US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders yesterday unveiled a climate change plan that seeks to end the nation’s dependence on oil, coal and nuclear energy and could pressure party front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Vermont senator’s plan envisions 10 million new jobs in clean energy such as wind, solar and geothermal power. It would ban oil and gas lobbyists from working in the White House, end new fossil fuel lease sales on public lands and would cut carbon emissions faster in coming decades than the goals set in US President Barack Obama’s clean power plan.
“It’s time for a political revolution that takes on the fossil fuel billionaires, accelerates our transition to clean energy and finally puts people before the profits of polluters,” Sanders, who calls himself a democratic socialist, said in a statement.
He released the plan as leaders from nearly 190 nations in Paris hoped to reach an agreement on curbing climate change.
Sanders is Clinton’s main rival for the party’s presidential nomination for next year’s November election, and his positions have pressured the former US secretary of state to move to the left on environmental and other issues.
Clinton came out in opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline, after Sanders urged her to, and shortly before Obama axed the project last month, but on wider energy and climate issues she has taken a pragmatic approach, saying she would not oppose lifting the 1970s-era US ban on most oil exports, if it came with tradeoffs for clean energy and that it would not be responsible to abruptly halt oil, gas and coal extraction on public lands.
The Sanders plan would stop exports of US natural gas and all crude oil. He is also the cosponsor of a bill to ban future fossil fuel lease sales on public lands.
Sanders would ban mountaintop coal mining, a common practice in Appalachian states, and would invest in the area’s communities.
However, his climate plan does not specify how much money it would invest in the region.
Sanders is introducing legislation that would provide fossil fuel industry workers a benefits package, including job training and healthcare.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was