Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said President Obama’s climate plan will pair nicely with her own clean energy goals if elected president, but it will take “defending” as Republicans push back against the president’s climate agenda.
“The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan is a significant step forward in meeting the urgent threat of climate change,” Clinton said. “It sets a smart federal standard that gives states the flexibility to choose how to reduce carbon pollution most effectively.”
Clinton made the comments Sunday as Republican presidential candidates criticized the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s new emission rules for existing power plants, whose details were unveiled ahead of their formal release on Monday.
The plan will place states on the hook for lowering greenhouse gas emissions over the next 15 years.
The final rule will require a 32 percent reduction in emissions by 2030, compared with the earlier proposed target of 30 percent, the administration told reporters Sunday. But the Envrionmental Protection Agency will extend the time to begin complying with the rules from 2020 to 2022. Critics are calling that change mere “window dressing.”
Clinton said she supported the rule because its would drive investment in clean energy technology, which in turn would help advance her solar energy agenda that she announced last week.
Nevertheless, more will be required to achieve the carbon reductions necessary to meet the growing threat of global warming, she said. Most climate scientists blame greenhouse gasses including carbon dioxide for driving manmade climate change.
“Of course, the Clean Power Plan standards set the floor, not the ceiling. We can and must go further,” she said. “As president, I will launch a Clean Energy Challenge to give states, cities and rural communities that are ready to lead the tools and resources to succeed.”
Combining the Clean Power Plan with her Clean Energy Challenge, “we’ll achieve two big goals:” install half-a-billion solar panels by the end of her first term, and ensuring that each U.S. home is powered by renewable energy 10 years after she has taken office.
Both plans will be met by Republican backlash, Clinton warned, criticizing the GOP’s reluctance to address the growing concerns of climate change.
“It will need defending,” she said. “Because Republican doubters and defeatists, including every Republican candidate for president, won’t offer any credible solution.”
GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio said Sunday that many of the plans being floated to fight climate change would hurt the economy.
“Here’s the bottom line: A lot of what these people are advocating for would hurt our economy badly,” Rubio said. “For example, tomorrow there will be a new carbon rule issued by the EPA, and here’s the practical impact of that new carbon rule: It will make the cost of electricity higher for millions of Americans.”
He said that some billionaires may not have problems with that, “[b]ut if you’re a single mom in Tampa, Florida, and your electric bill goes up by $30 a month, that is catastrophic.”
Jeb Bush, who is also running to be the GOP’s nominee, also criticized the Clean Power Plan. He also took aim at its economic effects.
“President Obama’s carbon rule is irresponsible and overreaching. The rule runs over state governments, will throw countless people out of work, and increases everyone’s energy prices,” the former Florida governor said.
Bush had made a similar statement in an interview with Bloomberg BNA earlier in the week.
