Free the Planet hosts forum

Nuclear power, cap-and-trade and offshore drilling, oh my! Last night at David Lawrence Hall,… Nuclear power, cap-and-trade and offshore drilling, oh my! Last night at David Lawrence Hall, representatives from the College Democrats and College Republicans laid out the environmental policies of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. Free the Planet, Pitt’s student environmental awareness group, hosted the event. The structure of the evening allowed each party to make a presentation followed by a question and answer session. Patrick Graham, Pitt junior and president of the College Republicans, presented the views of McCain. Julie Rozen, Pitt sophomore and historian for the College Democrats, explained Obama’s environmental policies. According to Rozen, Obama plans to institute a policy that would require oil companies to give relief to needy families and institute new laws to reduce oil company profits. Pitt freshman Josh Troger did not like the idea. ‘The incentive for those companies to stay in America will go away, or they will skyrocket their prices,’ said Troger. Graham said that McCain wants to build an additional 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and tax oil windfall profits. He intends to put the money toward research into usable alternatives for nuclear waste. Pitt senior Alexander Dale expressed his opinion on the issue. ‘I think adding new plants is a great idea, but first you need a way of getting rid of the waste,’ said Dale. Troger also expressed his opinion here. ‘I disagree. I think that nuclear waste is still something we don’t know how to deal with,’ he said. Rozen also said that Obama plans to make planned communities, which would try to make foot travel easier. Both candidates agreed on instituting a cap-and-trade program to regulate greenhouse gas emission. The cap-and-trade policy gives companies the rights to produce a certain amount of greenhouse gases that they can trade between other companies. Reducing that total amount of allowed emissions is how greenhouse gases are controlled in this system. Free the Planet held the event in order to educate students about the various presidential candidates’ views on the environment before the election, said Free the Planet co-president Sony Rane.