We push for candidates to pledge to appoint a Presidential Commission on Climate Change within their first three months in office. They’ll appoint leading scientists, policy makers, NGOs, Gore, etc. to be on The Commission. The Commission is tasked with developing a comprehensive approach to climate change, including but not limited to cap and trade, green investments, research and development and planning for future changes in scientific understanding.

The Commission will then have one year to put forth a comprehensive policy solution, to be debated in the United States Congress. If a President really wanted to make this happen, they could do so before L-W would even be scheduled to begin reducing emissions, assuming it passes this summer.

As nice as it is to see both Obama and Clinton providing solid plans, the reality is that neither of them really have a plan to understand the climate better, and to adapt their current plans if required. What will they do if, a year from now, scientists determine that we have to cut our carbon emissions to 0 tons by 2030 or face an insane global climate, with tens of meters of sea level rise, a Permian-style extinction event, and water/energy wars between the 10% haves and the 90% have-nots? Will either of them make the hard choices and figure out a way to save everyone, or will they throw up their hands and say “It’s too hard, I guess we’ll just let the climate go haywire – that’s the easier thing to do”?

Either way, though, I suspect that either of the Democrats are still better than McCain on this one.