Hillary Clinton Suddenly Backs Off Her Strongest Environmental Proposal

[pinebox]

Last edited Sun May 8, 2016, 09:59 AM - Edit history (1)

Uh.........day after day it's something........it's always something.
Here's a link to Hillary's FEC filing which lists lobbyists from the dirty energy industry http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/827/201507159000221827/201507159000221827.pdf

The biggest criticism lobbed at President Obama from the environmental movement is that he speaks out of both sides of his mouth. While he has always accepted that climate change is real and needs to be addressed, his proposals have always been countered by some sort of gift to the fossil fuel industry — leasing new lands for offshore drilling, expanding coal leases, increasing domestic oil exploration, lifting the crude oil export ban, etc.

So last November, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that she would do away with the coal industry if elected president, environmentally conscious voters applauded her actions. Her proposal was broad, ambitious, and would have made a serious impact on the amount of carbon that the United States was producing while at the same time protecting both the economy and the environment.

As I wrote back in November about her proposal:

As part of her recently-released energy plan, Clinton would end incentives to the coal industry and would redirect that money to providing benefits to coal industry workers and helping to train them to move into new fields, most likely in the renewable energy industry. Clinton’s plan would spend as much as $30 billion to help ensure that the switch to renewables is as painless as possible for both workers and the economy.

Clinton’s plan could easily put an end to the “war on coal” talking point by showing that the Democratic Party understands the fears of American workers and that they will do whatever is necessary to make the transition as smooth as possible. It will also give communities a greater incentive to begin the shift to renewable energy.

The plan was absolutely brilliant because it addressed the concerns of everyone involved: It protected the livelihoods of the workers in the coal industry and virtually guaranteed them employment in a new field; it would end the practice that is responsible for much of the CO2 emissions in the U.S., following in the footsteps of other world leaders; and it would preserve the environment from the harmful substances pumped out as waste products from the burning of coal.

But as we’ve seen too often, once the cameras and the reporters moved on to other issues, Clinton began working on how best to retract that plan. It took her nearly six months, but she finally did it: (video of Hillary talking)

Video and more at link http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/05/04/hillary-clinton-suddenly-backs-her-strongest-environmental-proposal

[FreakinDJ]

1. HARD Right Turn

The minute she thinks she can get away with it she will embrace Right Leaning ideals

[hootinholler]

2. No shit

We can count on this sort of bullshit on every issue.

[Baobab]

37. Read this story and you may find part of the answer to why she dumped this

http://www.iatp.org/blog/201602/obama-undermines-climate-efforts-in-solar-trade-dispute

[pinebox]

3. Yup, Bush donors, Koch's....et al

[roguevalley]

17. she has to because she wants the bush donor's money. she's an empty shell of a person

Bernie all the way for me.

[Ferd Berfel]

22. exactly

we will see the republican agenda in spades, stamped with a 'D' and we will be told that it's liberal and progressive and pragmatic.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Huh. You don't say. Color me flabbergasted!

[tk2kewl]

43. i never believed it in the first place, so no surprise

[choie]

5. Yup - this is a perfect example

of why I can't stand her..

[Joob]

6. K & R NT

[Lizzie Poppet]

7. She really is simply loathesome.

Not a single committed core principle (except her own advancement). I will never, ever vote for that venal, lying corporate shill.

[Broward]

8. Anyone that is remotely paying attention should know she's a right-winger.

Her worshippers are complicit in the right-wing hellhole that she will nurture and support.

[Doctor_J]

9. Meh. No one believes a word she says anyway. One more lie won't have much effect

Doesn't change my mind

[oldandhappy]

10. haha of course she is not influenced by money

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Evolution has no direction. Left or right. Forward or backward. Progressive or regressive.

Kinda like political expediency.

[rhett o rick]

12. I don't think it really matters what she says. The Progressive Wing knows she lies for

the gain of her corp friends (which in turn make her very rich) and the Conservative Wing doesn't care what she says or stands for (blind allegiance).

[ladjf]

13. Hillary Clinton appears to be a pathological .... nt

[pangaia]

28. You know, I don't think so. I think she just is so ambitious, so greedy,

in such inner need to be president she will say anything..All of her ilk are like that, and most 'power people' are just that..
Hell, a local developer in my small town is exactly the same. He is 'building' a gargantuan clump of townhouses, shops, restaurants, etc.... not for the betterment of where I live, but for his own pocket.

It is not a matter of truth or lies to someone like that, It IS WHAT THEY DO. it is all a big sporting match, only with globally deadly results.

THAT is the biggest difference between 'all of them,' and Bernard Sanders. And in this particular instance, the biggest difference between Clinton and Sanders.

Clinton is in this for herself.
Bernie is in it for the betterment of all human beings.

[ladjf]

57. I totally agree with your post. nt

[whereisjustice]

51. Agree... Sniper fire showed that she'll stop at nothing

[EndElectoral]

14. As she becomes more the presumptive nominee the suckers who bought into her new found progressivism

will see more and more of this.

[XemaSab]

15. And they'll tell themselves that the shit tastes mighty fine

[pangaia]

29. Do you really think so? I sure don't see evidence of it yet.

But I hope you are right.

[amborin]

16. she lobbied World Bank for 2 giant coal plants in S Africa, donor lobbyists/cronies got construction

contracts....from that same desmog blog

[jillan]

18. And the MSM lets her get away with this. She did the same thing with guns.

Anti-gun in Conneticut; pro-gun in PA.

Media silent.

[passiveporcupine]

19. This is so typical of her,

changing what she says, depending on whom she is addressing. I don't know how so many people can actually believe in this "new progressive" Hillary. In LA she was going on about raising the minimum wage like California and helping to build jobs. She was never about raising the minimum wage until Berine was, and even then wouldn't match him, and now it's like it's her baby? Oh, come on.

I don't trust her to do anything that she has "adopted" in this race because of Bernie. Not one thing.

[BootinUp]

20. Another depicable lie just throw the shit hoping it sticks. nt

[pinebox]

23. It's a lie? I think you better take your blinders off

Tell us why you are supporting a candidate who back-peddles and voted for off shore drilling?

[BootinUp]

45. Its disputed in the article comments just fine, I won't waste time trying

to convince you what the truth is.

[JTFrog]

49. Yeah, the comments pretty much tore the whole thing apart. n/t

[pinebox]

56. Versus the link to the pdf in my OP

which shows her FEC filings with lobbyists from the dirty energy industry?
You go with that.

[catnhatnh]

21. 20 replies and no Hillary love?

How strange...

[pinebox]

24. They can't answer

[uponit7771]

58. Who wants to respond to consummate winger type lies

[nc4bo]

25. HRC: People actually believe it when I pander.................SYKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha. Ha. Ha! nt

[Kall]

26. "But she's against the TPP now"

[Meteor Man]

27. All of a sudden, right out of the blue

Hillary confirms everything her critics have been saying about her.

Shocking!

[nolawarlock]

30. It's all so strange.

Bernie supporters on this site cheered that West Virginia voters rejected Clinton due to her anti-coal statements. I can't keep track of what matters to Bernie or his supporters anymore.

[hobbit709]

31. Her $pon$or$ have $poken.

[icecreamfan]

32. Not surprised at all by Clinton. Sanders won't back off his fracking positions for the Dakotas

[silvershadow]

33. She can't even hide it until convention? Wow. nt

[krispos42]

34. Would Bernie have backed off like this?

Unlikely.


Congratulations, Clinton fans. You won, which means the top 0.1% won WHOEVER WINS IN NOVEMBER.

Yeah, she's competent and experienced, but it's the goals that she would competent and experienced FOR that a lot of people, including myself, knew would be more centrist or Republican-light.

It takes a Democrat working from inside the party to move us rightward because it mutes dissent from the Left. So enjoy your TPP and your Keystone XL and more boots on the ground and privatized Social Security.

[Vinca]

35. Tell the people what they want to hear. To hell with the planet.

[Warren DeMontague]

36. Screw you Bernie sanders, I'm PIVOTING anyway!

THANK GOD SHES BEING ALLOWED TO PIVOT!

[pmorlan1]

38. An Empty Suit

available for the highest bidder. That's what they were willing to pay.

[DookDook]

39. So what do we fear more Climate Change or the Supreme Court noms?

I think we can survive whoever the Republicans put up for the Supreme Court, we do have checks and balances. But what's about the planet? I think it'll survive, but not too sure about us humans. Not like we didn't see this coming, but we'll walk the plank with our eyes wide open.

[Vote2016]

40. If Hillary is no longer pretending to be a progressive, it must be the general election!

[kgnu_fan]

41. Shapeshifter monster...

[tex-wyo-dem]

42. Absolutely despicable, but expected from the weathervane.

Climate change is the most important, period, and she backpedals

[cui bono]

44. Liar.

[glinda]

46. The Planet is not waiting.....

[Rosa Luxemburg]

47. I guess the weather-vane is pointing towards West Virginia?

[me b zola]

55. I think that you have it right

She never thought that she would have to worry about WV voters, but here we are and she had to change her position mid-stream.

[Punkingal]

48. Is anyone actually surprised by this?

i would only be surprised if she didn't.

[emsimon33]

50. Not surprising given the donors ahe is wooing.

I am not sure that her heart was fully in there to begin with anyway.

[tirebiter]

52. Actually it's a left turn

that points up the age old conundrum of progressiveism. What is good for workers isn't always good for the environment. Rarely is, in fract. Before they changed the color code of politics red was left and the Democratic party has always had to find compromise between the Reds/Greens divide. Republicans very often were the party of choice for environmentalists. Democrats who put environmentalism up front lost union support and money.
There is really nothing left wing about environmentalism. French Socialists can't get enough nuclear energy. Francois Mitterand started testing nuclear bombs in the Pacific almost as soon as he was sworn in and began having conflicts with Greenpeace.

[B Calm]

53. Hillary soldiers Right Face 1 2 3 4 let that right foot hit the ground 1 2 3 4.

[elehhhhna]

54. Another check clears.