The morning after posting a video outlining her plans to put America back into the renewable energy business and a fighter of climate change, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton toured the DART facility in downtown Des Moines today, further pushing her energy policies.
“We’re all going to have to do our part, but that’s who we are as Americans. We don’t hide from change, but rather we harness it,” said Clinton. “And we have to be leaders in this effort. No country will fall in line just because we tell them to. They need to see us take significant steps of our own, and the decisions we make in the next decade can make this all possible, or they can keep us trapped in the past.”
Two of Clinton’s energy goals include building half a billion solar panels installed across the country by the end of her first term as president, as well as setting a 10-year goal of generating enough renewable energy to power every single home in America. She pointed out that Iowa is already on track to achieve these goals.
“Iowa is working with partners on the state and local level to make these energy goals happen,” said Clinton. “That’s the kind of positive partnership that I think we need to have and that I will promote as president.”
Fellow Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley has also outlined his policies for combating climate change and promoting sustainable energy. His staff sent out a state shortly after Clinton announced her plans.
“Every Democrat should follow O’Malley’s lead and take a stand to commit to ending our reliance on fossil fuels,” said the campaign. “O’Malley’s climate change plan has been praised as a “bold approach that sets the standard on the climate debate, and is cited as “setting an extremely high bar” for every other candidate to meet.”
O’Malley’s climate change ideas include calling for an end to the use of fossil fuels within the next 35 years, as well as retrofitting government buildings to meet higher efficiency standards and instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to devise new and tougher emissions standards, as well as numerous similar measures.
Both candidates have commented on the Keystone XL Pipeline, with Clinton being asked again during today’s visit in Iowa what she thought of the possibility of the pipeline from Canada and through Louisiana.
“No other presidential candidate was Secretary of State when this process started, and I’ve put together a very thorough, deliberative, evidence-based process to evaluate the environmental impact of Keystone,” said Clinton. “But I know another very careful evaluation that is pending to allow Secretary Kerry and President Obama to determine whether this pipeline is in our nation’s future. So I will refrain from commenting because I had a leading role in getting that process started and I think we have to let it run its course.”
Candidate O’Malley, meanwhile, has strongly come out against the proposed pipeline.
“I would reject projects like Keystone XL and drilling off our coasts and in Antarctica and Alaska,” said O’Malley in an op-Ed in USA Today. “Furthermore, I would keep domestically produced oil and gas in the U.S., instead of selling it abroad — unless there is a clear strategic security rationale.”
Clinton said during the press conference at DART that she would be further explaining her climate change policies as the campaign goes on.