Kirsten Gillibrand unveils $10T plan to combat climate change
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand released a $10 trillion proposal to fight climate change over the next decade, aiming to bring the U.S. to net-zero carbon and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
In her plan rolled out in a Medium post on Thursday, Gillibrand promised to immediately enact the Green New Deal by relying on both public and private funds, including a $52 per metric ton carbon tax that she estimated could generate $200 billion annually.
“American taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing an industry built on greed that’s destroying communities’ health and the planet,” she wrote in the post. “So I will work with Congress to end federal subsidies, including tax subsidies, for the fossil fuel industry.”
The New York senator also said she would reduce the federal government’s carbon footprint by repairing infrastructure, like building out electric-vehicle charging or prioritizing transportation funding for high-speed rails, as well as making it more resilient to the effects of climate change, particularly in rural communities.
Those projects, she said, would not rely on carbon-intensive products, thanks to a federal “buy clean” standard she would propose. In fact, all new major energy infrastructure projects would be required to undergo a climate analysis to ensure they’re consistent with the net-zero carbon and other greenhouse gas emission goals.
Gillibrand also wants to boost the green jobs sector with prevailing wages and union neutrality protections.
“But reducing the consumption of fossil fuels isn’t enough,” she said. “We have to phase out production — starting now.”
That includes an executive order to end all new fossil fuel leases on public lands and a stop to fracking on public lands. Gillibrand also called for the closure of the so-called Halliburton Loophole, which exempts fracking from the Safe Drinking Act.
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Gillibrand joins a handful of other 2020 presidential hopefuls in calling for fast action to combat climate change, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (who’s pitched his whole campaign around climate change) and her Senate colleagues, Vermont independent Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren.