But while the Democratic candidates are too distracted to knock back a rising McCain, several liberal advocacy organizations have begun stepping into the void.

One new TV spot (subscription) that debuted today on national cable news, from environmental group Friends of the Earth, goes straight for one of McCain's bedrock political strengths: the perception of him as a "maverick" candidate. "If you think John McCain opposes pork barrel spending, think again," an announcer says, accusing the Arizona senator of supporting an environmental bill that "gives a trillion dollars to corporate polluters."

Although the group is holding the fire to McCain, its real objective is to defeat the Lieberman-Warner energy bill mentioned in the ad, Benning said.

National Journal Ad Spotlight

You may not know much about the Corporate Polluter Giveaway Bill. I wrote about it last fall:

Edwards Opposes Lieberman-Warner Polluter Giveaway

John Edwards announced his support for fixing or ditching the Bill in November 2007:

"Global warming is a crisis.  Every month, the evidence mounts that decisive action is urgently needed.  At long last, global warming legislation is moving in the Senate.  

"But we cannot be limited in our approach by the armies of lobbyists from big oil companies and other special interests. The critical question is simple: are we going to do everything climate science says is needed to save our planet? The Lieberman-Warner bill says no.  Worst of all, it gives away pollution permits to industry for free - a massive corporate windfall - instead of doing what is right and selling them so that we can use these resources to invest in clean energy research and help regular families go green."

Clinton and Obama also:

The good news is that we already have some key allies: the Democratic presidential candidates. They both have plans that make polluters pay for emissions and that seek the carbon reductions called for by science.

We think the Senate needs to build on these plans rather than the weak Lieberman-Warner bill, which is modeled on legislation by Senator John McCain.

Tell Senators that any global warming legislation should do two simple things:

1.   Support a 100 percent auction of carbon permits and get rid of the obscene giveaways to polluters -- polluters must pay.

2.   Ensure that global warming pollution is reduced to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, as called for by leading scientists.

While these criteria may seem obvious, the current Senate legislation doesn't meet them. Let's change that.

FIX or DITCH the Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill

For its massive industry handouts, it asks too little in return.

After years of ignoring global warming, the U.S. Senate is finally considering legislation to cap greenhouse gas pollution.  Unfortunately, the Lieberman-Warner bill being advanced by Senate Democrats lavishes up to $1 trillion on industries responsible for global warming, and in return asks for reduction targets well below what scientists say are necessary.  If this is the best Senate Democrats can do, the world is in trouble.
Friends of the Earth Action is leading the fight to either fix, or ditch, Lieberman-Warner,

More from FoE Action:

"The Lieberman-Warner bill will reward corporate polluters by handing them pollution permits worth almost half a trillion dollars," said Friends of the Earth's Erich Pica, one of the authors of the analysis. "And that's just one part of this bill. The bill also includes hundreds of billions of dollars of other mind-boggling giveaways.  The levels of pollution-rewarding giveaways in this bill are truly obscene."

In particular, Friends of the Earth's analysis found that the bill:

* Provides the coal industry and other fossil fuel industries pollution permits worth $436 billion over the life of the legislation; 58 percent of this amount goes to coal

* Returns revenue raised through auctions directly to polluters -- for example, an additional $324 billion would subsidize the coal industry's efforts to develop carbon capture and storage mechanisms

* Directs another $522 billion of auction revenue to low or zero-emissions technologies, which could result in handouts to the nuclear power, big hydro and coal industries, which are not clean (these funds could also be directed toward important clean technologies, such as wind and solar -- the legislation is not specific)

snip

"The polluter giveaways are one of several major flaws in this bill," Pica said.

FoE Action:  Lieberman-Warner polluter giveaways 'obscene'

More details here:

Fact Sheet on The Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill

FOE Action Presidendt Brent Blackwelder said yesterday:

I am writing you about a new twist in our campaign.  Up to now we've been putting pressure on Senate Democrats to demand better global warming legislation.  But one senator's outrageous take on this bill demands some special heat -- Senator John McCain's.

You know how self righteous John McCain can be when he talks about corporate pork and earmarks, but do you know why he opposes the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill?  He plans to vote against it not because it could lavish $1 trillion on the profitable oil, gas and coal industries, but because he wants to add hundreds of billions of dollars more in earmarks for the nuclear industry!  

Yeah, what a maverick.

We figured it was time to call out McCain's hypocrisy with a national television spot, already airing nationwide on CNN.

We would like keep the pressure on McCain with this ad until the June vote on the Lieberman-Warner bill (formerly the McCain-Lieberman bill, by the way).  Will you help us?

Many thanks,
Brent Blackwelder
President, Friends of the Earth Action

Keep the ad running hard by donating here:

McCain ad

http://action.foe.org/content.jsp?conten t_KEY=4059&t=Lieberman_Warner.dwt

Let's start putting pressure on John McCain.  The world simply cannot afford a McCain presidency.