Greentech Media

Republican presidential candidates call it "energy independence" and invoke it as key to foreign policy and winning the war on terror. Democrats call it "renewable energy" and highlight it as an economic growth engine, and crucial to preventing disaster caused by global warming.

Whatever your framework and whether you've been camped out in South Carolina or Florida of late, nary a candidate debate or stump speech goes by these days where something related to green-energy technology and innovation isn't mentioned in some form or another.

But that's not to say there aren't some pretty big distinctions.

Broadly speaking, all three leading Democrats favor a huge boost for what Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., likes to call "green-collar" jobs, funded by ending subsidies for oil and coal companies. They also support mandatory cap-and-trade programs for carbon emissions that would fund cleantech research and commercialization (See Government VC).

Republican candidates are more likely to favor an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to energy investment: nuclear power, ethanol, biodiesel, solar, wind and coal -- along with opening up ANWR, the controversial Alaskan oil fields. They're a little vaguer however, and also differ from one another, on the extent and nature of the role for governmental support in developing new technologies and supporting these industries.

And members of the cleantech community have started to line up behind their respective man -- or woman.

With a deep environmental record, Clinton has culled support among folks at the Paladin Capital Group, which has invested in such startups as the thin-film solar company Heliovolt, as well as at the Global Environment Fund, which invests in smart-grid, electric-vehicle, manufacturing-efficiency and solar-design and construction firms.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has a more hazy environmental record but he enjoys broad support from investors who see him as one of their own. In 1984, Romney founded the investment firm Bain Capital, with a venture arm that funds numerous Internet, software, wireless, biotech and semiconductor companies.

"More than the other candidates, he understands the role venture capitalists play in the creation of jobs, in helping build the economy, so I think that as a candidate he has the best understanding of the impact the cleantech revolution can have," said @Ventures principal Matt Horton.

Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla, on the other hand, appears to have had a tough time making up his mind. The prominent cleantech investor has contributed to the campaigns of Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Joseph Biden, D-Del., who dropped out of the race earlier this month.

Herein, a greentech guide to some of candidates (click on the names below). We've also rounded up donations from some cleantech investors. And, just for kicks, we're including the cars each candidate drives (as reported recently in the San Francisco Chronicle), and each candidate's environmental score from the League of Conservation Voters.

Hillary Clinton	Barak Obama	Mitt Romney
John McCain	Mike Huckabee