Okay, so I’m exaggerating.
As of yesterday, the Huckabee campaign decided to scrap its press plane. Says his press secretary, referring to its less-than-half-full media plane, “flying around with a bunch of empty seats was no longer practical.” Huckabee and company are obviously trying to cut costs, but bonus, they are unintentionally saving Mother Earth too. As you can imagine, CO2 emissions from a private jet aren’t small. In our January/February issue, Mother Jones reports just how not small they are. Check out “How Green Was My Rally” to see our estimate of CO2 emitted by Barack Obama’s entourage.
Some candidates, unlike Huckabee, are intentionally trying to minimize their impact on the planet this election season. Many of the Democratic candidates are using carbon-offset groups to offset the energy use of their headquarters and are using air charter companies, which factor in offset costs with each mile flown. And if you missed this blog post, you don’t know that Dennis Kucinich was hoping to roll out energy-efficient veggie-oiled-cooled computers to the campaign’s field offices.
