GOP adds global warming to its 2008 platform

The National Republican Party for the first time is expected to acknowledge global warming in its 2008 GOP Platform, according to a draft of the document. 

“Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the earth,” the document said. “While the scope and long term consequences of this warming effect are the subject of ongoing research, we believe the United States should take measured and reasonable steps today.”

{mosads}Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is a strong proponent of tackling global warming and has co-authored legislation to address the issue.

In the GOP’s 2004 platform, the term "global warming" was completely absent.

This year, the party is also expected to take up the strong anti-earmark position of the House GOP, according to the document.

“Earmarking must stop,” the draft said. “To eliminate wasteful projects and pay-offs to special interests, we will impose an immediate moratorium on the earmarking system and reform the appropriations process through full transparency.”

The final version of the 2008 GOP Platform will be ratified on the convention floor Sept. 1.

Congressional earmarking has been a contentious issue within the House Republican Conference since a gathering in January 2008, at which leaders failed to garner the support of the entire conference for a unilateral earmark moratorium.

Instead, GOP leadership spent the bulk of the legislative year calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to join them in a moratorium, a request she declined to accept.

A review of the draft platform shows that positions on social issues have gone largely unchanged.

Some changes in the document could be made this week, as delegates on subcommittees continue to meet and amend the current version.