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Tom Steyer on Energy & Oil
Democratic Presidential Challenger; CEO
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Cap-and-trade market-based approaches are ineffective
Q: Should the US put a price on carbon?STEYER: [We need] to put in rules about how fast utilities have to move to clean energy, how fast car companies have to stop creating gasoline-fired cars, how fast businesses have to rebuild buildings to make
them more energy-efficient. How effective is putting a price on carbon? And here's the answer. That isn't what really works. There has been a sense in this country that what works is somehow using the market. Let me say this. As somebody who was in the
private sector for 30 years, who believes in a dynamic, competitive, effective private sector, a price on carbon, which we've had in California through our cap-and-trade system has been very marginally effective. So do I think it's bad? No, I don't
think it's bad. I think it's marginally positive. But the way we're going to get out of this problem is not by trusting the market. We are going to get out of this problem by putting in rules and making corporations obey them.
Source: CNN N. H. Town Hall on eve of N. H. primary
, Feb 5, 2020
Supports Green New Deal & carbon-neutrality by 2045
Steyer backs the Green New Deal framework proposed by many Democrats and says that if Congress fails to enact it he would use the emergency powers of the presidency to implement climate policies.His plan calls for a carbon-neutral economy by 2045.
He would invest at least $2 trillion in federal spending over a decade into new infrastructure, transportation systems, and clean energy.
His plan would also create a civilian climate corps, which Steyer says would generate one million new jobs at a
cost of $250 billion.
He would dedicate $50 billion to helping workers in fossil fuel industries transition to new careers while ensuring their health care and other benefits.
He promises to rejoin the international Paris Agreement on climate, which
Trump withdrew from in 2017. He also pledges more aid to other countries to help them transition from fossil fuel use.
He is skeptical of nuclear power. He favors other technologies such as wind and solar power.
Source: Council on Foreign Relations on 2019 Democratic primary
, Dec 24, 2019
Nuclear isn't competitive: focus on wind & solar & batteries
The point about nuclear power is, it's not at the stage in the United States where it's competitive on price. It has a lot of risks to it in terms of disasters and we have no ability to store the toxins that come out of it and last a hundred thousand
years. We actually have the technology that we need. It's called wind and solar and batteries. So in fact, what we need to do, we can do. We've got to stop taking a look at this as something that we can't do because we can do this, and we can do it in a
way that rebuilds this country on an accelerated basis. Creates millions of union jobs and we come at it from the standpoint of environmental justice. This is our greatest opportunity to reinvent this country, to actually take on the biggest challenge
in history and succeed together. You want to pull the country together with all this partisanship? Let's take on the biggest challenge in history and succeed together as a nation. That's what pulls people together.
Source: Newshour/Politico/PBS December Democratic primary debate
, Dec 19, 2019
Climate crisis is opportunity for good middle-class jobs
Not only can we clean up the air and water in the black and brown communities where our pollution is concentrated.
This is the opportunity to create literally millions of middle-class union jobs well-paid across the United States of America. Our biggest crisis is our biggest opportunity.
Source: Newshour/Politico/PBS December Democratic primary debate
, Dec 19, 2019
I've spent a decade fighting oil companies & pipelines
STEYER: I'm the only person on this stage who will say that climate is the number-one priority. I would declare a state of emergency on day one. I've spent a decade fighting and beating oil companies, stopping pipelines, stopping fossil fuel plants,
ensuring clean energy across the country. I would make this the number-one priority of my foreign policy. We can do this and create millions of good-paying union jobs. We take on the biggest challenge in history and we do it together.
V.P. Joe BIDEN: I think it is the existential threat to humanity. While I was passing the first climate change bill, while I managed the $90 billion recovery plan, investing more money in infrastructure that related to clean energy than
any time we've ever done it, my friend was introducing more coal mines and produced more coal around the world, according to the press, than all of Great Britain produces.
Source: November Democratic primary debate in Atlanta
, Nov 20, 2019
On Day 1: declare climate crisis a national emergency
On Day 1, I will declare the climate crisis a national emergency. In addition to taking bold executive actions, I will challenge Congress to pass vital legislation to enact a Green New Deal and provide additional funding to protect the country against
climate and weather-related natural disasters. My Justice-Centered Climate Plan will eliminate fossil fuel pollution from all sectors to achieve a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero global warming pollution by no later than 2045.
I will ensure that protecting the climate is central to our diplomacy and trade policies. We can and will work with our partner nations to advance a global consensus. I will recommit to the Paris Climate Agreement and ratify the
Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol. I'll join the international Powering Past Coal Alliance, work to end global financing for coal-fired power plants and create a green screen for our foreign aid and investments.
Source: USA Today on 2019 Democratic primary
, Nov 7, 2019
End subsidies & tax breaks for fossil fuels
We must break the corporate stranglehold in Washington to solve our climate crisis. I would end all government giveaways to polluters including direct subsidies, tax breaks, lax and under-enforced environmental and worker protections,
and the subsidization of fossil fuel production on public lands. In addition to issuing no new fossil fuel leases on federal lands, I will end subsidies for ongoing fossil fuel operations.
Source: USA Today on 2019 Democratic primary
, Nov 7, 2019
We need to lead the world on climate, with allies abroad
The most important international problem that we're facing is climate. We can't solve the climate crisis in the United States by ourselves. It's an international crisis. I've been working on it for 10 years, taking on the corporations.
But we have to work with our allies and our frenemies around the world. So if you look at what Mr. Trump is doing, of course he's been bought by the oil and gas companies.
But any problem that we're going to do, but specifically climate, we're going to have to lead the world morally, we're going to have to lead it technologically, financially, and commercially.
This is the proof that this kind of America first, go it alone, trust nobody and be untrustworthy is the worst idea I've ever heard, and I would change it on day one in every single light.
Source: October Democratic CNN/NYTimes Primary debate
, Oct 15, 2019
Ban fracking
Tom Steyer on Fossil Fuels vs. Renewable Energy: Ban fracking. 11 CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Cory Booker; Peter Buttigieg; Bill de Blasio; Tulsi Gabbard; Kirsten Gillibrand; Jay Inslee; Wayne Messam; Bernard Sanders;
Eric Swalwell; Elizabeth Warren; Marianne Williamson.The rise of fracking has enabled energy companies to produce vast amounts of oil and gas from shale rock formations, but the process remains controversial because of the use of chemicals to crack th
Source: Politico "2020Dems on the Issues"
, Jul 17, 2019
Page last updated: Feb 25, 2020