Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand released her climate plan Thursday, which includes “immediate action to enact the Green New Deal.”
“Saving our planet should be this generation’s moonshot,” the New York senator said in her plan, which included a lot of “I will” but not a lot of “how.”
If she secures the presidency, Gillibrand said she would:
- Spend $10 trillion in public and private money to achieve net-zero carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions within a decade.
- Implement the progressive New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.
- Make federal infrastructure projects “buy clean” to cut “reliance on carbon-intensive products.”
- Charge a fossil fuel production excise tax to feed into a Climate Change Mitigation Trust Fund.
United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand uses binoculars to look at youths incarcerated at a dentition facility near Miami in Homestead, Florida, U.S., June 28, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Gillibrand’s plan also focused on the U.S.’s economic competition with China, the country responsible for the most CO2 emissions compared to the rest of the world. She compared her plan to the original moonshot and challenged China to “a 21st-century clean energy ‘space race,’ where we decarbonize our economies through innovation and investment at a scale that rises to meet the global challenge we face.”
At the same time, Gillibrand said she would make sure clean tech is made by Americans and “not by China or another competitor” with a cross-government initiative requiring products like solar cells to be made in the U.S. (RELATED: Joe Biden Rolls Out Health Plan In Contrast To Medicare For All Democrats)
Gillibrand’s climate plan launch comes as many other Democratic candidates try to make waves with their big proposals. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg introduced a national service plan while former Vice President Joe Biden published a health care plan that stands in stark contrast to Medicare for all.
A screenshot from Gillibrand’s climate plan posted on Medium. Screenshot
Gillibrand touted her support for the Green New Deal in her plan, even though one of its architects admitted it was designed not to fight climate change, but to fundamentally change the U.S. economy. The New York Democrat described the deal as “an ambitious framework to save our planet by investing in infrastructure, creating a green jobs economy, and protecting clean air and water” in her plan.
Gillibrand currently polls at 0.4 percent according to the RealClear Politics poll average.
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