Skip to main content

Second Presidential Debate: More Energy, But Not On Renewables

Support Provided By
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (L) participate in the second presidential debate. | Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

There was some mention of renewable energy in Tuesday's Presidential debate at Hofstra University in new York, but if you sneezed during the proceedings you may well have missed it. Aside from a mention of jobs from wind turbine manufacturing in the U.S. -- for which both President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney expressed support -- and a quick reference to fuel economy standards by the president, all the debate's substantive energy talk involved both candidates positioning themselves as the better friend to the fossil fuel industry.

Mitt Romney was essentially silent on the renewables issue, perhaps as a result of his having been fact-checked to within an inch of his life for his "Solyndra" comments in the previous debate. The one real mention of alternative energy policy came early in the debate, from President Obama:

we've got to control our own energy, you know, not only oil and natural gas, which we've been investing in, but also we've got to make sure we're building the energy sources of the future, not just thinking about next year, but 10 years from now, 20 years from now. That's why we've invested in solar and wind and biofuels, energy-efficient cars.

Shortly thereafter, in response to a question about gasoline prices, the President continued:

But what I've also said is we can't just produce traditional sources of energy; we've also got to look to the future. That's why we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars. That means that in the middle of the next decade, any car you buy, you're going to end up going twice as far on a gallon of gas. That's why we've doubled clean energy production like wind and solar and biofuels. And all these things have contributed to us lowering our oil imports to the lowest levels in 16 years.

Romney did offer some lip service to the renewables sector, in the context of his all-of-the-above energy policy:

I believe very much in our renewable capabilities -- ethanol, wind, solar will be an important part of our energy mix. But what we don't need is to have the president keeping us from taking advantage of oil, coal and gas.

In a subsequent discussion of energy sector jobs, Obama made an oblique reference to Romney's earlier "Solyndra" arguments, a well as to his opposiition to extending the Wind Production Tax Credit:

So for example, on wind energy, when Governor Romney says these are imaginary jobs, when you've got thousands of people right now in Iowa, right now in Colorado who are working, creating wind power, with good-paying manufacturing jobs, and the Republican senator in that -- in Iowa is all for it, providing tax credits to help this work and Governor Romney says, I'm opposed, I'd get rid of it, that's not an energy strategy for the future.

To which Romney replied

I don't have a policy of -- of stopping wind jobs in Iowa and that -- they're not phantom jobs. They're real jobs.... I appreciate wind jobs in Iowa and across our country.

And that, as far as renewable energy is concerned, was it.

The rest of the energy discussion consisted essentially of Romney declaring that Obama was opposed to oil and gas exploration on public lands, and that the administration had charged the Environmental Protection Agency with obstructing any new coal-fired power plants. Obama's response on the coal charge was to refer to Romney's 2003 press event in front of a coal-fired plant in Massachusetts, in which he said "this plant kills people," a tempting zinger but one which served to position the President as coal's better friend. Obama clarified that his support for coal was predicated on the adoption of "clean coal" technology, which exists for the most part in the offices of the coal companies' PR firms.

Obama rebutted Romney's charges regarding public lands oil and gas drilling by claiming -- more or less correctly -- that public lands drilling has actually gone up during his term. He continued:

Now, I want to build on that. And that means, yes, we still continue to open up new areas for drilling. We continue to make a -- it a priority for us to go after natural gas. We've got potentially 600,000 jobs and a hundred years' worth of energy right beneath our feet with natural gas. And we can do it in an environmentally sound way. But we've also got to continue to figure out how we have efficient energy, because ultimately that's how we're going to reduce demand, and that's what's going to keep gas prices lower.

And that's the energy portion of the debate encapsulated. Both candidates paid what was essentially lip service to renewable energy, though Obama's lip service was more believable, given real-world context. And both spent most of their time discussing energy in the context of supporting further fossil fuel exploration, development, and consumption,

And the word "climate" was mentioned not once during the debate.

ReWire is dedicated to covering renewable energy in California. Keep in touch by liking us on Facebook, and help shape our editorial direction by taking this quick survey here.

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.