It’s Wednesday, September 4, and six presidential hopefuls have released climate plans ahead of CNN’s Climate Crisis Town Hall.
We’ve published a breakdown here of all you need to know about the new climate plans released by Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren. Here are a few highlights:
- Klobuchar promises to “pass sweeping legislation” within her first 100 days in office that would put the U.S. on the path to net-zero emissions by 2050
- Booker calls for the creation of a White House-coordinated Environmental Justice Fund, which would commit $50 billion a year to frontline communities
- Warren nods to the gone-but-not-forgotten climate candidate Jay Inslee with a 10-year action plan to achieve 100 percent clean energy
- Castro proposes legislation requiring all federal actions to be reviewed to see what sort of health and environmental impact they’d have on marginalized communities
- Buttigieg plans to build “Regional Resilience Hubs,” with $5 billion in annual grants to invest in locally driven pre-disaster mitigation efforts
- Harris would strengthen the EPA’s ability to legally enforce environmental policies and direct the Department of Justice to “address both cumulative and legacy pollution”
It’s a calculated move ahead of tonight’s Climate Crisis Town Hall on CNN, and Inslee, the granddaddy of detailed climate policy proposals, is pleased. “We have seen, I think, an arms race now, in a good way, of candidates competing to have the most effective plans and I think that’s a good thing,” he said on CNN this morning. “I’m thrilled we’re now seeing the Democratic Party standing up.”
The arms race will presumably continue during the seven-hour town hall, which is set to air from 5 p.m. to midnight Eastern. If you’re unable (or unwilling) to spend that much of your precious life watching politicians discuss how they plan to tackle the greatest existential threat our country is facing, we’ve got you. Grist staffers will be live-tweeting the whole thing, and we’ll have plenty of town hall coverage on the website as well.
Plan to watch with us? Make it an adventure with our CNN Climate Crisis Town Hall drinking game and Bingo board. Please remember to drink responsibly!
— Molly Enking and Paola Rosa-Aquino
The Smog
Need-to-know basis
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