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Ron Paul supporters are his greatest campaign asset. They have taken to the internet to publicize his run and his views. After completing the 2008 Presidential Candidate environmental policy post, I got a complaint from a Ron Paul supporter because I failed to include Paul in my posting. I did so because I was trying to highlight the candidates currently leading in the polls. But because of the complaint, I will now post Ron Paul's environmental platform.
As an aside, the comment left by the supporter said something like, "What kind of idiot doesn't list Ron Paul???" I'm happy to admit when I've overlooked important information in my blog, but please have some class.
- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul: Click HERE for full information -
- Unfortunately, Ron Paul's campaign website doesn't feature a specific issue area or ANY information about his environmental policies or beliefs. The only place where I have been able to find out anything about his views on the environment was OnTheIssues.org where his voting history on the environment and energy are posted. I have pasted the record below.
- Voted NO on criminalizing oil cartels like OPEC. (May 2007)
- Voted NO on removing oil & gas exploration subsidies. (Jan 2007)
- Voted NO on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore. (Jun 2006)
- Voted YES on scheduling permitting for new oil refinieries. (Jun 2006)
- Voted NO on passage of the Bush Administration national energy policy. (Jun 2004)
- Voted NO on implementing Bush-Cheney national energy policy. (Nov 2003)
- Voted NO on raising CAFE standards; incentives for alternative fuels. (Aug 2001)
- Voted NO on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. (Aug 2001)
- Voted NO on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol. (Jun 2000)
- Repeal the gas tax. (May 2001)
- Voted NO on increasing AMTRAK funding by adding $214M to $900M. (Jun 2006)
- Voted YES on barring website promoting Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. (May 2006)
- Voted NO on speeding up approval of forest thinning projects. (Nov 2003)
- Rated 5% by the LCV, indicating anti-environment votes. (Dec 2003)
On behalf of the well behaved Ron Paul fans, let me apologize for the RP supporter who was rude to you. Ron's supporters are both his greatest asset, but some of them are also his greatest stumbling block.
ReplyDeleteRon Paul's environmental views cannot be understood by scanning bill titles.
ReplyDeleteHe consistently votes against federal expansion and additional government spending. He is VERY conservative in that regard.
He would like to to abolish the EPA because he feels that it oversteps the boundaries of the constitution and diminishes the states right to regulate independent of the federal government. FURTHER, the EPA actually PERMITS industries to contaminate the environment with federal protection.
Because of the EPA, corporations can dump into your drinking water and be PROTECTED from lawsuits.
Eliminating the EPA eliminates PROTECTION for polluters.
He is very much for the environment and against industrial pollution. He seeks to bolster the 'free market' regulation of polluters by making them liable for the damage to shared resources and to private and public land and air quality.
Scriven...thank you for your explanation of Ron Paul's environmental views.
ReplyDeleteI am open to learning about his policies.
Unfortunately, your short comment was far more information about his environmental platform than can be found anywhere on his website.
Check out this excellent interview Amanda Griscom just did (she's almost always excellent) for Grist;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.grist.org/feature/2007/10/16/paul/index.html
It's as good an introduction to his free-market perspective on energy and environment, it is worthwhile to ponder the implications of what he is saying before you dismiss it out of hand.
Thank you so much for putting this information out here for the rest of us who don't have the time to sift through mountains of information.
ReplyDeleteAs an independent, Ron Paul certainly caught my eye, at first. Unfortunately, the more I learned of him, the less I thought of him as a viable candidate. What he proposes is an unregulated free market. Well, we have basically had that for the last seven years and look where we are now. It was precisely because the subprime mortgage industry was allowed to operate without rules and oversight that has directly led to the housing/economic crisis we are in. Without oversight, every greedy scammer in the world has had free rein to operate and bilk hundreds of thousands of people and businesses. The rest of the world is understandably upset with us; first over the Iraq fiasco and now with the economic free for all that led to this crisis. And we have only scratched the surface, more repercussion to come.
The EPA, once a protector of our precious resources, has been usurped by greedy corporations under the leadership of reagan and bushes I and II. Clinton did a little to attempt to restore it to it's original intended purpose, but not enough. It needs serious fixing, funding and support to return it to the environmental watchdog it was set up to be. Scrapping it because it has been hijacked by corporate America is not the answer. Strengthening it and replacing it's corporate hack leaders is what is needed.
If we don't start taking care of our Planet, the Planet will cease to take care of us.