McCain’s Senate voting record on renewable energy is abysmal, although he maintains, "I have a long record of that support of alternate energy … I’ve always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote."

However, in both December and February of this year, 2 renewable energy measures failed to win the 60 votes needed for cloture 59-49. The senator not voting each time was John McCain. In fact, one bill has been brought to a vote 8 times over the past year, and he has missed every one.

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times highlighted another instance: "On July 30, the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill – S. 3335 – that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems."

Again, however, McCain’s seat in the Senate was collecting dust, and the measure was defeated, providing a crippling blow to the solar industry that relies on these credits, which will expire this December.

Solar projects here in Arizona have even been put on hold as a result of this vote, including the Solana solar power plant – the biggest proposed solar energy project in history, some 70 miles southwest of Phoenix. For now, the solar panels are still largely absent from McCain’s home state, although the sun is here most every day – energy for the taking, yet no one is taking.

Friedman sums it up concisely, "In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year – which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote."