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 One of the biggest Democratic donors, Steyer could help Clinton
boost her standing among environmentalist activists who are a key
constituency within the Democratic party. Clinton is locked in tight
races with Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire, which both have early
nominating contests.
"Our real goal has been not to support any one candidate, but to
emphasize and highlight the issue (of climate change) so that the
candidates can lay out their solutions and so the American people
can have a chance to make a decision," Steyer said in a telephone
interview on Tuesday.
After the Democratic party picks its presidential nominee, that will
change.
"We have always come out and supported the climate champion," Steyer
said. "The idea that for some reason we wouldn’t do that, I’d have
to understand why in hell we didn’t. Because that has been our
practice always."
Steyer, 58, made his fortune through investments, some in fossil
fuel energy, at Farallon Capital Management, the San Francisco-based
hedge fund he founded in 1986.
He stepped down as co-managing partner of Farallon in 2012 to devote
himself to full-time activism because, as he later wrote, he "no
longer felt comfortable being at a firm that was invested in every
single sector of the global economy, including tar sands and oil."
 He spent heavily in the 2014 congressional elections to back
candidates who could help further his anti-fossil fuel agenda. He
paid out over $70 million, more than any other single donor in both
parties. Of the seven candidates he supported, three won.
Steyer said the 2016 election was critical to consolidating gains
for the climate movement in 2015 - a year in which the Obama
administration signed onto a global climate pact, blocked the
Keystone XL oil sands pipeline from Canada, and ushered in new curbs
on oil drilling and air pollution.
"If you look at the Republicans, there are a whole bunch of serious
Republican candidates who are diametrically opposed to everything
the president has spoken about in terms of progressive energy and
climate policies. So when you think about what is at stake: almost
everything," he said.
CLINTON PLAN NEEDS MORE WORK
Steyer said Clinton's position on energy and climate - which calls
for increased use of solar and wind power, lower oil use, and a
revamping of the aging U.S. oil and gas pipeline network - was good
but needed some work.
"I don’t think she’s fully fleshed out everything she has to say
about energy and climate," Steyer said. "I think that as the
campaign goes on I would imagine she will put out more detailed
plans of exactly what she thinks. I don't find what she's said
inadequate, but I don't think it's complete yet."
Sanders has a climate agenda that on its face appears to resonate
more closely with Steyer's - an aggressive move away from fossil
fuels, including a ban on hydraulic fracturing. But he has also
railed against billionaire influence in politics and has pledged not
to accept cash from big donors.
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Steyer said Sanders' views on big money "certainly wouldn’t
disqualify him for us, I can tell you that."
"What Bernie Sanders is talking about, which is trying to get back
to a more perfect democracy, is something that we support too. We
just think that the idea of ... wishing the rules were different and
then pretending they were, is something which, unfortunately,
probably would be disastrous from the standpoint of energy and
climate," Steyer said.
YOUNG VOTERS
Steyer says he has learned the lessons of the 2014 campaign, when he
spent a lot of money in return for relatively little.
"When you look at 2014, it was a question of turnout. Americans
turned out, and specifically Democrats, turned out in the lowest
level they’ve done for 70 years. You’d have to go back to 1942 to
see turnout that low. And in young people, the numbers are
incredibly low. So the question is, how are we going to motivate
those voters to show up?" he said.
His environmental organization NextGen Climate is running
information campaigns on college campuses in Iowa and New Hampshire
and elsewhere in an effort to raise awareness about climate change
and the positions of all the presidential candidates.
Steyer hopes the effort will reach people of 35 and under, a group
he says represents about a third of the country’s electorate and who
generally agree that climate change is a problem, but who often pass
up the chance to vote.
"We’ve been pushing really hard to get them involved to make them
aware of what’s at stake," he said.
Steyer said he was not sure yet how much money the 2016 effort would
cost, but acknowledged the project would likely be larger than the
one NextGen undertook in 2014.
"We never have a budget. We know this stuff changes. What we do will
depend on what happens."
(Reporting By Ross Colvin)
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