Party platforms assembled before this year's general election in the US cover the full ideological spectrum on energy. Some advocate reliance on markets, while others would put the government at the center of decision-making. Distinctions are sharp.
Platforms don't bind individual candidates to specific positions. Written by party activists, they represent guidance rather than commitment. Candidates can and do stray from them. Still, platforms are instructive. They express collective will and set intellectual boundaries within which candidates must navigate to keep core operatives, donors, and voters happy.
In two parts, this editorial series reviews energy platforms of the five political parties with presidential candidates on ballots in at least 10 states. The first part shows how starkly different the two major parties have become on energy.
Democrats: climate precaution
Extending the approach of President Barack Obama's administration, the Democratic Party fuses energy policy to climate precaution, calling climate change "an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time." Its platform targets an 80% cut in greenhouse-gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2050 and supports goals from last year's Paris agreement: global average temperature no more than 2° C. above preindustrial levels and efforts to limit the increase to 1.5° C.
"America must be running entirely on clean energy by midcentury," the platform declares.
Within a decade, under the Democratic vision, the US would derive half its electricity from "clean-energy sources." Within 4 years, 500 million solar panels would be installed, and renewable-energy supply would be sufficient to power every home in the country. The platform seeks aggressive conservation and transformation of energy use for transportation "by reducing oil consumption through cleaner fuels; making new investments in public transportation; expanding electrification of the vehicle fleet; increasing the fuel efficiency of cars, boilers, ships, and trucks; and by building bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure." The platform calls for elimination of "special tax breaks and subsidies for fossil-fuel companies" and extension of "tax incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy."
Guided by their platform, Democrats would defend the Clean Power Plan's ambitious targets for emission cuts, fuel-economy standards for vehicles, building code and appliance standards, and requirements for lower methane emissions from oil and gas production. They would support rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline border crossing.
The Democratic platform seeks "environmental justice," asserting that environmental problems affecting poor people amount to "environmental racism." It calls on the Justice Department to investigate "allegations of corporate fraud" against fossil fuel companies allegedly misleading the public about "the scientific reality of climate change." And it opposes oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and off the Atlantic Coast. "We can phase down extraction of fossil fuels from our public lands, starting with the most polluting sources, while making our public lands and water engines of the clean-energy economy and creating jobs across the country," it says.
Republicans: energy independence
The Republic Party's platform emphasizes energy independence and mentions climate change only briefly in a section critical of current policy. "Our common theme is to promote development of all forms of energy, enable consumer choice to keep energy costs low, and ensure that America remains competitive in the global marketplace," it says.
The platform relates energy security with national security and promotes "a strong and stable energy sector" as "a job generator and a catalyst of economic growth." It seeks an end to what it calls the Environmental Protection Agency's "war on coal."
On oil and gas, the Republican platform calls for "a reasoned approach to all offshore energy development on the East Coast and other appropriate waters," with revenue sharing for coastal states. It supports opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain. And it calls for approval of the Keystone XL project, timely processing of applications for new nuclear projects, and cost-effective development of renewable energy. "But the taxpayers should not serve as venture capitalists for risky endeavors," it says.
Next week: three "third parties."
