Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s plan to address climate change would “literally burn up” the earth, said rival candidate and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
“I don’t believe that her plan is very serious,” O’Malley said in an interview published Monday criticizing her campaign’s climate agenda. “I believe that it’s an incrementalist approach. And an incrementalist approach is not going to get us to where we need to go, nor is it going to claim this tremendous business opportunity for the United States.”
O’Malley told the publication Climate Wire that Clinton appears to want to spare large segments of business from federal action in focusing on solar power, rather than an economy-wide price on emissions as he and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are doing.
“I also believe that under her climate plan, the planet would literally burn up,” O’Malley said. “I mean, her plan is a voluntary solar panel plan for residential energy. That’s only about one-third of our energy consumption.”
Under Clinton’s plan to address greenhouse gas emissions, she establishes a goal to install a half-million solar panels by 2020, which would expand the number of solar panels by sevenfold. The goal meshes with her broad plan to have 33 percent of the nation’s electricity come from renewable energy in a decade.
O’Malley and Sanders are proposing a nationwide price on carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas emission from the burning of fossil fuels. Many scientists blame these emissions for raising the average global temperature of the Earth, resulting in more severe weather, famine, drought and ocean acidification. Clinton has not proposed placing a price on emissions.
O’Malley’s comments come as climate change activists are increasing their pressure on the Democratic and GOP fields to make climate change a core component of candidates’ campaigns.
A memo issued Monday by billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer’s group, NetGen Climate, says environmental groups have been disappointed by the lack of discussion on climate change in the debates.
The memo was issued ahead of town halls being held in Iowa and New Hampshire to coincide with the presidential primary votes next month in those states. CNN will host the first of the Democratic forums Monday night.
“It’s clear that voters want clean energy solutions and that the candidates are itching to talk about their plans,” the memo says. “Tonight, you should give Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders the opportunity to tell Iowa and New Hampshire voters why they have the best plan to lead America’s transition to a clean energy economy” and address global warming. “Iowa and New Hampshire deserve nothing less.”
