Majority of voters favor gasoline-car phaseout. But all-electric goal faces tough opposition.
Democrats and Republicans have a long-term climate plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet in the presidential election, two candidates have proposed dismantling those efforts, and a third is trying to do so.
The candidates are Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont, and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state under President Barack Obama, as well as the current Democratic presidential nominee. Each is running on a plan to phase down domestic greenhouse gas emissions to 80 or 85 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, well below the 450 parts per million that would cause climate havoc.
Clinton has said she would raise corporate taxes and impose a wealth tax on the super wealthy. Sanders has called for deep cuts to income taxes, a tax on financial transactions and higher gas taxes. Neither has proposed a replacement for the current tax system.
This week, though, both have proposed changing the system. Both have said they would like to see oil companies pay a lower tax. Clinton has suggested the tax would be a carbon fee on carbon emissions, although Sanders has not specified such revenue that would go to low-income Americans, among other uses.
A few days before the election, Clinton did not say whether she would support Sanders’ proposal, while suggesting the candidate who won’t support the idea should drop out.
Sanders has not yet endorsed Clinton and has said he is trying to make sure that both candidates are on the same page. In a letter this week to Clinton, Sanders said, “I am committed to strengthening and protecting this middle class, and to fighting the wealthy and large corporations as well as the billionaires who fund their campaigns. I believe the best path forward would be to address the income and wealth disparity between the middle class and the top one-tenth of 1 percent of this country’s wealthiest individuals.”
In response to Clinton’s pledge to eliminate taxes that affect “the rich, she responded, “As someone who has spent the past three decades on the campaign trail, traveling and working with working families across our country, I can tell you one thing we need to do to protect American workers, middle-class families, seniors, and students and make our economy