One Wisconsin Now

Anyone that is watching television in the state of Wisconsin has probably seen the new John McCain ad on the environment. The ad over-reaches trying to put a happy face on John McCain’s record in the Senate. Although the ad tries to paint McCain as a “maverick” on the environment, reality shows that his departures from the Bush party line are rare at best. Conveniently, just after starting the current ad buy, McCain provided us with the latest example of why he is McSame as Bush on the environment.

This week both Bush and McCain pushed an oil industry plan to end the federal ban on offshore drilling. The oil industry is hardly known for its protective policies over the environment. Actually in many ways the most serious environmental issues of our day can, in some way, be laid at their feet. Yet this same oil industry appears to be the policy guide for both Bush and McCain on offshore drilling.

In the Senate John McCain has stood in the way of many pieces of legislation that focused on renewable energies and new solutions. Through his support of the oil industry plan this week, he has made a policy choice that is guaranteed to lead our energy policy into an eventual dead end. We cannot drill our way out of this energy crisis and relying on this kind of backward thinking does little for us long term, but it does do a lot for the oil industry’s bottom line.

It is no coincidence that McCain backs up Bush and Big Oil at the same time that he has been raising funds from Texas oil execs. He has raised some $1 million from oil and gas interests already. Further, McCain has at least 22 staffers and fundraisers that have lobbied for Big Oil interests. While there are some Republican leaders that are taking a stand against Big Oil, John McCain is not one of them. He has fallen into line on many issues and offshore drilling is just the latest. No amount of ad buys can change his McSame record on offshore drilling and the environment.