Edwards on the Environment

• First presidential candidate to call for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, in March 2007. Would launch a cap-and-trade program in 2010 to bring emissions down 15 percent by 2020, as an interim step to the 2050 goal.
  
  
• First major presidential candidate to make his campaign carbon-neutral, in March 2007. He's buying carbon offsets to neutralize the effects of his campaign travel and office energy use, while also cutting energy consumption at campaign offices, buying recycled-paper office products, and encouraging staff to walk to work and take other energy-saving measures. (Tom Vilsack was actually the first candidate to go carbon neutral, but he dropped out of the race in February.)
  
  
• Introduced a detailed energy plan before any of the other candidates.
  
  
• Proposes a $13-billion-a-year New Energy Economy Fund that would invest in renewable energy, efficiency, carbon-capture technology, and cleaner cars; help entrepreneurs start new clean businesses; encourage Americans to buy more-efficient appliances and save energy; and help workers in carbon-intensive industries transition to new job fields. The fund would be financed by the auctioning of permits to emit greenhouse gases and the repeal of some oil-industry tax breaks.
  
  
• Calls for a ban on new coal power plants unless they're compatible with carbon-capture and -storage technology.
  
  
• Opposes nuclear power.
  
  
• Opposes government investment in coal-to-liquid technologies.
  
  
• Has been endorsed by Friends of the Earth for his position on nuclear power and early support of strict climate legislation.