Climate Hawks Vote is calling for the Democratic Platform to call for a
national ban on fracking.
Preamble
Under President Obama’s leadership . . . We are getting more of our
energy from the sun and wind, and importing less oil from overseas.
Democrats believe that climate change poses a real and urgent threat to
our economy, our national security, and our children’s health and
futures, and that Americans deserve the jobs and security that come from
becoming the clean energy superpower of the 21st century.
2. Create Good-Paying Jobs
We will build 21st century energy and water systems, modernize our
schools, and continue to support the expansion of high-speed broadband
networks. We will protect communities from the impact of climate change
by investing in green and resilient infrastructure.
c. Clean Energy Jobs
We must help American workers and businesses compete for jobs and
investments in global clean energy, high-tech products, internet
technology products, and advanced manufacturing and vehicles. And we
must make American manufacturing more internationally competitive by
making it the greenest and most efficient in the world, including by
investing in industrial energy efficiency.
3. Fight for Economic Fairness and Against Inequality
d. Taxes
Democrats will claw back tax breaks for 22 companies that ship jobs
overseas, eliminate tax breaks for big oil and gas companies, and crack
23 down on inversions and other methods companies use to dodge their tax
responsibilities.
e. Trade
On the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), there are a diversity of views
in the party. Many Democrats are on record stating that the agreement
does not meet the standards set out in this platform; other Democrats
have expressed support for the agreement.
4. Bring Americans Together and Remove Barriers to Create Ladders of
Opportunity
k. Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations
We are committed to principles of environmental justice in Indian
Country and we recognize that nature in all its life forms has the right
to exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate its vital cycles. We call
for a climate change policy that protects tribal resources, protects
tribal health, and provides accountability through accessible,
culturally appropriate participation and strong enforcement. Our climate
change policy will cut carbon emission, address poverty, invest in
disadvantaged communities, and improve both air quality and public
health. We support the tribal nations to develop wind, solar and other
clean energy jobs.
6. Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy, and Secure
Environmental Justice
Climate change is an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time.
Fifteen of the hottest years on record have occurred this century. While
Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax”, 2016 is on track to
break global temperature records once more. Cities from Miami to
Baltimore are already threatened by rising seas. California and the West
have suffered years of brutal drought. Alaska has been scorched by
wildfire. New York has been battered by superstorms, and Texas swamped
by flash floods. The best science tells us that without ambitious,
immediate action to cut carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases
across our economy, all of these impacts will be far worse in the
future. We cannot leave our children a planet that has been profoundly
damaged.
Democrats share a deep commitment to tackling the climate challenge;
creating millions of good-paying middle class jobs; reducing greenhouse
gas emissions more than 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050; and
meeting the pledge President Obama put forward in the landmark Paris
Agreement, which aims to keep global temperature increases to “well
below” two degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit global
temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We believe America must be
running entirely on clean energy by mid-century. We will take bold steps
to slash carbon pollution and protect clean air at home, lead the fight
against climate change around the world, ensure no Americans are left
out or left behind as we accelerate the transition to a clean energy
economy, and be responsible stewards of our natural resources and our
public lands and waters. Democrats reject the notion that we have to
choose between protecting our planet and creating good-paying jobs. We
can and we will do both.
Clean Energy Economy
We are committed to getting 50 percent of our electricity from clean
energy sources within a decade, with half a billion solar panels
installed within four years and enough renewable energy to power every
home in the country. We will cut energy waste in American homes,
schools, hospitals, and offices; modernize our electric grid; and make
American manufacturing the cleanest and most efficient in the world,
creating new jobs and saving families and businesses money on their
energy bills. And we will transform American transportation by reducing
oil consumption through cleaner fuels, making new investments in public
transportation, expanding electrification of the vehicle fleet,
increasing the fuel efficiency of cars, boilers, ships, and trucks, and
by building bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure across our urban and
suburban areas. Democrats believe the tax code must reflect our
commitment to a clean energy future by eliminating special tax breaks
and subsidies for fossil fuel companies as well as defending and
extending tax incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy.
Democrats are committed to defending, implementing, and extending smart
pollution and efficiency standards, including the Clean Power Plan, fuel
economy standards for automobiles and heavy-duty vehicles, building
codes and appliance standards, and the reduction of methane emissions
from oil and gas production. We will work to expand access to
cost-saving renewable energy by low-income households, create
good-paying jobs in communities that have struggled with energy poverty,
and oppose efforts by utilities to limit consumer choice or slow clean
energy deployment. We support President Obama’s decision to reject the
Keystone XL pipeline. And we believe that the federal government should
lead by example, which is why we will take steps to power the government
with 100 percent clean electricity.
Environmental and Climate Justice
Democrats believe clean air and clean water are basic rights of all
Americans. Yet as we saw in Flint, Michigan, low-income communities and
communities of color are disproportionately home to environmental
justice “hot spots,” where air pollution, water pollution, and toxic
hazards like lead increase health and economic hardship. The impacts of
climate change will also disproportionately affect low-income and
minority communities, tribal nations, and Alaska Native villages—all of
which suffer the worst losses during extreme weather and have the fewest
resources to prepare. Simply put, this is environmental racism. The
fight against climate change must not leave any community out or
behind—including the coal communities who kept America’s lights on for
generations. Democrats will fight to make sure these workers and their
families get the benefits they have earned and the respect they deserve,
and we will make new investments in energy producing communities to help
create jobs and build a brighter and more resilient economic future.
All corporations owe it to their shareholders to fully analyze and
disclose the risks they face, including climate risk. Those who fail to
do so should be held accountable. Democrats also respectfully request
the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of corporate fraud
on the part of fossil fuel companies accused of misleading shareholders
and the public on the scientific reality of climate change.
Public Lands and Waters
Democrats believe in the conservation and collaborative stewardship of
our shared natural heritage: the public lands and waterways, the oceans,
Great Lakes, the Arctic, and all that makes America’s great outdoors
priceless. As a nation, we need policies and investments that will keep
America’s public lands public, strengthen protections for our natural
and cultural resources, increase access to parks and public lands for
all Americans, protect species and wildlife, and harness the immense
economic and social potential of our public lands and waters.
We oppose drilling in the Arctic and off the Atlantic coast, and believe
we need to reform fossil fuel leasing on public lands. We can phase down
extraction of fossil fuels from our public lands, starting with the most
polluting sources, while making our public lands and waters engines of
the clean energy economy and creating jobs across the country.
11. Global Threats
g. Climate Change
Climate change poses an urgent and severe threat to our national
security. According to the military, climate change is a threat
multiplier that is already contributing to new conflicts over resources,
catastrophic natural disasters, and the degradation of vital ecosystems
across the globe. While Donald Trump says that climate change is a
“hoax” created by and for the Chinese, Democrats recognize the danger
facing our country and our planet. We believe the United States must
lead in forging a robust global solution to the climate crisis. We will
not only meet the goals we set in Paris, we will seek to exceed them and
push other countries to do the same by slashing carbon pollution and
rapidly driving down emissions of potent greenhouse gases like
hydrofluorocarbons. We will support developing countries in their
efforts to mitigate carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases, deploy
more clean energy, and invest in climate resilience and adaptation. And
as a proud Arctic nation, we are against putting the region at risk
through drilling in the Arctic Ocean or the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. Instead, while protecting our strategic interests, we will seek
collaborative, science-based approaches to be good stewards of the
rapidly changing Arctic region.
Legislation
introduced today by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calls on the
President of the United States to declare a national climate emergency
and begin taking action in line with the goals of the 
The
youth climate activist group Sunrise Movement has published a 
Rep. Tulsi
Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has joined the growing chorus of opposition to a
controversial pipeline threatening the rights of Native Americans in
North Dakota. In a campaign email, Gabbard called for supporters to
Sanders and Clinton delegates speak in support of unity climate
amendment.
At last night’s Democratic town hall in
Columbus, Ohio, Hillary Clinton bluntly declared her intention to shut
down the American coal industry in order to fight global warming
pollution. Clinton went on to say that “we’ve got to move away from
coal, and all the other fossil fuels.” Her declaration of war on the
fossil-fuel industry was in the context of her
“Hillary
Clinton supports fracking. I do not.”