Clinton had long refused to take a public stance on Keystone, a project that was first filed with the State Department during her tenure as Secretary of State. But the increasingly-visible threat of climate change, Clinton wrote in an essay published today on Medium, caused her to finally release an official position on the proposed pipeline, which would bring tar sands crude from Canada to Nebraska.
“We shouldn’t be building a pipeline dedicated to moving North America’s dirtiest fuel through our communities — we should be focused on what it will take to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century,” Clinton said in the essay. “Building a clean, secure, and affordable North American energy future is bigger than Keystone XL or any other single project. That’s what I will focus on as president.”
Clinton announced that, If elected president, she would immediately begin negotiations for a North American Climate Compact between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, intended to create strong national targets and accountability mechanisms for emissions reductions in each country. A climate pact between the three countries, Clinton said, would “[create] certainty for investors and confidence in the future of our climate, so we can all marshal resources equal to the challenges we face.” In addition to setting ambitious emissions reduction targets, the proposed climate compact would develop common infrastructure standards across the continent, expand existing regional emissions trading markets, invest in low-carbon transportation, and work to set continent-wide reduction standards for methane.
At home, Clinton’s proposed energy infrastructure upgrades would focus on ensuring that fuels are transported across the country safely — whether by rail or pipeline — and unlocking new investment resources.
In the arena of pipelines, Clinton said that, if elected president, she would work to strengthen national pipeline safety regulations and partner with local operators and regulators to fix and replace aging pipelines. To tackle the recent spike in oil that is now transported by rail, Clinton said she would speed up both the retirement of outdated tank cars and the repairing of track defects.
Clinton also pledged to create a new national infrastructure bank, which would be used for investments in new infrastructure projects. She also said that she would look to expand access to clean energy by making the federal permitting process more streamlined and efficient, and help expand customer choice in an array of energy options.
Read more at Hillary Clinton Releases a Plan to Modernize America’s Energy Infrastructure
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