The candidates seem to have a ‘plan’ for everything. What might their climate change action plan include? Check out our seven benchmarks for a Presidential Leadership Agenda on climate change:
1. Legislation for economy-wide emissions reductions.
2. Aggressive R&D for low-carbon technology.
3. Federal planning for climate change impacts and response.
4. Picking the right team to carry the initiative.
5. Cooperation with international partners.
6. Reallocation of budget priorities.
7. Enable/encourage citizens to take conservation into their own hands.
Representative Dennis Kucinich
How do Kucinich's climate change quotes relate to our seven benchmarks?
1. Legislation for economy-wide emissions reductions:
"We need to have a policy change that moves us towards solar and wind, green energy, and away from any energy that’s based on hydrocarbons – so that means transitioning away from oil and coal."Listen to the audio
–August 15, Concord
2. Aggressive R&D for low-carbon energy technology:
"Taking the WGA into NASA, let me tell you what that then does. It puts billions of dollars every year into developing new technologies. We need to look at encouraging the entire scientific community in America to dedicate itself to environmental solutions that do not rely of carbon based technolgies."Listen to the audio
–October 13, Manchester
3. Federal planning for climate change impacts and response:
"We need to make the federal government’s purpose itself and each and every department an exemplification of green principals. The Department of Agriculture would be about sustainability."Listen to the audio
–October 13, Manchester
4. Picking the right team to carry the initiative:
"The Department of Agriculture will be about massive subsidies into solar and wind and all of the sustainable technologies that will move us to where we want to be."Listen to the audio
–October 13, Manchester
5. Cooperation with international partners:
"Every trade agreement that you write has to have protection of the air, protection of the water, and protection of the land."Listen to the audio
–October 13, Manchester
6. Reallocation of budget priorities:
"I would stop any subsidies for coal and nuclear and oil. That ends!"Listen to the audio
–October 13, Manchester
7. Enable/encourage citizens to take efficiency and conservation into their own hands:
"So this is a moment for a call to conscience, a call to conserve, a call to community, a call to support the life of the planet and that is why I have offered the idea of a Works Green Administration. A WGA where we would reorganize the purpose of our country to make it all about sustainability."Listen to the audio
–October 13, Manchester
Other Global Warming Comments from New Hampshire
- Renewable Energy
“We can speak about global warming, but you can not decouple global warming from global warring. The same type of mindset of an extractive and exploitative economy that led to global warming, leads to global warring.”Listen to the audio
–October 13, Manchester
"I want to create a totally different transition, a green economy, create millions of new jobs doing it and then really move towards peace because peace and sustainability are connected, we all understand that and when we understand that we know that my national security doctrine of strength from peace also is a stand for sustainability and also is a stand for the issues that cause our global climate to be degraded." Listen to the audio
–August 15, Concord
"When we’re talking about coal, there’s a lot a miners who come with that coal. What we need to do, the United States gov’t has had a certain policy for paying aggregate, not to grow products – why don’t we help the miners and make sure that they’re going to get a payment even if they’re not mining coal so we protect the environment, the families are protected and then we phase out that industry. So I think that we can have a way of transitioning, but we have to do that. What’s happening now though, the government has a policy of drilling for oil, mining for coal, trying to keep nuclear going and not investing in wind and solar." Listen to the audio
–August 15, Concord
Nothing in Promises, Commitments & Priorities: Seeking a Presidential Leadership Agenda is meant to imply an endorsement of any candidate or political party.
