Presidential Candidates Address Climate Change

Reporting from Charlotte, N.C. on President Obama's acceptance of his party's nomination, E&E's Jennifer Yachnin writes, "President Obama volleyed back at GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's mockery of climate science, vowing to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions".

"My plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet -- because climate change is not a hoax," Obama told 20,000 supporters at the Time Warner Cable Arena. "More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They're a threat to our children's future. And in this election, you can do something about it."

One might have thought that with the first day (Monday August 27th) of the Republican convention in Tampa canceled due to concern over Hurricane Isaac (which proceeded to ravage coastal Louisiana), Gov. Mitt Romney might have taken climate change more seriously. Instead, his mockery of climate change was a noticeable laugh line in his acceptance speech.

"President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet My promise is to help you and your family."

E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution, providing analysis on Obama's acceptance speech on NPR's Week In Politics: Democratic National Convention, remarked:

"I, too, was looking for somewhat more specificity. One specific thing, however, that was interesting is he mentioned climate change. That issue's been dead since 2010. I thought that was the one striking courageous moment or one of the striking and actually courageous moments in the speech."