Politics

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― On a day when a U.N. panel warned of growing peril from climate change, John Edwards accused the oil and gas industry Saturday of deploying hundreds of lobbyists to Washington to resist efforts to free the nation from its dependence on fossil fuels.

Edwards' criticism came during a forum on global warming, where he and fellow Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Dennis Kucinich outlined similar goals of curbing greenhouse gases, expanding alternative energy sources and growing jobs in a green economy.

The three appeared separately on stage, the only candidates from either party to accept invitations from sponsors Grist, an online environmental magazine, and Public Radio International's "Living on Earth," a nationally broadcast program on environmental concerns. The forum was held in partnership with the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and other environmental groups.

Like his rivals, Edwards said climate change requires urgent action. But he argued repeatedly that measures to slow global warming are being hindered by a broken political system in Washington that bends to corporate power and feeds off its money.

"I see the oil and gas companies blocking progress by spending millions of dollars and deploying hundreds of lobbyists in Washington to make sure that America stays addicted to foreign oil and fossil fuels," Edwards said.

Edwards' comments on lobbyists appeared aimed at least partly at Clinton. He has accused her of being beholden to corporate interests that have contributed lavishly to her campaign. Clinton has accepted $567,950 from lobbyists, while Edwards' has accepted $18,900, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

In her remarks, Clinton credited other Democrats for making proposals to address climate warming but sought to distinguish herself as the candidate best able to bring about those changes.

Progress, she stressed, "takes more than a plan."

A president needs "strength and experience to make it a reality," she said, echoing a campaign refrain.

President Bush was a frequent target of the candidates. And each talked with concern about workers, such as coal miners, who could suffer in a transition to a green-tinged economy.

But there were differences.

As part of her approach, Clinton supports a cap-and-trade plan, under which power plants or businesses that exceed pollution caps must buy or trade for additional allowances, usually from others that have been able to cut their emissions.

But Kucinich called it a "phony solution."

Edwards and Kucinich talked forcefully of breaking the hold of oil and gas interests in Washington, but Clinton spoke broadly of making varied interests part of the solutions.

To build a case against global warming, "it is especially important that we figure out ways to enlist the millions and millions of Americans who make billions of decisions every year about how they use energy," she said.

In Valencia, Spain, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that as early as 2020 Africa will suffer water shortages, residents of Asia's megacities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding, Europeans can expect extensive species loss, and North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water because of global warming. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called on the United States and China -- the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters -- to do more to fight it.

Edwards was endorsed last month by Friends of the Earth Action, the San Francisco-based political arm of Friends of the Earth. The group credited him with acting early to outline proposals to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, push for a global climate change treaty and create 1 million new jobs by investing in clean, renewable energy.

In a speech in Nevada Friday, Clinton urged the development of alternative energy to cut down on greenhouse gases, create American jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

She is calling for the creation of a $50 billion strategic energy fund, coupled with tougher fuel efficiency standards financed in part by $20 billion in "green vehicle bonds." Her energy package calls for cutting greenhouse gases by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and cutting oil imports by two-thirds by 2030.

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