Compare and contrast Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s stances on climate change, coal, fracking, domestic oil drilling and clean energy.

Where do Barack Obama and Mitt Romney differ on energy issues including climate change, coal, domestic drilling and renewable energy technologies? The stances of both candidates stick largely to party lines. Romney has poked fun at Obama’s concern for the environment, and favors a free-for-all approach to domestic energy production that lifts federal regulations on fossil fuel industries.

President Obama stresses an “all-of-the-above” plan that reduces fossil fuels to just a few small parts of a comprehensive energy strategy, emphasizing the need for clean energy. But Obama’s own statements on climate change, domestic oil drilling and other energy issues haven’t always gone over well with environmentalists. Here’s a rundown of each candidate’s viewpoints.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The candidates’ positions on climate change have everything to do with the way they see energy policy, and how the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment will shape the solutions they support. Unfortunately, climate change is far less of a focus in the lead-up to the 2012 election than it was in 2008, when then-candidate Obama frequently cited the reduction of greenhouse gases as one of his biggest goals as President. The issue only just came up again during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. But there are definite discrepancies between each candidate’s viewpoints.

Romney

“President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans, and to heal the planet. My promise… is to help you and your family.” – Mitt Romney, August 30th, 2012, Republican National Convention

Romney has gone back and forth on the issue of climate change, just in the space of the past year. In June 2011, he said “I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe that the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that… And so I think it’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you’re seeing.”

But by October 2011, he had changed his tune. “My view is we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.”

Romney’s official website doesn’t mention climate change at all.

Obama

“And, yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet – because climate change is not a hoax. more droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our children’s future. And in this election you can do something about it.” – President Obama, September 6th, 2012, Democratic National Convention

At the official White House website, President Obama has laid out a series of steps that his administration has taken to reduce the emissions that lead to climate change, including international leadership, clean energy, monitoring emissions, adapting to the inevitable effects that we’re already beginning to experience and supporting climate change science and education.

However, the terms “climate change” and “global warming” don’t appear on his candidate website, BarackObama.com.

COAL

Both candidates support coal power to varying degrees, and both have softened previous statements against the polluting effects of coal mining and coal-fired power plants in apparent election-year ploys to avoid alienating residents of coal country states like West Virginia.

Romney

As Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney once stood beside a coal-fired power plant in Salem and said “I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people. And that plant, that plant kills people.” But his views have changed considerably since 2003. Romney wants to revise the Clean Air Act to eliminate greenhouse gas restrictions, giving coal power plants the ability to play an even larger role in America’s energy production.

Romney’s energy plan sets a goal for America to be energy-independent by 2020 – through increased extraction and use of domestic oil, gas and coal.

Obama

Since 2008, Obama has pledged support for the spurious concept of “clean coal,” and seems to be treading lightly on the issue in 2012. But rather than pushing coal as the main source of domestic energy, President Obama includes as just one of a range of energy technologies that can power America. His administration pushed for cap and trade legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, but after the legislation failed in the Senate it settled for allowing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enact regulatory measures instead.

Along with pushing “clean coal,” Obama has invested in carbon capture and sequestration through the Recovery Act, and has implemented initiatives to improve miner health and safety.

DOMESTIC DRILLING AND FRACKING

Here we are four years after the last Presidential election, and cringe-worthy echoes of “Drill, Baby, Drill” still ring through our ears. While the Republican candidates, both in 2008 and 2012, favor a frenzy of domestic drilling, President Obama has been slightly more cautious, considering the environmental impact of each project.

Romney

“In the midst of the energy revolution taking place on state and privately-held lands across America, oil and gas production on federal lands somehow plummeted last year. This was no accident. President Obama intentionally sought to shut down oil, gas and coal production in pursuit of his own alternative energy agenda.” – Mitt Romney’s Energy Policy White Paper, 2012

Romney’s energy plan calls for giving states the right to oversee the production and development of all forms of energy within their own borders, pointing out that “At least sixty-two percent of known oil resources on federal lands are off-limits.” Those federal lands include environmentally sensitive, protected wildlife areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Romney wants to establish a new five year offshore leasing plan that “aggressively opens new areas for development beginning with those off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina.” He would also approve the Keystone XL pipeline to bring Canadian oil into the U.S. market.

Romney also wants to lift back federal regulations for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” the process by which natural gas is extracted from the earth.

Obama

“We’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we’ll open more. But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this country’s energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers.” – President Obama, September 6th, 2012, Democratic National Convention

Domestic oil drilling has actually increased on President Obama’s watch, but he stresses that drilling should only be a small part of America’s energy strategy, saying “we’ll do it while protecting the health and safety of the American people.” The Obama administration stepped back on a plan to open more of the coastline to oil drilling after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, but in his State of the Union address in January 2012, Obama said he aims to go ahead with those plans.

President Obama approved the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline in March 2012 after previously declining to approve the permit for the northern portion, saying Congress hadn’t given him enough time to review the environmental impact.

While Obama pledges to take every step to develop domestic natural gas resources, he has stressed the importance of safety regulations. In his 2012 State of the Union address, the President said “I’m requiring all companies that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use. America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.”

RENEWABLE ENERGY

The words energy innovation mean very different things to the two Presidential candidates. Mitt Romney’s energy policy refers to “the revolution in U.S. energy production,” but he’s talking about a surge in oil and natural gas drilling, not alternative energy. On the other hand, President Obama supports a broad range of clean energy technologies, considering them to be a crucial part of America’s energy future.

Romney

“In place of real energy, Obama has focused on an imaginary world where government-subsidized windmills and solar panels could power the economy. This vision has failed… as president, I will unleash American innovation and productivity to make full use of our natural resources.” – Mitt Romney, March 5th 2012

Five years ago, Romney was singing a different tune. While the candidate supported domestic oil drilling and coal, he also called for the use of alternative sources of energy including biodiesel, ethanol, wind power and solar power. But Romney’s current energy platform barely mentions renewable energy at all, except to disparage President Obama’s efforts to bolster these industries.

Mitt Romney’s official website reads, “As the Obama administration wages war against oil and coal, it has been spending billions of dollars on alternative energy forms and touting its creation of ‘green’ jobs. But it seems to be operating more on faith than on fact-based economic calculation. The ‘green’ technologies are typically far too expensive to compete in the marketplace, and studies have shown that for every ‘green’ job created there are actually more jobs destroyed. Unsurprisingly, this costly government investment has failed to create an economic boom.”

Obama

“We can’t have an energy policy for the last century that traps us in the past. We need an energy strategy for the future – an all-of-the-above strategy for the 21st century that develops every source of American-made energy.” – President Obama, March 15th 2012

The Obama administration’s investment in clean energy is the largest in American history, nearly doubling the generation of technologies like solar, wind and geothermal power production. America’s first-ever offshore wind farm is expected to produce enough clean energy to power more than 200,000 homes. The administration has also approved the construction of 16 commercial-scale solar facilities, five wind and eight geothermal projects on public lands. Together, these projects are expected to power about 1.3 million homes and support 12,500 jobs.

President Obama also supports a Clean Energy Standard that would double the share of electricity from clean energy sources to 80 percent by 2035.

Image: 1 + 2

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The future of women and our country, as seen from the floor of the RNC.

So, the Republican National Convention is over. And since describing us as “concerned” over officially adopted Republican policy towards women’s rights issues is like saying Jon Stewart is “approving” of Clint Eastwood’s Obamachair speech, we thought we’d reflect.

We’re still a bit bewildered, frankly. So let’s cut the intro and get straight to the crazy.

1. A Whole Other Level Of Peanut Gallery

An attendee at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Tuesday allegedly threw nuts at a black camera woman working for CNN and said ‘This is how we feed animals.’

– Kyle Leighton, TPM

(And then he was thrown out – because that’s how the world deals with animals.)

2. Shucks, Don’t You Worry Now

Ann Romney was comparing the entire nation to a high school girl being escorted home from a dance. That was her pitch: I love him, you should, too. Don’t worry your pretty little heads about the details.

– David Corn, Mother Jones

3. Facts Don’t Tell The Whole Story

Rae Lynne Chornenky, the president of the National Federation of Republican Women, addressed the convention on Monday, repeated the oft-discredited claim that 92 percent of all the jobs lost under Mr. Obama were those of women.

– Susan Saulny, New York Times

Here’s FactCheck.org on that very issue.

4. If I Might Address The Chair…?

Mr. Eastwood’s rambling and off-color appearance just moments before the biggest speech of Mr. Romney’s life instantly became a Twitter and cable-news sensation, which drowned out much of the usual post-convention analysis that his campaign had hoped to bask in.

It also startled and unsettled Mr. Romney’s top advisers and prompted a blame game among them. ‘Not me,’ an exasperated-looking senior adviser said when asked who was responsible for Mr. Eastwood’s speech. In interviews, aides called the speech ‘strange’ and ‘weird.’ One described it as ‘theater of the absurd.’

– Michae Barbaro & Michael D. Shear, New York Times

Back where we work at The Daily Show on the West Side of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City, you don’t have to go far to see an old man yelling at an inanimate object. But rarely is that inanimate object on stage at a national political convention. And almost never is that old man…Oscar winner Clint Eastwood.

– John Stewart, The Daily Show

And the show goes on: everyone give a warm welcome to Eastwooding and Invisible Obama. (As for POTUS, he said he remains a “huge fan“).

5. Climate Change? What Climate Change?

Thanks go to Grist for summing things up.

6. Pants On Fire

On the other hand, to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was  Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.

– Sally Kohn, Fox News

7. Failing To Address The Elephant In The Room

Yes, we’re talking about him.

Image: Gage Skidmore

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Your graphical guide to Election 2012.

With the proliferation of news media and the punditry that comes from anyone with a soapbox (or Twitter handle) it can be difficult to wrap your head around the major issues at stake this election season. That’s why we’ve brought you this collection of politically-themed infographics, which explore everything from candidate tax proposals to voter suppression to social media rankings to merchandise statistics. Rumor has it that t-shirt sales are a key election result indicator…

Navigating Political Terminology in an Election Year: study up on your political jargon with this handy (and hilarious) multiple choice guide.

U.S. Presidential Election 2012: a month-by-month look at election season, courtesy of Al Jazeera.

The Digital Campaign Landscape: it’s looking to be the most expensive campaign season in history, and millions of that moolah is going into online advertising.

The Incredible Shrinking Cities: a historical look at the rise and fall of hot-button political issues; note how words like “cities” and “urban” have slowly disappeared into the mix.

Presidential Candidates and Their Tax Proposals: the tax experts at H&R Block explore how each candidate plans to address the issue of taxes.

A Closer Look at the 2012 GOP Candidates: if you care for a closer glance at Mitt, Newt, Ron, and Rick, here’s your chance.

Election 2012 Social Media Rankings: see how a candidate’s clout translates to Klout in the social media world.

The Facts About Voter Suppression: according to the ACLU, there has been more state legislation aimed at suppressing the vote, particularly for minority voters.

The Social Campaign: a visualization of how social media’s influence on elections has changed between 2008 and 2012.

Political Merch Poll 2012: yeah, there’s foreign policy and gay marriage, but let’s explore the real issues: t-shirt sales.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

10 Earth Day Infographics

10 Food Infographics That Have Us Consciously Consuming

10 Fashion Infographics to Give Us a New Style Sense

Image: DonkeyHotey

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