FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 31, 2008
CONTACT: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384
New McCain Ad on Global Warming
a Shameless Halloween Trick
Washington, D.C.--John McCain today released a new ad on global warming
that shows archival footage of Obama praising the McCain-Lieberman global
warming bill. The Sierra Club offered the following response.
The ad can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqaoSzSGFNw
Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director
"While this is not the dirtiest trick that the McCain campaign has pulled
in the waning days of this election, it is certainly one of the most
desperate and disingenuous. John McCain can't just throw on clean energy
credentials like a Halloween costume. He has unfortunately abandoned what
was once one of his signature issues in favor of solidifying support from
the Big Oil companies who are still raking in record profits. Even if
McCain had not abandoned his support for meaningful action on global
warming, his plan is outdated and far inferior to that of Barack Obama.
"It is particularly outrageous that McCain would run this ad just days
after his chief economic adviser denounced the landmark 2007 Supreme Court
ruling that the government must take action on global warming--making the
ridiculous claim that upholding the High Court's ruling would result in
Soviet-style central economic planning. This is the same argument cooked
up by polluters and ceaselessly advanced by the Bush administration, which
has now unlawfully defied the High Court for over a year.
"The John McCain of yesterday--the one Barack Obama is shown referring to
in this ad--would undoubtedly be ashamed of the John McCain of today for
aligning himself with the richest polluting companies and the radical
anti-science agenda of the Bush administration.
"The ad also continues the shameful and deceptive hoax that John McCain has
perpetrated on voters all year long: that he supports clean energy. While
the ad claims John McCain supports renewable energy, he has actually said
that clean energy technologies ‘don't work.' More importantly, McCain has
consistently voted against renewable energy whenever he's taken the
opportunity to vote, and his failure to support clean energy tax incentives
earlier this year put more than 116,000 hardworking Americans in the wind
and solar industries on the brink of layoffs.
"Voters should not be fooled by John McCain and his false rhetoric and
misleading ads. Barack Obama is the only candidate that has said clean
energy is his number one priority. Barack Obama will use meaningful action
on clean energy and global warming to jumpstart the American economy and
create 5 million new jobs.”
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Paid for by the Sierra Club Political Committee,
http://www.sierraclub.org/, and not authorized by any candidate or
candidate's committee.