Clinton Plan Scores Big on Gas Mileage, Disappoints on Coal
by Stacy Feldman - Nov 6th, 2007
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Kudos to Hillary Clinton for taking one of the hardest stances the nation’s ever seen on increasing the auto efficiency of America’s fleet in her new energy and climate plan.
She calls for an increase in fuel economy standards to 40 mpg by 2020 and 55 mpg by 2030. That’s a 100 percent boost from the current 27.5 mpg, which hasn’t budged in over 20 years. No small potatoes on this sticky issue. Just compare it with the strictest measure that's wending its way through Congress right now: 35 mpg by 2020.
Her ambitious vision on auto efficiency makes her lackluster position on ending dirty coal that much harder to swallow. She pushes to “accelerate” carbon sequestration technology. To do so, she'll pump immediate funding into building ten large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) plants. The problem, as David Sassoon explains, is that even hard-nosed, U.S. government research is revealing that CCS technology is just a smokescreen for business-as-usual.
Still, she's made some bold calls in the green job corps arena that deserve praise. She’s calling for five million new jobs from clean energy over the next ten years.
And there's good news in her proposed cap-and-trade scheme too, which aims for an 80 percent reduction in C02 emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. It would auction off (not give away for free) 100 percent of greenhouse gas allowances. The proceeds would fund tax benefits for middle class families and energy industries, and incentives for energy efficiency and renewable technologies.
You may recall that the US Senate’s prized bi-partisan climate legislation, the Lieberman-Warner bill, gives away a chunk of the allowances (about 75 percent) for free initially, and auctions off more and more over time. Some green groups have given the bill flack for its free giveaways. But Clinton, unlike Edwards who opposed it, hasn’t taken a stance on Lieberman-Warner.
Could get interesting. This bill has momentum, and bets are on that Clinton, in her hat as US Senator, will have to cast a yay or nay vote one of these days, essentially for or against her own plan.
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