Warren challenges 2020 Democrats to embrace 10-year clean energy
transition
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[September 04, 2019]
By Amanda Becker and Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator
Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday challenged her rivals for the 2020
Democratic presidential nomination to commit to transition the United
States fully to clean energy over the next decade for electricity,
vehicles and buildings.
Warren, one of 20 Democrats vying to take on President Donald Trump in
November 2020, issued the challenge in a comprehensive clean energy plan
released ahead of a 7-hour CNN Town Hall on Wednesday at which 10
candidates will discuss how they would tackle climate change.
Her climate strategy weaves together several policies she has sprinkled
into other proposals she has rolled out, from agriculture to tribal
lands to manufacturing. It also incorporates a clean energy plan she
adopted from Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who made climate change the
centerpiece of his White House bid before dropping out of the race late
last month.
Inslee's clean energy strategy - which had been billed as the gold
standard by environmental advocates - set a 10-year plan to achieve 100%
clean energy by slashing carbon emissions from U.S. electricity
generation, vehicles and buildings.
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"While his presidential campaign may be over, his ideas should remain at
the center of the agenda," Warren wrote in a post for the website
Medium.
"Today I'm embracing that goal by committing to adopt and build on
Governor Inslee's 10-year action plan to achieve 100% clean energy...
and I'm challenging every other candidate for President to do the same,"
she wrote.
All of Warren's Democratic rivals who will participate in the climate
change town hall have at least committed to achieving net-zero
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But each advocates different steps to
get there.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, calls for the electricity
and transportation sectors to be fueled by 100% percent renewable energy
by 2030. Former Vice President Joe Biden's climate plan calls for
500,000 more electric vehicle charging stations nationwide by the end of
2030.
Warren's proposal would commit $3 trillion over 10 years, in part paid
for by reversing Republican tax cuts passed in 2017 that largely benefit
businesses and the wealthy. It aims to bolster efforts to reach 100%
zero-carbon pollution for all new buildings by 2028, 100% zero emissions
for most new vehicles by 2030 and 100% zero emissions in electricity
generation by 2035.
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![](../images/090419pics/news_w43.jpg)
Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks at a campaign house party in Hampton
Falls, New Hampshire, U.S., September 2, 2019. REUTERS/Brian
Snyder/File Photo
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Jamal Reed, a spokesman for Inslee, said the governor's staff had
advised Warren's campaign and others on climate issues and Inslee is
"particularly impressed the Senator Warren is adopting his
aggressive targets."
Warren, a Massachusetts senator, noted that her push to transition
to clean energy would require retrofitting buildings, re-engineering
the electrical grid and adapting manufacturing.
"For too long, there has been a tension between transitioning to a
green economy and creating good, middle class, union jobs," she
wrote.
Warren said her administration would not ask coal and other workers
to make the "impossible choice" between jobs with good wages and
benefits and "green economy" jobs that pay less, with fewer
benefits. The jobs created by her climate plan would be unionized,
and training, early retirement benefits and other protections would
be provided to current coal workers.
She would also overhaul the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
which regulates the U.S. electrical grid, replacing it with a
Federal Renewable Energy Commission charged with reducing greenhouse
gas emissions.
Also on Tuesday, presidential candidate Julian Castro, a former
housing chief for President Barack Obama, released a $10 trillion
climate plan to transition to clean energy and create 10 million
jobs. Castro, among the candidates participating in Wednesday's town
hall, also seeks to guarantee health care and pensions for coal
miners.
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(Reporting by Amanda Becker and Valerie Volcovici; additional
reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Dan Grebler and Sonya
Hepinstall)
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