Veep impact - The pro- and anti-coal contenders on Obama's veep shortlist

[kristopher]

Veep impact
The pro- and anti-coal contenders on Obama's veep shortlist

Posted by Frank O'Donnell (Guest Contributor) at 3:49 PM on 11 Aug 2008

A commentary on vice presidential prospects by Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project, and Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch.

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As presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama prepares to make perhaps his most important campaign decision -- his choice of a running mate -- two governors are said to be on the short list: Tim Kaine of Virginia and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.

Both are smart and popular. Both face term limits. And both are Catholic, an important constituency that Obama wants to court.

But the two have gone in opposite directions on an issue critical to our nation's energy future -- the role of old-fashioned coal burning versus cleaner alternatives that don't threaten to worsen global warming.

By her courageous stand against a powerful coal lobby, Sebelius has become one of the nation's leading champions in the fight against global warming. Kaine, by contrast, continues to support a technology that has helped fuel our current climate calamity.

It's true that Obama has already received a formal endorsement by major environmental groups that engage in electoral politics such as the League of Conservation Voters. But many environmentalists still aren't sure where he comes down when it comes to the future of coal. His choice of a partner could send an important signal. Is he really going to break with the politics of the past?

The coal-burning electric power industry is the...

Continued at: http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/11/124924/011/

[bananas]

1. usually, the vp is chosen as "impeachment insurance"

so republicans choose someone further to the right,
democrats choose someone further to the left.