This is the number one issue for the PLANET and it has received scant attention in the debate. HRC managed to mention it in the second debate but America (and the world) needs to here from the candidates. Here is what I could get from the main candidate websites and statements made by the candidates.
Hillary Clinton
Position on Climate Change – Climate Change is real and is a threat to us all.
Develop a Clean Energy Economy
Make bold investments in clean energy infrastructure and production, with a goal of generating enough renewable energy to power every home in America within 10 years.
Reduce our carbon footprint by curbing pollution and fuel consumption while developing stricter emissions and efficiency standards.
Protect our environment, promote stewardship and conservation of our public lands and waters and the expansion of our outdoor economies.
Reducing Waste. Maintain/Improve Pollution & Efficiency Standards
Negotiate a North American Climate Compact with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to coordinate North America’s progress toward meeting emissions targets and implementing clean energy solutions.
Ensure air and water pollution is addressed across all communities, including low-income communities and communities of color.
Aggressively to tackle the sources of our methane emissions in the oil and gas sector and across the economy.
Exceed the goals set in the Paris Agreement and build on the progress made by President Obama.
Environmental Stewardship and Environmental Justice.
Promote stewardship, appreciation and revitalization of our public lands and resources by establishing an American Parks Trust Fund, unlocking at least 2 million acres of currently inaccessible public lands, and keeping public lands public.
Pollution, toxic hazards, and energy poverty disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color. Execute a comprehensive plan to fight for environmental justice -- including eliminating lead as a public health threat within five years.
Jill Stein
Position on Climate Change – Climate Change is real, a threat to us all and the current proposals for managing it are inadequate.
A Clean Energy Economy by 2030
Enact an emergency Green New Deal to turn the tide on climate change, revive the economy and make wars for oil obsolete. Initiate a WWII-scale national mobilization to halt climate change, the greatest threat to humanity in our history. Create 20 million jobs by transitioning to 100% clean renewable energy by 2030, and investing in public transit, sustainable agriculture, conservation and restoration of critical infrastructure, including ecosystems.
Redirect research funds from fossil fuels into renewable energy and conservation. Build a nationwide smart electricity grid that can pool and store power from a diversity of renewable sources, giving the nation clean, democratically-controlled, energy.
End destructive energy extraction and associated infrastructure: fracking, tar sands, offshore drilling, oil trains, mountaintop removal, natural gas pipelines, and uranium mines. Halt any investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, including natural gas, and phase out all fossil fuel power plants. Phase out nuclear power and end nuclear subsidies. End all subsidies for fossil fuels and impose a greenhouse gas fee / tax to charge polluters for the damage they have created.
Just Pollution & Efficiency Standards that Protect Our Planet
Support a strong enforceable global climate treaty that limits global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius and provides just financial compensation to developing countries.
Implement a Just Transition that empowers those communities and workers most impacted by climate change and the transition to a green economy. Ensure that any worker displaced by the shift away from fossil fuels will receive full income and benefits as they transition to alternative work.
Enact energy democracy based on public, community and worker ownership of our energy system. Treat energy as a human right.
Enact stronger environmental justice laws and measures to ensure that low-income and communities of color are not disproportionately impacted by harmful pollution and other negative environmental and health effects.
Invest in clean air, water, food and soil for everyone. Clean up America.
Environmental Stewardship
Protect our public lands, water supplies, biological diversity, parks, and pollinators. Ban neonicotinoids and other pesticides that threaten the survival of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
Label GMOs, and put a moratorium on GMOs and pesticides until they are proven safe.
Support conversion to sustainable, nontoxic materials and the use of closed-loop, zero waste processes.
Donald Trump
Position on Climate Change - Climate Change is “a total hoax,” “bullshit” and “pseudoscience.”
Develop the Energy Economy
Unleash America’s $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, plus hundreds of years in clean coal reserves.
Pollution and Efficiency Standards
Current regulations have done everything possible to get in the way of American energy production. Costly regulation makes it harder and harder to turn a profit.
Rescind all job-destroying Obama executive actions designed to reduce pollution and increase efficiency, they are job killers.
Gary Johnson
Position on Climate Change – Climate Change is probably happening but any consequences of climate can be mitigated by industry and the free market without regulation by the federal government.
The Energy Economy
The market should function unimpeded, consumers, innovators, and personal choices will do more to bring about environmental protection and restoration than will government regulations driven by special interests.
Pollution and Efficiency Standards
The federal government should prevent future harm by focusing on regulations that protect us from real harm, rather than needlessly costing American jobs and freedom in order to pursue a political agenda.
The Environmental Protection Agency must focus on its true mission by playing an important role in keeping the environment and citizen’s safe.
Environmental Stewardship
Protect our environment for our future generations, especially those designated areas of protection like our National Parks. Consistent with that responsibility, the proper role of government is to enforce reasonable environmental protections.
My Comments
I would love to see Jill Stein in action on climate change. Her plan is the most aggressive and would be an example to the world. It is probably not doable (in the timeframe she outlines) and she has no realistic chance of being elected.
For those of you who think Gary Johnson’s ideas might work I ask a simple question “How has letting the energy industry govern itself worked so far?”
Donald Trump’s plan might as well be called “Make the World Burn” and will have cataclysmic consequences for our nation and the planet.
Hillary’s plan is the most comprehensive and thought out and represents our best plan to preserve the planet for our children and grandchildren. She needs our help and a congress that will work with her. Vote blue!