Hillary Clinton hasn't been quite so hawkish about the climate as other issues in the past. That said, she claims that she will unveil her plan at 7:00 CDT (5:00 Pacific) this evening...
This comes in the wake of getting pressured by hecklers about energy policy in New Hampshire...
What does she say?
Campaign aides stressed that Sunday's announcement was their opening salvo, not their entire clean energy platform, and Clinton herself said in the video that she will lay out her entire platform "over the next few months."
She's said a lot about adding renewables, but not a whole lot about fossil fuel extraction.
To start -- and it isn't yet 7:00 as of this writing -- WSJ says that she vows to support a clean energy economy, but is silent about Keystone XL. She is quoted:
"Those people on the other side, they will answer any question about climate change by saying I’m not a scientist,” she said. “I’m not a scientist either—I’m just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain…I know that if we start addressing it, we’re going to actually be creating jobs and new businesses."
The Wall Street Journal mentions that the Clinton plan comes on the heels of billionaire Tom Steyer calling for a goal to increase the share of clean energy in the U.S.’s power generation mix to 50% by 2030.
Steyer spent $73 million during the 2014 midterm elections, and is fishing for a 2016 candidate to support.
She makes noises about retraining coal workers:
In one notable specific, Mrs. Clinton promised to help workers in coal country find new jobs. The region has been hostile to President Obama for what officials like Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, call a “war on coal,” most recently the administration plan to sharply reduce carbon emissions from coal plants, which many in the industry say will result in closures and lost jobs.
More on renewables:
Clinton said she supported renewing the wind energy tax credit and getting other tax incentives "fixed" to promote renewable fuel.
The above gives me pause. Here is the thing -- poor and most middle class families can't take advantage of these tax breaks. They can't afford to fix windows, buy electric cars, put solar cells on their roof (if they have a roof.) I hope we can look forward to a policy that isn't tone deaf to all but the relatively wealthy.
Renewable energy is good. Leaning too much on getting it done by tax incentive leave a lot of people powerless to make the kinds of changes we want.
Will update at 7:00. Let's go through this plan together when it posts. In the meantime, what do you think? All cynicism aside...
Update Below -- not too chewy...
Fact sheet (h/t to grubber)
1) The United States will have more than half a billion solar panels installed across the country by the end of Hillary Clinton’s first term.
2) The United States will generate enough clean renewable energy to power every home in America within ten years of Hillary Clinton taking office.
This claims to accomplish:
-Expanding the amount of installed solar capacity to 140 gigawatts by the end of 2020, a 700% increase from current levels.
-Adding more power generation capacity to the grid than during any decade in American history, from a combination of wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and other forms of renewable electricity.
Details in .pdf and in grubber's comment linked above. Thanks, grubber!
Hillary Clinton Promises 500 Million Solar Panels By 2021
Hillary Clinton proposes installing half a billion solar panels across America by 2020
Here is, I suspect, the reason for today's announcement: