Bait and switch

It seems a sound plan for any Republican hopeful: develop a platform of public interest issues pulled from the latest headlines, then hire on some fact-denying corporate whores. John McCain’s getting ready for his close-up. After announcing global warming as a key issue, the expectant presidential candidate announced energy and arms industry profit-monger and global warming denier James Schlesinger as a campaign advisor on energy and security.

Despite McCain’s public call for setting mandatory carbon and greenhouse gas emission caps, Schlesinger, who formerly served under presidents Nixon and Ford, has spent the past few years writing op-eds dismissing the science of global warming and insisting industry adherence to any emission reduction plans should be strictly voluntary.

Currently a director at Peabody Energy, which touts itself as “the world’s largest private-sector coal company,” Schlesinger has made no secret of sharing Peabody’s pro-pollution views. Peabody has railed against the Kyoto Protocol and lauded the current White House for refusing to regulate C02 as a pollutant.

Schlesinger also holds the honour of being the first U.S. Secretary of Energy, a position he was handed by Jimmy Carter in 1977. He was relieved of those duties just shy of two years later.

by Scott Saxon