Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday was declared by the Associated Press the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate after taking 36 of the available 56 delegates up for grabs in Sunday’s Puerto Rico primary.
Clinton had the 2,383 necessary delegates even before key primaries Tuesday in California, New Jersey, and several other states.
Clinton’s position on the ticket sets up a race against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. It is no secret that the two fundamentally disagree on nearly all counts, including climate change. Clinton, a vocal supporter of President Barack Obama’s climate change agenda, notes at any opportunity that Trump has stated publicly in the past that he believes climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.
When it comes to climate and energy policy, Clinton has indicated her intention to build upon the work that Obama has achieved during his presidency. She applauded the December adoption of the international Paris climate change agreement, while Trump has stated the intention to “cancel” the accord.
Clinton’s climate plan calls for the installation of more than half a billion solar panels throughout the nation by 2020 and an increase in renewables to 33 percent of total national energy generation by 2027.
According to the Clinton climate plan, under current policy, renewable energy generation in 2027 will account for 16 percent of total national generation. The sum would rise to 25 percent of total generation with the implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, carbon emission standards for existing coal-fired power plants. Clinton then says through her climate agenda another 8 percent of total energy generation would come from renewables for a total of 33 percent renewable energy generation.
Trump’s energy plan is firmly rooted in an intention to remove climate change from the energy debate. The billionaire would create an “America first” energy policy. He would declare American energy dominance a strategic economic and foreign policy goal for the nation and would “scrap” any regulation deemed “outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers or contrary to the national interests.”
“Scrapping” regulations once they have become law is not an easy task. To do so requires that an entirely new rulemaking process be completed. Among the regulations in Trump’s crosshairs are the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas rules, which Clinton has promised to build upon, and the Waters of the United States rule. Trump has also said he would abolish Obama’s Climate Action Plan.
Trump would further lift moratoriums on energy production in federal areas, including drilling moratoriums in Alaska and presumably the current moratorium on new coal leasing.
Clinton’s opponent in the race for the Democratic Party nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has not accepted the AP’s conclusion, noting that many of Clinton’s delegates are “superdelegates” who may have indicated which way they would vote at the July party convention in Philadelphia, but are not locked in until that time.
“It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer,” Sanders said in a statement. “Secretary Clinton does not have and will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination. She will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25 and who can change their minds between now and then.”
