Results tagged “nuclear energy” from David Corn

More Bent "Straight Talk" from McCain

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This hey-what-happened-to-the-straight-talker line of attack on John McCain is becoming just too damn easy.

From today's Wall Street Journal"

At a roundtable with business leaders in Washington state last month, Sen. McCain expressed reluctance to support government incentives such as tax credits for wind and solar energy. He compared his stance on the matter to his position on corn ethanol. "I'm a little wary -- I have to give you straight talk -- about government subsidies," he said. "When government jumps in and distorts the market, then there's unintended consequences as well as intended."

From an article I wrote in March:

About a year after their [climate change] bill was defeated, McCain and Lieberman began drafting a new version. It was close to the original, but with one significant addition: billions of dollars in tax subsidies for the nuclear energy industry.
McCain had long been an advocate of nuclear power. "He feels strongly that nuclear power will be one of the keys to reducing emissions," says Heather Wicke, who was his environmental legislative aide at the time. But environmentalists who had worked with McCain and Lieberman on the first bill were stunned. In one meeting, lobbyists for environmental groups attempted to persuade McCain not to attach nuclear subsidies to the legislation, arguing that doing so would weaken support for the bill. "He shook his finger at us and scolded us," says one participant at the meeting, who recalls McCain saying, "You're wrong and I'm right." Wicke, now the director of policy for the Piedmont Environmental Council, notes that McCain had already made up his mind and that the session was "testy."

So when McCain said he opposed supporting funding for alternative energy because he's opposed to market-distorting subsidies, that was straight talk? Then how does he explain his attempt to hand billions of dollars in subsidies to the nuclear energy industry? A straight-talk explanation would be appreciated.