Sanders Releases ‘People before Polluters’ Climate Plan

[Patriot Guard Rider]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251895653

Sanders Releases ‘People before Polluters’ Climate Plan
December 7, 2015


BURLINGTON, Vt. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday detailed a plan to combat climate change, which environmentalists praised as the boldest put forward by a candidate running for president in 2016.

“It is beyond my comprehension that we can have a Republican Party and Republican candidates who are more concerned about getting huge campaign contributions from the Koch brothers and Exxon Mobil and the coal industry than they are about accepting what the overwhelming majority of scientists are saying,” Sanders said on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday. “Climate change is real, caused by human activity and already causing major and devastating problems in our country and around the world.” Name ONE.

Sanders’ plan will cut U.S. carbon pollution by 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels by putting a tax on carbon pollution and doubling the number of Americans working in clean energy jobs. Seems to me clean energy companies go bankrupt faster than a pork seller in a muslim neighborhood.

“The climate plan released by Senator Bernie Sanders today shows that he has broken free of the corporate and 1 percent money that has held back climate policy for far too long,” Greenpeace U.S. executive director Annie Leonard said. “Sanders has issued a powerful call for climate justice and decisive action to keep fossil fuels in the ground and support the communities who are suffering from climate and environmental impacts. Greenpeace applauds this ambitious platform and challenges other candidates who are serious about climate change to reject polluter money and raise the level of ambition in their own plans to meet the greatest challenge of our time.”   

“Bernie’s vision of a transformed America is powerful, because it recognizes both the ecological need and the human priority,” environmentalist and co-founder of 350.org Bill McKibben said. “There’s good useful work that we need millions of Americans to do – and he’ll make sure it’s done by the people left out of our economic booms of the past. Even more important than the plan is the credibility of the planner. Bernie has shown with years of committed action that he will not just talk about this stuff on the campaign trail, he will do it in the Oval Office.”

“For too long frontline communities of color have been an afterthought in our nation’s environmental policies,” Environmental Action policy director Anthony Rogers-Wright said. “This platform is an excellent step toward reversing that trend and making progress to save our planet, climate and communities. Senator Sanders once again demonstrates his understanding of how to work alongside communities of color and low-wealth communities fighting disproportionate pollution by companies like Exxon Mobil. The plan is not only rooted in common sense, but also in justice. For these reasons and more, Environmental Action enthusiastically endorses Bernie Sanders’ climate change platform.” Can't go without the social justice angle now, can he?

https://berniesanders.com/press-release/sanders-releases-people-before-polluters-climate-plan/


Read Bernie's Plan
Excerpt~
As president, Bernie will:

*Ban fossil fuels lobbyists from working in the White House. Massive lobbying and unlimited super PAC donations by the fossil fuel industry gives these profitable companies disproportionate influence on our elected leaders. This practice is business as usual in Washington and it is not acceptable. Heavy-handed lobbying causes climate change skepticism. It has no place in the executive office. I thought skepticism and debate was a good thing. Oh, wait, that only works when a Republican is president.

*End the huge subsidies that benefit fossil fuel companies. When fossil-fuel companies are racking up record profits, it is absurd to provide massive taxpayer subsidies to pad their already enormous earnings. After all, it is immoral that some in Congress advocate harsh cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while those same people vote to preserve billions in tax breaks for the most profitable corporations in America.

*Create a national environmental and climate justice plan that recognizes the heightened public health risks faced by low-income and minority communities. Low-income and minority neighborhoods will continue to be the hardest hit if we don’t act to stop climate change now. Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, flooding 80 percent of the city of New Orleans. Some areas of the city were submerged in as much as 10 feet of water, and 28 percent of residents had no way to leave the city. Almost 100,000 African American residents who left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina never returned. The reality of the impacts of the storm on the African American community in New Orleans exposed the broader trend that low-income and minority communities face the brunt of climate change impacts first and worst. This paragraph defies logic and explanation.

*Bring climate deniers to justice so we can aggressively tackle climate change. (Send them to the gulag for holding a different opinion.) It is an embarrassment that Republican politicians, with few exceptions, refuse to even recognize the reality of climate change, (because it hasn't been proven as anything other than a way to increase taxes and gain control of people) let alone are prepared to do anything about it. The reality is that the fossil fuel industry is to blame for much of the climate change skepticism in America. Bernie recently called for the Department of Justice to investigate Exxon Mobil, which may have not only known about the dangers of climate change, but has spent millions of dollars to spread doubt about the causes and impacts of burning fossil fuels. 

*Fight to overturn Citizens United. In a 5-4 decision in 2010 in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for corporations and the super wealthy to spend unlimited and undisclosed money to buy our elected officials. The Supreme Court essentially declared that corporations, including fossil fuel corporations, have the same rights as natural-born human beings. This decision has enabled billionaires and special interests to increasingly control the political campaign finance system, and amounts to legalized bribery.

Bernie’s Record:

Bernie introduced a constitutional amendment that prohibits for-profit corporations from making contributions or expenditures into political campaigns. In other words, Bernie’s amendment reaffirms what’s already in the Constitution: the right to vote belongs to people, and not corporate entities whose money is drowning out the rest of us.

Back legislation to publicly finance elections. Bernie wants to move toward public funding of elections to promote a more even playing field where anyone can run for office without having to beg for money from the wealthy and the powerful. Public funding of elections increases voter participation, helps lower the influence of outside money and lowers the amount of time politicians spend fundraising, allowing them to implement solutions, as they were elected to do. He envisions a future of inclusivity that would restore our American democracy by ensuring each citizen has equal power in determining the future leaders of our nation.

Accelerate a Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels

Scientists warn us if we continue burning fossil fuels, we will experience cataclysmic change, in terms of more disease, more hunger, more drought, more famine, rising sea levels, more floods, more ocean acidification, more extreme weather disturbances and more human suffering. That means we must leave the vast majority of global reserves of coal, natural gas and oil in the ground. OMG, we're all gonna die (which I might note, we're all going to do anyway).

[miskie]

Blah-blah-blah...

Sorry Bernouts. Sanders isn't going to be your nominee. - So, anything he says has no meaning.

[SVPete]

Bernie put out a contract on the American economy?

I wonder if the thugs-in-chief at the unions will tell members how The Bern will Bern their jobs to ashes.

[tanstaafl]

Blah-blah-blah...

Sorry Bernouts. Sanders isn't going to be your nominee. - So, anything he says has no meaning.

And some of what he mumbled is exactly what Owebama was screaming about,back in '08, then promptly forgot when he got elected. Namely, lobbyists in the White Hut.

[Mr Mannn]

Compare Bernie to Hillary.

Bernie can release specific plans, telling us exactly what he will do.
Hillary will do no such thing, saying only vague platitudes, popular generalities,  with no specifics.

As much as a I disagree with Bernie the socialist, I respect him. Bernie tells the trust as he sees it--even if it will cost him votes. Honesty is a rare trait with politicians.

Hillary is a lying b!tch. No one can trust a thing she says.

My conclusion: Bernie is a man who wants to lead, he just doesn't have a party to back him up.
Hillary wants to RULE, not lead. She aims to be a queen.
Bernie may be misguided, but all in all, he is a nice guy.
Hillary is evil to the core.

[jb2u11]

Compare Bernie to Hillary.

Bernie can release specific plans, telling us exactly what he will do.
Hillary will do no such thing, saying only vague platitudes, popular generalities,  with no specifics.

As much as a I disagree with Bernie the socialist, I respect him. Bernie tells the trust as he sees it--even if it will cost him votes. Honesty is a rare trait with politicians.

Hillary is a lying b!tch. No one can trust a thing she says.

My conclusion: Bernie is a man who wants to lead, he just doesn't have a party to back him up.
Hillary wants to RULE, not lead. She aims to be a queen.
Bernie may be misguided, but all in all, he is a nice guy.
Hillary is evil to the core.

I agree, Bernie is a pretty straight shooter as far as politicians go.................too bad he's a fricken socialist

[98ZJUSMC]

Blah-blah-blah...

That's all I got out of it.  Pleasant sounding rhetoric, not a ..... "plan".  Plans are based in realityland, (D)Ummies, not rhetoric.   

Here, idiots.  Listen to Glenn from the Mailroom:
https://youtu.be/WXMVM_mrjNc

Bernie can release specific plans, telling us exactly what he will do.

Ummmm,  yeah, well... specific plans based on destructive nonsense are no better than lies.

Hillary is evil to the core.

Absolutely.  No discussion.

[Mr Mannn]

I agree, Bernie is a pretty straight shooter as far as politicians go.................too bad he's a fricken socialist

and a total LOON. There is no way he could win an election.
I think 50% of his support is from anything but Hillary people.

[Big Dog]

Sander Claws' climate plan:

To save Mother Earth, all of you must live in the dark and cold, and die young from preventable diseases.

[Carl]

Capital is mobile.

Just remember that DUmbfuks.

[USA4ME]

I'm not so sure the bern actually believes the junk he spews. At least I'd like to believe someone's not that stupid, but he very well could be. I think he's tapped into the whacko market and he likes the attention. There can be a great deal of money in tapping into the gullible of the world (just ask Michael Moore), though that doesn't seem to be his motive. Sort of reminds me of the misfits in high school who could always find friends among the pot smokers.

.

[98ZJUSMC]

and a total LOON. There is no way he could win an election.
I think 50% of his support is from anything but Hillary people.

At least.  ...and their next choice is often, Trump.

Figure that one out.      

Sort of reminds me of the misfits in high school who could always find friends among the pot smokers.

Yes.  Good analogy.

[delilahmused]

It's so much easier to fight imaginary dragons than real terrorists.

Cindie

[obumazombie]

It's so much easier to fight imaginary dragons than real terrorists.

Cindie

The man of La Mancha is their patron saint.