Grist: A look at Fred Thompson's environmental platform and record:
Says it's unclear how or why climate change is happening, but says the federal government should conduct R&D into technologies that could reduce CO2 and take other steps to cut emissions if they won't harm the economy.
Calls for boosting "energy security" by increasing domestic supplies, reducing demand for oil and gas, and promoting alternative and renewable energy.
Supports "clean coal."
Supports expansion of nuclear power.
Wants to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling (and in 2002, voted to do so).
Opposed ethanol subsidies when he was in the Senate, but now supports them.
Fortune..."I've always been an advocate of nuclear power ... I think we're used to it in Tennessee ... We're also mindful of some of the regulatory issues involved and how important it is to keep safety paramount while not having a regulatory maze so impassible that nobody can get through it in a cost-effective manner and build a plant, and that's kind of what's happened now."
