Sen. John McCain’s speech at the wind turbine manufacturing company, Vestas Wind Technology, has been raising the ire of Democrats in Oregon, the Democratic National Committee and Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The big talking point is the choice of venue itself; back in 2003, Vestas cancelled a plan to construct a turbine plant and consequently laid off 500 employees due to uncertainty surrounding production tax credits. Vestas then joined a group that lobbied for the 2005 Energy Bill, which would have provided financial incentives to produce wind power, a bill which McCain ultimately opposed. Democrats blasted out ‘fact sheets’ throughout the morning deriding McCain’s voting opposition to tax credits for wind power producers, calling his speech—and its location—‘hypocritical.’

“It is truly breathtaking for John McCain to talk about combating climate change while voting against virtually every recent effort to actually invest in clean energy. You don’t have to look further than the wind turbine plant where Senator McCain is speaking today to assess his commitment to this cause. While Senator McCain talks about the need to invest in alternative energy, he rejected the single biggest investment in renewable energy in history, including incentives that contributed to a nearly 50% increase in wind power generation last year, and he has repeatedly opposed renewable fuel mandates and higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks,” Obama said in a statement today.

Clinton added her own take on McCain’s global warming plan: “Senator McCain’s proposal simply does not go far enough to address the growing threat that the climate crisis poses to our children and grandchildren. Real leadership means taking this problem head on with a comprehensive, science-based plan instead of halfway measures. While Senator McCain's proposals may be improvement on President Bush’s, that’s not saying much.”

McCain is most likely focusing on global warming in order to distance himself from President Bush and provide his ‘maverick’ image with a bit of street cred. Democrats aren’t having it though; the DNC cited it as “another example of McCain’s double talk.”

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