Current:Home > ScamsKirsten Gillibrand on Climate Change: Where the Candidate Stands-LoTradeCoin
Kirsten Gillibrand on Climate Change: Where the Candidate Stands
View Date:2024-12-24 00:49:23
Update: On Aug. 28, Sen. Gillibrand announced she was withdrawing from the Democratic primary race for president.
“When John F. Kennedy said, ‘I want to put a man on the moon in 10 years,’ he didn’t know if he could do it. But he knew it was an organizing principle. … Why not do the same here? Why not say let’s get to net zero carbon emissions in 10 years not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard?”
—Kirsten Gillibrand, April 2019
Been There
As a senator from upstate New York, Kirsten Gillibrand has seen two climate hot-button issues land in her backyard: fracking and the impacts of extreme weather. She is continuing to seek funding for recovery from Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene and has cited the impacts from those storms—as well as the recent flooding in the Midwest—as evidence that leaders need to take on climate change urgently.
As a presidential candidate, Gillibrand has moved steadily toward more ambitious action on climate change. Some of her policy positions have evolved over time. Early in her Senate career, she saw fracking for natural gas as bringing an “economic opportunity” to New York—although she underscored the need for regulations. More recently, she has taken a “keep it in the ground” position that emphasizes limits on production of fossil fuels, especially on public lands.
Done That
Gillibrand boasts a 95 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation voters, having voted on the side of environmentalists 100 percent of the time since 2014. Since becoming a senator in 2009, Gillibrand has been a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, where she has co-sponsored multiple pieces of legislation, including bills calling for a carbon tax and for the Green New Deal. But in Republican control, the Senate has not passed strong climate legislation.
Getting Specific
- Gillibrand released her “Climate Change Moonshot” platform on July 25. It spells out her agenda in more specific detail and marks an attempt to move to the head of the field, at least in the scope of her ambition. The scale of her proposals goes beyond the dollar figure she presents ($10 trillion in combined public and private investment over the course of a decade). It includes a call for “enforceable standards” to ensure that the greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals are met.
- She says she would impose an excise tax on fossil fuel producers to make them pay for the damages being caused by climate change, putting the money in a “trust fund” to pay for such things as sea walls and making polluters pay for climate harms. This tax, she says, could generate $100 billion a year.
- She also describes a wholesale switch to electric vehicles and an end to the internal combustion engine, writing that she would “phase in new vehicle emission standards to require newly manufactured cars and other vehicles to be zero-emission by the end of the next decade.” Exactly what that would mean for timing is still a question.
- Gillibrand favors a price on carbon as spelled out in a Senate bill offered by climate hawks that would tax greenhouse gas pollution starting at a relatively high $52 a ton, and that would invest some of the revenue in energy transformation rather than sending it all back to taxpayers. That could raise trillions of dollars, cut emissions steeply, and outpace the pollution reduction steps promised during the Obama administration.
- Gillibrand signed the “No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge” and is an original co-sponsor of a Senate plan to create tax credits for renewable energy technology and energy efficiency. She has said that Congress needs to “facilitate the development of renewable technologies like wind and solar.”
- Gillibrand has called for ending all new fossil fuel leases and fracking on public lands. She is opposed to opening new areas of the Outer Continental Shelf to offshore drilling and cosponsored legislation to keep the Trump administration from doing so.
Our Take
Gillibrand released her plan later than many of her peers in the 2020 race but has subsequently delivered an expansive, specific plan that sets out a highly ambitious climate change wish-list. Her plan was released at a time when she was lagging in the polls, signalling that she may be hoping to gain momentum by aligning herself more closely with the issue of climate change.
Read Kirsten Gillibrand’s climate platform.
Read more candidate profiles.
veryGood! (828)
Related
- Veterans Day restaurant deals 2024: More than 80 discounts, including free meals
- Marlon Wayans talks about his 'transition as a parent' of transgender son Kai: 'So proud'
- Robin Roberts Reacts to Michael Strahan's Good Morning America Return After His Absence
- Spain leader defends amnesty deal for Catalan in parliament ahead of vote to form new government
- California man allegedly shot couple and set their bodies, Teslas on fire in desert
- Wisconsin Republicans pass $2B tax cut heading for a veto by Gov. Tony Evers
- Michigan judge says Trump can stay on primary ballot, rejecting challenge under insurrection clause
- Japan’s economy sinks into contraction as spending, investment decline
- Texas now tops in SEC? Miami in trouble? Five overreactions to college football Week 11
- Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Jaden McDaniels ejected after Warriors-Timberwolves fight
Ranking
- Detroit-area police win appeal over liability in death of woman in custody
- Texans LB Denzel Perryman suspended three games after hit on Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase
- Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sánchez's engagement party was a star-studded affair in Beverly Hills
- No one will miss the National Zoo pandas more than Antwon Hines, their former mascot
- Song Jae-lim, Moon Embracing the Sun Actor, Dead at 39
- Stock market today: Asian shares get a lift from rally in US following encouraging inflation report
- Minibus taxi crashes head on with truck in Zimbabwe, leaving 22 dead
- Crumbling contender? Bills make drastic move with Ken Dorsey, but issues may prove insurmountable
Recommendation
-
Surprise bids revive hope for offshore wind in Gulf of Mexico after feds cancel lease sale
-
Lebanon releases man suspected of killing Irish UN peacekeeper on bail
-
Three arrested in a shooting at a Texas flea market that also killed a child and wounded 4 others
-
Japan’s economy sinks into contraction as spending, investment decline
-
US Open finalist Taylor Fritz talks League of Legends, why he hated tennis and how he copied Sampras
-
Corruption and Rights Abuses Are Flourishing in Lithium Mining Across Africa, a New Report Finds
-
Why Fig.1's Micellar Cleansing Wipes Are My New Skincare Holy Grail
-
Bangladesh sets Jan. 7 date for elections that the opposition has vowed to boycott