Break Down of the Issues - Part 4

Domestic Policy

Domestic policy will be broken up into numerous sections as the candidates go in depth on plans for numerous topics. See also Part 1, Part 2, part 3, part 5, part 6 and part 7. Again, all of these policy statements are taken from the candidates' campaign websites.

Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
Environment
Link	Link	Link
Emissions
Initiate a cap and trade program All new federal buildings designed to produce zero emissions	Initiate cap and trade system, targets of 15% reduction by 2020, 80% by 2050	Initiate cap and trade system, target of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 Create Low Carbon Fuel Standard - fuels reduce carbon emission by 10% by 2020 All new buildings to be designed for zero emissions by 2030
Energy
Reduce projected 2020 energy usage by 20% 25% of electricity produced by renewable sources by 2025 60 billion gallons of biofuels in the system by 2030 Fuel efficiency of 55 mpg by 2030, automakers funded in this by $20 billion in bonds Retrofit 20 million low income houses to increase energy efficiency Invest in a smart grid	Meet demand for more energy through increased efficiency, not increased production	25% of energy from renewable sources by 2025 Increase research funding for clean coal Get the first 2 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol by 2013 Create incentives to fund locally owned biofuel refineries 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels in the system by 2022, 60 by 2030 Double fuel economy standards by 2026 New building energy efficiency to increase 50% by 2030, existing buildings by 25% Invest in a smart grid
Research
$150 billion extra funding over 10 years, $50 billion from a new Strategic Energy Fund, this partially funded by oil companies A new ARPA-E agency modeled on DARPA to manage this research	Create an Energy Economy Fund with $10 billion for environmental R&D, funded partially through green house gas permits (see cap and trade) and partially through repealing oil company subsidies	$150 billion over 10 years to fund green energy research Double research and energy funding $10 billion per year for 5 years to fund venture capital for clean technology start-ups Create a competitive grant to fund early adopters
Miscellaneous
Require all publicly traded corporations to report the threat posed to them by climate change	Forge a new global climate change treaty that will include requirements for developing nations	Create incentives to increase forestation Work through the UN to address global climate change

Companies going green

I just got my monthly electricity bill from Ameren UE and guess what. They are offering me the chance to go green, or as they are phrasing it "support clean renewable energy." How, do you ask. By signing up for "Pure Power". What this does is allow Ameren to buy "certificates" from its own green energy branch. No, I'm not getting electricity from renewable energy. Instead I get to pay for Ameren to charge another area (my state fixes Ameren's rates because it is a state sponsored monopoly) for the priviledge of getting green energy.

So let me go through this again... I pay extra for nothing, the people getting the energy are (likely) getting charged more, and Ameren gets a tax credit for supplying green energy. Oh, and if I were to put solar panels on my roof or something similar, Ameren won't buy back, or even give credits, for the extra energy I produce.

Update: News.com is running a much more in depth article on the FTC beginning to look into these tactics.

Update 2: Ameren is now awarding companies that give a lot to this Pure Power campaign, and the number two corporation listed: Ameren UE!