Clinton in contrast said her plan would result in the equivalent of rooftop solar on 25 million American homes – which was a more populist approach, said Paul Bledsoe, who headed the White House climate change taskforce under Bill Clinton.
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In a video released Sunday night, Clinton named two national goals that she will set if elected president.
Climate change is a hyper-partisan issue in the United States, with many Republicans, including some 2016 presidential candidates, questioning whether human activity contributes to global warming. In addition to protecting the historic climate rules being implemented by Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, Clinton is pledging to boost solar, wind, and other renewables to the point where they provide 33 percent of the country’s electricity by 2027. “And sure, I will defend President Obama’s Clean Power Plant, Clean Power Plan towards assaults from Republicans and their company backers”, she stated. “We can create a more open, efficient and resilient grid that connects us, empowers us – improves our health and benefits us all“, she said.
In a speech to supporters at New York University, Clinton criticized so-called “quarterly capitalism”, which she described as a focus only on short-term profits. In her climate video, the candidate says: “I’m just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain and I know what’s happening in the world is going to have a big effect on my daughter and especially on my granddaughter”. Clinton has notched a slightly higher target.
As secretary of state, Clinton helped lead America’s climate negotiations at the Copenhagen Summit in 2009, which failed to produce an ambitious agreement that contained binding emissions reductions worldwide.
Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state, is expected to discuss more of her plan to increase renewable energy sources and address climate change Monday after a tour at the green-energy certified Des Moines Area Regional Transit (DART) Central Station in Iowa, reports the Washington Times. Clinton has previously faced fierce criticism for accepting money from fossil fuel interests, not to mention her support of Keystone XL and other fossil fuel projects.
In a statement after Clinton’s plan emerged, Steyer said the Democratic front runner had “emerged as a strong leader” in addressing climate change.
Sanders’ plan, he said, “would look like a tax on carbon; a massive investment in solar, wind, geothermal; it would be making sure that every home and building in this country is properly winterized; it would be putting substantial money into rail, both passenger and cargo, so we can move towards breaking our dependency on automobiles”. “At the end of the day, growth in renewables doesn’t mean enough if we’re simultaneously kicking the decarbonization can down the road with more pipelines and more extraction on public lands”, McKibben said.
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“The current definition of a long-term holding period – just one year – is woefully inadequate”, Clinton said.
