Clinton sets climate, renewable power goals

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton late Sunday unveiled a set of goals to expand the use of renewable energy and solar power specifically as part of an effort to fight climate change.

As president, Clinton would try to reach a level of 500 million solar panels installed throughout the country, an eightfold increase over the current capacity, by the end of her first term in January 2021.

{mosads}She would also aim to expand renewable power sources to the level that they could provide enough electricity for every United States home by 2027, 10 years after she would take office.

Clinton pledged to outline more about her energy and climate platform in the coming months.

Those goals, along with a video posted late Sunday, should start to answer frustrated environmentalists, who have been calling for Clinton to take a stand on various green issues since long before she declared her candidacy for president in April.

In the video, Clinton called the goals “ambitious” and took an opportunity to criticize her Republican opponents.

“Future generations will look back and wonder ‘what were we thinking? How could we possibly be so irresponsible,’ ” Clinton says in the video.

“It’s hard to believe there are people running for president who still refuse to accept the settled science of climate change, who would rather remind us they’re not scientists than listen to those who are,” she says, referring indirectly to presidential hopefuls, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who have declared themselves not to be scientists.

“You don’t have to be a scientist to take on this urgent challenge that threatens us all,” Clinton says. “You just have to be willing to act.”

Clinton also promised Sunday to defend President Obama’s landmark carbon dioxide limits for power plants, along with other smaller actions.

Greens have started to rally around Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as the Democratic nominee, citing his leadership role on many of their priorities, such as opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, a project on which Clinton has still not taken a position.

In addition to Keystone, Sunday’s announcement doesn’t confront Clinton’s past positions on oil drilling or hydraulic fracturing, which have been among greens’ top gripes with her.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has also been in front of Clinton on climate, saying in June that he would push for all of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2050.

It’s unclear if Clinton’s goals would align with the demands of billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, who has pledged to donate only to candidates whose climate platforms would lead to half of the country’s electricity coming from renewables by 2030.