Howie Hawkins on Energy & Oil Green Party Challenger for President

End nuclear power, offshore drilling, & fracking

• End the use of nuclear power. Nuclear energy is massively polluting, dangerous, financially risky, expensive and slow to implement.
• Our money is better spent on wind, solar, geothermal, conservation and small-scale hydroelectric.
• The Green Party stands for the enactment of bans on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil on the local, state and federal level and stands for bans on the disposal of wastes created by the fracking industry.
• Protect 40% of the world's oceans as marine preserves, especially near shore coastal habitats.
• Ban offshore oil drilling.
• Ban the siting of liquefied natural gas facilities off the U.S. coast.
• Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic waste.
• Support the ban on international commercial whaling.
• Ban drift-net fishing and long-line fishing and phase out factory trawling.
• Support the Law of the Sea Treaty that establishes the global sharing of ocean resources.

Free mass transit; reduce energy use 50%

Adopt energy efficiency standards that reduce energy demand economy-wide by 50% over the next 20--30 years. The U.S. can make massive reductions in its energy use through a combination of conservation and efficiency measures. We don't actually need any additional power. Instead, we can and should reduce our consumption of power. Adopt a national zero waste policy. The less we consume and throw away, the less we will need to produce and replace.

100% Clean Energy by 2030, rebuild manufacturing

Socialize Big Oil; reinvest in renewables

100% clean energy means electrified transportation, manufacturing, and heat pumps for buildings. A rapid transition to clean power requires public power for lower costs and effective planning without obstruction by incumbent generators and distributors.

Green New Deal can close racial income gap

Claims to be the "original Green New Dealer"

I'm the original Green New Dealer, since 2010

Hawkins says he was the first American political candidate to run on the promise of a Green New Deal. During his run for NY governor in 2010, he proposed a plan to fight climate change "with the same urgency, speed, and commitment of resources that our country demonstrated in converting to war production for the mobilization for World War II." To reduce carbon emissions to net zero over ten years, Hawkins's plan would "devote resources to and create jobs in renewable energy, public transit and organic agriculture." And those resources would come from progressive tax reform.

Hawkins thinks the Green New Deal is being unfairly co-opted. But he's happy that it's become mainstream, because "it's our opportunity to explain how the Democratic establishment chopped away the pieces," he said.

Solar-Based Renewable Energy

More mass transportation, and fuel cell cars