Next Generation Energy

Thursday, my coblogger Joe Romm did a fantastic job highlighting the problems of carbon capture and storage:

The bottom line is that we should continue to pursue CCS research, development, and demonstration in a serious effort to turn this long-term strategy into a medium-term one. But efficiency, wind, solar PV, and baseload solar are where we should be placing the big deployment dollars right now (see "Is 450 ppm possible? Part 5: Old coal's out, can't wait for new nukes, so what do we do NOW?")

See? I told you. Comments that follow are interesting as well. So instead of going on at tedium with a repetitious perspective, why not shake things up given it's election season and there's related energy news...

On September 25th, Nature magazine published 'Choosing A Future,' telling us more about where each presidential candidate stands on science related topics. And despite the humorous and uncanny similarities of the front and back covers, this is a very serious issue because it outlines some differences in the candidates' strategies. Not surprisingly, of particular interest to me are their positions on oil drilling*:

Does your stance on tapping domestic oil reserves stand at odds with your goals for reducing national emissions and combating climate change? How will you balance the two?

Obama: With 3% of the world's oil reserves, the United States cannot drill its way to energy security. But US oil and gas production plays an important role in our domestic economy and remains critical to prevent global energy prices from climbing even higher. There are several key opportunities to support increased US production of oil and gas that do not require opening up currently protected areas.

Increasing domestic oil and gas production in the ways I propose in no way lessens my commitment to combating climate change, one of the great challenges of our time. I am committed to implementing a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, and I will start reducing emissions immediately by establishing strong annual reduction targets with an intermediate goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

McCain currently favours a more aggressive offshore-drilling policy than Obama; both candidates, like the Democratic-led Congress, have changed their earlier stances opposing such drilling in the face of rising oil prices and public pressure to do something about it. However, McCain sees climate change as a national security issue, and maintains that it is a major priority for him. He emphasizes developing new emissions-reducing technologies with minimum costs in order to soften any blow to the national economy. McCain's intermediate goal for emission reductions is also 1990 levels by 2020.

* John McCain declined to participate in Nature's questions so they summarized his positions.

The gist:
Obama: Don't expand domestic drilling and reduce dependence on oil altogether.
McCain: Drill Baby Drill! and expand offshore-drilling.

The full rundown from both candidates on America's energy future is available here from the team at ScienceDebate2008.