TRANSCRIPT:
WALTER ISAACSON: [...] Tom Friedman's column mentioned that you haven't been there supporting the tax breaks that need to be extended for wind and solar. Do you support those breaks, and will you keep pushing for--will you push for it at some point?
JOHN MCCAIN: Yes, and I have, and I have a long record of that support of alternate energy. [...] I've always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote. But my citizens in Arizona know that when I'm running for the President of the United States I have to be out campaigning. But I of course I am for renewable energy
Credit for the research goes to the Sierra Club, which has kindly put together this list foe wider distribution.
Fact: McCain missed EVERY SINGLE VOTE on the 2007 energy bill
- Vote #208, cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill, 91-0
- Important amendment votes that McCain missed:
- Vote #209, Bayh-Lieberman amendment to establish an action plan on oil savings, passed 63-30
- Vote #210, Inhofe (bad) refineries/liquid coal amendment, defeated 43-52
- Vote #211, motion to table (bad) Domenici "clean portfolio standard" amendment (RES that would count nukes and coal), passed 56-39
- Vote #212, Warner offshore drilling for VA amendment, failed 43-44
- Vote #213, very bad Bunning liquid coal amendment, defeated 39-55
- Vote #214, "compromise" Tester liquid coal amendment, defeated 33-61
- Vote #215, Kohl "NOPEC," oil cartel amendment, passed 70-23
- Vote #218, Motion to strike further ethanol import duties, failed 36-56
- Vote #219, partial environmental fixes to Renewable Fuels Standard, passed 58-34
- McCain missed vote to provide $32 billion in total energy funding, much of it for renewables--paid for in part by repealing oil company tax breaks. This was a bi-partisan package that passed the Senate Finance Cmte 15-5. It included some $20 billion in funding for renewable energy and carbon sequestration. It also called for a plug-in hybrid vehicle credit of $7,500. The finance package amendment failed 57-36 (58-35 if you don't count Reid's procedural no vote), Vote #223. McCain was the only presidential candidate (of which there were still many in the Senate) besides Brownback to miss this vote.
- McCain missed the cloture vote on the "Reid Substitute" to the energy bill--a bill including the first increase in fuel economy standards in 30 years (but no RES or energy tax incentive package at this time). "Reid Subsitute" refers to the manager's changes to the bill, but this was the version of the energy bill that was being debated and amended throughout. But there still had to be a cloture vote on swapping it in. Vote #224, narrowly passed 61-32. McCain and Brownback were again the only presidentials to miss the vote.
- McCain missed the cloture vote on June final passage of the energy bill. Vote #225, cloture was invoked 62-32
- McCain missed the June final passage vote on the energy bill. Vote #226, the bill passed 65-27
- McCain missed the December cloture vote on the House-amended energy bill--which now included a compromise Renewable Electricity Standard and scaled-down $18 billion energy funding package paid for by repealing oil tax breaks. Republicans, bolstered by several million in lobbying principally by the Southern Company and other bad utilities, had mobilized against the RES, with McConnell calling it a "utility rate hike." The cloture motion failed 53-42, Vote #416. Clinton and Obama both voted.
- McCain missed the December cloture vote on the version of the energy bill without RES, but with the tax package paid for the oil repeals. McCain was only one not to vote, package fails by A SINGLE VOTE. Having stripped out the RES, this vote became 100% about the energy tax incentives/funding packaged paid for by repealing tax breaks to Big Oil. Vote #425, 59-40.
- McCain missed final vote on final passage of the energy bill (primarily a CAFE and Renewable Fuels bill by now, but had a lot on energy efficiency and the efficiency of the govt stuff McCain made such a big deal about earlier this year, also phases out regular lightbulbs and other goodies). Vote #430, 86-8.
Fact: McCain has cast at least 8 votes against Renewable Electricity Standards or funding for clean energy.
- 1999 Roll Call Vote #171
- 2001 Roll Call Vote #125
- 2002 Roll Call Vote #50
- 2002 Roll Call Vote #55
- 2002 Roll Call Vote #59
- 2005 Roll Call Vote #141
- 2005 Roll Call Vote #363
- 2006 Roll Call Vote #42
Fact: McCain has not supported the crucial tax incentives needed for wind, solar, geothermal, efficient appliances.
The incentives have yet to pass, despite more than a dozen votes in the House and Senate.
Projects are already being canceled as a result of these credits not being extended. An independent study estimates that failing to renew them will cost 116,000 hardoworking Americans in the wind and solar industries alone their jobs and we will forgo at least $19 billion in economic activity.
Some of these overlap with the energy bill votes detailed above. The 4th vote below was crucial.
- 2006 Senate Vote #42
- 2007 Roll Call Vote #97
- 2007 Roll Call Vote #223
- 2007 Roll Call Vote #416
- 2008 Roll Call Vote #8
This was a vote to add the tax incentives to the economic stimulus bill. The amended version was passed out of the Finance Cmte on a bi-partisan basis. This effort failed BY A SINGLE VOTE-McCain was the only Senator to miss the vote. McCain had been campaigning with Lindsay Graham and Lieberman and their plane landed at Dulles about 90 mins before the vote. Graham and Lieberman both rushed into DC and made the vote. McCain told reporters he hadn't been paying close attention. More details here: "John McCain Should Be Ashamed," Carl Pope and "Where was Senator McCain? Sierra Club launches grassroots campaign."
- 2008 Roll Call Vote #85
- 2008 Roll Call Vote #147
- 2008 Roll Call Vote #150
- 2008 Roll Call Vote #190
- 2008 Roll Call Vote #192