Brown
Brown, the Republican nominee and a state senator, charged that Coakley’s support for a so-called cap-and-trade measure would burden businesses with unaffordable energy costs.
The system, outlined in legislation pending before Congress, would set a maximum limit on emissions of pollutants, but would allow companies to trade permits for such emissions.
Brown said Coakley’s stance would cost jobs and proposed that the better approach to the nation’s energy needs would be to support nuclear power and alternative energy sources.
“Massachusetts can’t afford Martha Coakley’s giant new tax on energy,” Brown said.
He cited a prediction by the National Association of Manufacturers that proposed cap and trade legislation could lead to the loss of up to 2.4 million jobs by 2030.
Coakley
Coakley, in turn, accused Brown of disregarding environmental concerns and flip-flopping, citing the lawmaker’s previous support for a regional energy pact that took a similar approach to environmental issues as the federal legislation he now opposes.
In January 2008, Brown supported Massachusetts participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is a 10-state coalition to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from area power plants by making them pay for the pollution they emit.
At the time, Brown issued a press release hailing the pact as “an important step . . . toward improving our environment.
“Reducing carbon dioxide emission in Massachusetts has long been a priority of mine,” Brown said at the time.
Brown
Brown said the plan he voted for nearly two years ago did not work as he thought it would.
“It’s not a flip-flop,” Brown told reporters yesterday after touring a factory in Medfield. “We were sold a bill of goods back then that said it would not only reduce costs but streamline and save businesses money and create a mechanism for better involvement with competing for lower costs, and it didn’t work.”
Coakley
Coakley’s campaign also released statements criticizing Brown from US Senator John F. Kerry and US Representative Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrats who are spearheading federal climate change legislation.
“The last thing that Massachusetts needs is a senator who won’t support the urgent actions needed to confront the threat that global warming poses to our planet,” Markey said.
And Kerry said, “I don’t believe Massachusetts wants a United States senator who speaks for the Sarah Palin wing of the Republican Party on this issue.”
Brown and Coakley
also spoke separately yesterday about job creation.
Brown
Brown also tried to draw out a new weapon in his campaign: his daughters.
Yesterday, his campaign released a new Web video that features his two college-age daughters, one of whom was an American Idol contestant, voicing support for their father.
1) Who is best on the issue, why?
2) Who is best on campaign tactics without striking a counter productive tone, why?
3) Who wins round one, why?
4) Will Martha come to BMG and answer our questions about civil rights and government authority?
5) Bonus Question: Since Scott Brown initiated the dust-up, why did the Globe put Martha’s photo at the head of the article and not Brown’s?
neilsagan says
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sCee/_E97X{Mmtlna3X7S{5YP(_e:OILm^mO`9x},FO*/r1{zs,B,$!GhvNV>D}=GGw-Fu=& pb;/<pH_}|]O1Og,XcE^}4wH,=65oTh1eX*::th[lqh>uDmKP>Zqs G_a266cKLp{cWc>g8nQmN&CoQl.9mN<F]$L>.|ZO|!&Us2tn^@IMx*#e;xsKd4mUB” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” wmode=”transparent” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”320″ height=”240″>neilsagan says
More fun than Coakley/Brown on environmental policy?
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