Democratic Primary Debate at The Citadel, sponsored by YouTube and CNN: on Energy & Oil

Barack Obama: Explore nuclear power as part of alternative energy mix

A: I actually think that we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix. There are no silver bullets to this issue. We have to develop solar. I have proposed drastically increasing fuel efficiency standards on cars, an aggressive cap on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted. But we're going to have to try a series of different approaches.

Barack Obama: Cheney met environmentalists once; but Big Oil 40 times

Chris Dodd: Raise standard to 50 mpg by 2017; make federal fleet hybrids

A: There are a number of things. The 50-mile-per-gallon standard is something I've advocated by 2017, that I would push hard for. Entire fleet of federal automobiles would be hybrids or electric automobiles, so we reduce even further out consumption. I myself drive a hybrid. But I believe I'm the only candidate here, along with Al Gore, who's called for a corporate carbon tax.

Chris Dodd: Impose corporate carbon tax; need price incentives for GHGs

Chris Dodd: FactCheck: Two other candidates also call for carbon taxes

Dodd is the only candidate to call for a "corporate carbon tax," and indeed, Al Gore has advocated the same, though he often refers to it as a "pollution tax." But two other candidates offer similar plans. Both Richardson and Edwards have proposed some form of carbon permitting by which companies would have to apply and pay a fee for the right to emit carbon pollutants. It is worth noting that all three candidates have also called for a reduction in greenhouse emissions of at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

Dennis Kucinich: Current approach to energy results in war for oil

A: We have to understand the connection between global warring and global warming. Because when we start talking about wars for oil, we're essentially keeping the same approach to energy. We need to move away from reliance on oil and coal and toward reliance on wind and solar. That's the basis of my WGA, Works Green Administration, where we take an entirely new approach to organize the entire country around sustainability, around conservation.

Q: Are your fellow candidates green enough?

A: No. If you support, for example, in Iraq, if you say that Iraq should privatize its oil for the US oil companies, then what you're doing is you're continuing a commitment to use more oil. If you believe that all options should be put on the table with respect to Iran, that's about oil. So we need to move away from reliance on oil. And that's really connected to our defense policy, and I'm the one who gets the connection.

Hillary Clinton: End Big Oil tax break; $50 billion for strategic energy fund

Hillary Clinton: Agnostic about nuclear power until waste & cost issue solved

A: I'm agnostic about nuclear power. Until we figure out what we're going to do with the waste and the cost, it's very hard to see nuclear as a part of our future. But that's where American technology comes in. Let's figure out what we're going to do about the waste and the cost if we think nuclear should be a part of the solution.

Hillary Clinton: FactCheck: There was no Big Oil tax break under Bush-Cheney

CLINTON: First of all, I have proposed a strategic energy fund that I would fund by taking away the tax break for the oil companies, which have gotten much greater under Bush and Cheney.

It's true that many generous subsidies were proposed and debated, but those were stripped out before the bill was passed. The final bill contained $14.3 billion in tax breaks, but the bulk of the cuts went to electric utilities, and nuclear, and also to alternative fuels research and subsidies for energy-efficiency--not to the oil industry.

John Edwards: No new nuclear power plants; no liquified coal either

A: Wind, solar, cellulose-based biofuels are the way we need to go. I do not favor nuclear power. We haven't built a nuclear power plant in decades in this country. There is a reason for that. The reason is it is extremely costly. It takes an enormous amount of time to get one planned, developed and built. And we still don't have a safe way to dispose of the nuclear waste. It is a huge problem for America over the long term. I also don't believe we should liquefy coal. The last thing we need is another carbon-based fuel in America. We need to find fuels that are in fact renewable, clean, and will allow us to address directly the question that has been raised, which is the issue of global warming, which I believe is a crisis.