Senator Biden has been named the VP candidate for the Democratic ticket. So, how is Biden on science?

Well, first you should look at Biden’s page on the SHARP Network.

Biden on Energy and Climate Change:

“The only way we can achieve energy and climate security in this country is to reduce our dependence on oil.  We should take back tax breaks for big oil companies and invest in green energy technology. We should have a windfall profits tax to fund everything from mass transit to high-speed rail to the next generation of safe, efficient cars. Finally, we should restrict speculation and price-gouging, and stand up to OPEC’s monopoly.  We need solutions of the future, not drilling ourselves deeper into dependence on oil.”

JoeBiden.com has excellent information on his position on climate change as well.

Biden on teaching intelligent design creationism in schools:

On an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Biden criticized teaching intelligent design in schools saying, “This is reversible, man. This is reversible. We don’t have to go down this road. I refuse to believe the majority of people believe this malarkey!”

Biden on Stem Cells:

Biden supports expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and voted for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 (S. 5).

Of note was Biden’s response to a question on climate change in the April 2007 debate.

Question: Senator Biden, a quote from Tom Friedman in The New York Times: “Unfortunately, today’s presidential hopefuls are largely full of hot air on the climate-energy issue. Not one of them is proposing anything hard.” What would you propose for the average American that would be hard?

Biden: …We have to make a — the equivalent of what Friedman has been talking about, and that is, a Manhattan Project. We have to fundamentally shift the way we do it. We started off — Barack and I have a bill to make sure that every automobile made or sold in the United States has to be a flex- fuel automobile; that every gas station in America by the year 2009 has to have 10 percent of their pumps pumping e-85 ethanol.

We also have legislation in requiring that we invest $100 million a year the next couple of years while this president’s president in order to be able to find lithium battery technology to be able to — to power our cars. We also have legislation talking about capping emissions. Cap them now, not wait. Cap them where they are now. Time’s running out. But you have to be willing to make multi-billion-dollar investments over the next 10 years and set hard goals in order to be able to get to the point where we’re no longer dependent.”

So, I think we can firmly say that Biden is a pro-science candidate. Now we wait to see who McCain picks. Many are betting on Senator Elizabeth Dole, which could be more bad news for science.

For more, check out the McCain vs. Obama page on the SHARP Network…