Explore Candidates → President → Cynthia McKinney on Environment and Energy
Cynthia McKinney
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"The situation is now quite clear. The United States can no longer hide its truculence under the mask of weather fluctuations or unclear science. Islands are disappearing; indigenous ways of life are threatened; indeed the world as we know it is at risk if the US continues to do nothing. Therefore, a drastic cut in emissions is necessary."
"The Bush Administration has made the environment take a back seat to their other priorities. When a global warming report came out of the Administration's own office, the Council on Environmental Quality, noting human effects on climate change, the Administration virtually dismissed it."
Campaign website, www.cynthiaforcongress.com, "Issues" Dec 20, 2007
Voted YES on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol
"In 2000, I voted to begin implementation of the Kyoto Protocol."
Green Party 2008 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire Feb 3, 2008
"Even as George Bush has made himself an international climate change villian by not signing on to the Kyoto Protocol, his own scientists at the US Climate Change Science Program have predicted more heat waves, intense rains, increased drought, and stronger hurricanes to effect the US."
Voted NO on authorizing construction of new oil refineries
"I voted to support raising CAFE standards; and to provide incentives for alternative fuels, as well as in support of regulating wholesale electricity and gas prices."
Green Party 2008 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire Feb 3, 2008
Voted NO on scheduling permitting for new oil refineries
"Then our energy policy would utilize all of the green technologies that exist around the world. We could institute a jobs programs by having manufacturing plants in under-served areas that would manufacture this green technology."
2008 Green Presidential Debate, Jan 13, 2008
[McKinney] Calls for a "New Deal"-scale program for sustainable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation, to eliminate our dependency on fossil fuels and combat global warming.
Chicago Tribune Issues Comparison
McKinney co-sponsored the Morris K. Udall Arctic Wilderness Act of 2001 (H.R. 770) which designates specified lands within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System [and precludes oil exploration and drilling].
"I have consistently opposed oil exploration in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and in 2001 supported permanently preserving Alaska's ANWR."
Green Party 2008 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire Feb 3, 2008
Voted YES on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore
Voted YES on prohibiting oil drilling and development in ANWR
"I would adopt a policy of 'Leave the oil in the soil.'"
"...A drastic cut in emissions is necessary. This can be accomplished by using the tax code to incentivize behavior. From retrofitting buildings, demanding new standards for all new construction, utilizing existing technologies and developing new ones, to subsidizing infrastructure rehabilitation, not only can the US reverse its deadly inaction, but it can become a world-class leader."
"For decades, millions of citizens in the United States and across the world have strongly opposed the use of nuclear power. Now, in the shadow of the tragic and sobering attacks in New York and here in Washington, no time is better than now to seriously question the logic and sustainability of nuclear energy use."
"The US could declare itself carbon and nuclear free. It has not. The urgency of the situation has been made clear by many popular articles and films. The next step is to create the political will to change course."
"I voted to support raising CAFE standards; and to provide incentives for alternative fuels, as well as in support of regulating wholesale electricity and gas prices."
Green Party 2008 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire Feb 3, 2008
Voted YES on an amendment to the Energy Policy Act of 2002 (H.R. 4) to provide for a combined corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) standard for passenger automobiles and light trucks of 27.5 mpg beginning in 2007, with an intermediate step to 26 mpg in 2005, and to provide incentives for alternative fuel vehicles.
McKinney co-sponsored the Morris K. Udall Arctic Wilderness Act of 2001 (H.R. 770) which designates specified lands within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System [and precludes oil exploration and drilling].
"We want our forests protected and restored; we want sustainable resource use and reuse, and we want less waste to dispose. We want renewable energy and we don't want policies that pit food production against energy production. We want drinkable and clean water, soil, and air. We want to live within our resource means."
McKinney was the primary sponsor of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act of 2001, a bill which would "protect and restore America's natural heritage by eliminating the fiscally wasteful and ecologically destructive commercial logging program on Federal public lands, restoring native biodiversity in our Federal public forests, and facilitating the economic recovery and diversification of communities affected by the Federal logging program."
Voted NO on deauthorizing "critical habitat" for endangered species
Voted YES on increasing AMTRAK funding from $900 million to $1.11 billion.
McKinney is an ardent advocate for national health care, expanded education spending and energy policies that emphasize mass transportation and conservation rather than rewarding oil-company profiteering.