Although many people believe that the former US Senator from Alaska, Mike Gravel, is running a Quixotic campaign for President, he is making his presence felt at every chance. While his colleagues have taken some jabs at the front runner, Gravel has leveled serious blows and he makes his views known whenever he is on the national stage.

Mike Gravel was the first Democrat to officially announce his candidacy for President, doing so in 2006. He has spent considerable time in the Granite State. He has traveled the state trying to drive up his name recognition. Unlike some other states, New Hampshire has always included Gravel in any of its sanctioned debates. But Gravel is barely registering in the polls at, generally, 1% or less. But he continues undaunted.

Mike Gravel served in the US Senate from 1969 to 1981 representing the state of Alaska. He was one of the most influential politicians of his time – an ardent opponent of the war in Vietnam and an outspoken critic of the Nixon Administration. He is the man who put the Pentagon Papers into the public arena by including them in the Congressional Record. Gravel also earned tremendous respect for leading a one-man filibuster against renewing the military draft. Gravel’s tactics put so much pressure on Nixon that a moratorium on renewing the draft was issued and the draft was finally ended. Gravel also fought against the use of nuclear weapons and against the use of nuclear power. He left the public eye in 1981 and only returned in the last few years. He and his wife, Whitney, live in Virginia.

I met up with the former Senator from Alaska at WMUR’s Conversations with a Candidate, in Manchester in April. I asked Gravel what were his plans for combating global warming. Gravel said, “I want to cap carbon emissions as a means to end global warming.” I followed with “How do you plan to make America energy independen?. The Senator said, “I want to employ a WPA-like national program to wean the US off of our dependence on fossil fuels.”

Gravel’s energy plan is unique in many respects, not the least of which is the centerpiece: a hydrogen-based fuel for the economy (more on that later). But some of Gravel’s energy positions are relatively more mainstream:

• Gravel will reduce America’s carbon footprint by passing legislation that caps emissions;
• He wants the United States to lead in the fight against global deforestation;
• Gravel wants the U.S. to lead a massive global scientific effort to end energy dependence on oil;
• Gravel will impose a carbon tax, much like Senator Chris Dodd has proposed, but with the major difference that he wants the US to work with other countries to do the same. The funds from this carbon tax will be pooled, and the resulting revenues will fund an international scientific and engineering effort to wean the world from fossil fuels within 10 years;
• Gravel feels that that the best way to solve the energy problem is to let prices rise so that alternative energies can become more competitively priced.
• He proposes a hydrogen liquid fuel for our cars – Gravel states, “One of the things we can do is take electricity from windmills, run it through water, and have hydrogen. And by altering the technology of our existing cars and gas stations, they can be used to run on and distribute hydrogen liquid. You’re not making hydrogen fuel cells; that technology is not on the table yet. You’re making liquid fuel from hydrogen. Meanwhile, we can just manufacture the hell out of windmills and then turn around and produce all this hydrogen.”
• Gravel wants to eliminate all of the coal-fired power plants and change then into hydrogen power plants.
• He wants the United States to ratify the Kyoto protocols and to aggressively accelerate the goals. He states, “many European countries are ahead of their targets while the US hasn’t even agreed to it.”
• Gravel strongly and ardently opposes the use of nuclear power. Gravel states, “If we can have large electrical base-load plants fed by hydrogen, then we don’t have to have the nuclear.”
• Gravel sees biofuels has counterproductive. “What I know about the corn deal, it takes more energy to produce a gallon of biofuel from corn than it does to just use conventional fuel, so that’s a negative. Secondly, we have to realize that when we’re growing this stuff, we may be displacing the whole distribution of food throughout the world.”

Mike Gravel may not wind up winning the Democratic primary in January, but the debate process is elevated by his candor, his courage, and his ideas.

Next week: Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter

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Mike Gravel’s Presidential Campaign Website

New Hampshire Political Polling Site

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