Can Young Green Voters Decide the 2008 Election?

Photo: powervote.org

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How many is 1 million, when it comes to U.S. politics?

That's about two-times as many votes as separated Al Gore and George W. Bush in the 2000 election, and about one-third as many votes as separated Bush from John Kerry in 2004.

And it's how many votes a new campaign aims to win for the most climate-friendly candidate, at least in the eyes of those new voters.

(The 50 million so-called “Millennial Voters,” age 18-30, make up one-quarter of the electorate, and their numbers are growing more significant demographically: By 2015, 82 million voters in this age group will make up one-third of the electorate.)

The Energy Action Coalition's Power Vote campaign officially kicks off Wednesday with a message from renowned NASA climate scientist James Hansen lending his voice to the nonpartisan effort, active on 300 college campuses. Its goal is to get those 1 million young voters to embrace a six-plank platform:

1. Create new green jobs
2. Invest in new clean energy technology, from public transportation to highly efficient vehicles
3. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially
4. Break U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, and nuclear power
5. Engage in U.N. climate treaty negotiations
6. Refuse campaign contributions from coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear industries

Though the campaign is nonpartisan, if voters endorse that agenda, they are more likely to vote for Barack Obama, given John McCain's support for offshore oil drilling and building new nuclear plants as the center of his energy policy. Obama's energy plan calls for making renewable energy investments central.

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