Senators Hillary Clinton (NY) and Bernie Sanders (VT) thanked Apollo Summiteers for coming to Capitol Hill and pressing their representatives to create good jobs by investing in renewable energy.
At a lunchtime event in the Senate, Sen. Sanders said of the labor-environmental partnership at the heart of the Apollo Alliance, “This is a marriage made in heaven. This is a marriage that will move heaven and earth.” And Sen. Clinton noted it’s a “tremendous asset” to bring together “those who care about the environment and those who care about the economy.”
Both echoed the theme of the entire summit, as Sen. Sanders proclaimed “to be pro-environment is to be pro-jobs,” while Sen. Clinton talked of job creation efforts in upstate New York involving biofuels, clean coal and green buildings.
Sen. Sanders touted his climate change legislation, slashing greenhouse gas emissions 80% (from 1990 levels) by 2050, as “most comprehensive global warming legislation” in the Senate. He noted that “some say it’s too radical, but it may not be radical enough.”
Sen. Clinton promoted her legislation to create a Strategic Energy Fund that would invest in clean technology and boost financial incentives, paid with the record profits of Big Oil: “we have to tell the oil companies to pay or play … either invest more [on your own,] or pay into a strategic energy fund.”
UPDATE: The NY Times blog “The Caucus” finds presidential implications in Sen. Clinton’s remarks.
Also of presidential note, but unlikely to mentioned in the mainstream media: Sen. Sanders included Sen. Chris Dodd (CT), an ’08 hopeful, among the co-sponsors of his ambitious global warming bill.
