Earth Equity News

McCain Threads the Language Needle on Climate. By Stephen Power and Laura Meckler, WSJ, May 13, 2008, subscription. "In a last-minute move highlighting the delicacy of climate-change politics, John McCain on Monday decided not to utter a line in a prepared speech suggesting he would as president penalize industrializing countries that refuse to commit to reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions. Instead, Sen. McCain told an audience in Portland, Ore., that he would pursue 'effective diplomacy, effective transfer of technology or other means' to compel reductions by countries that refuse to cap their emissions. An advanced copy of his remarks distributed earlier in the day used tougher language, calling for 'a cost equalization mechanism' to apply to countries that don't enact caps -- a punishment that some say amounts to a tariff... A spokeswoman... said he decided against using the original language... to ensure that his remarks were 'not interpreted as being at odds with his commitment to open trade,' and to make clear that he would use 'diplomacy and technology solutions to make sure the economic playing field remained fair.'"