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.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
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The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
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