*Argues that energy and environmental issues, and the candidate stances on them, will play a large role in the 2012 presidential election. While president Obama’s position may be well known, for most Americans the platforms of the Republican candidates are just now coming into focus.*
*by Silvio Marcacci, Director of Outreach and Public Relations at energyNOW,Bloomberg Television. Follow Silvio on Twitter @Silvio_Marcacci; connect with Silvio on Linkedin.*
Energy and environmental issues, and candidate stances on them, will play a large role in the 2012 presidential election. President Obama’s position on many policy issues may be well known, but for the majority of Americans, the platforms of the Republican candidates are just now coming into focus.

energyNOW interviewed Mother Nature Network reporter Andrew Schenkel about differences in policy stances on some of the major energy and environmental issues taking shape in the Republican presidential primary.

According to Schenkel,



the defining energy and environment issue for Republican candidates is whether candidates believe in climate change, but secondary issues like increasing domestic drilling and production, as well as energy subsidies looms large.

Schenkel says candidates have to be concerned with the question of support for ethanol because the first electoral contest is the Iowa Caucus in February, and the imperative to define themselves as smaller government advocates means they must also oppose subsidies.

This conflict means most of the candidates are taking an unpopular political stance, at least in Iowa, because they say they are against continuing ethanol subsidies. The two outliers, as of now, are Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, who maintain support for ethanol. Most other candidates are not supporting biofuels and some, most notably Jon Huntsman, are not campaigning in Iowa for that very reason.

This opposition to ethanol does create a contradiction, however, because while most candidates oppose

📌 Energy Issues Could Help Define the 2012 Republican Primary (Silvio Péllico)
🏢 Green Growth Ventures (publisher of the GreenEconomyPost.com)
📍 Silvio Péllico