massachusetts coast. The administration also points to government approvals of 16 commercial-scale solar facilities and five wind projects on public lands.

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