Clinton pushes 500 million solar panels, hedges on Keystone

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton tours the Des Moines Area Rapid Transit Central Station on Monday in Des Moines, Iowa, with building superintendent Keith Welch.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton tours the Des Moines Area Rapid Transit Central Station on Monday in Des Moines, Iowa, with building superintendent Keith Welch.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Calling climate change one of the "most urgent threats of our time," Hillary Rodham Clinton laid out elements of a sweeping plan Monday that would see every U.S. home powered by renewable energy by 2027, even as she declined to take a position on the Keystone XL oil pipeline opposed by environmental activists.

The Democratic presidential candidate called for installing 500 million solar panels by 2020.

"I know these goals will test our capacities, but I know they are within our reach," Clinton said after touring a regional bus station that was built using some recycled materials and uses solar panels and rainwater to save energy.

But Clinton again would not be pinned down on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the $8 billion project that would transport oil from Canada's tar sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. Environmentalists say the project would contribute to global warming by distributing dirty oil. Clinton said she wanted a State Department review started when she was secretary to run its course.

"I put together a thorough, deliberative, evidence-based process to evaluate the environmental impact and other considerations on Keystone," Clinton said. "I'm confident that the pipeline's impact on global greenhouse gas emissions will be a major factor in that decision, as the president has said."

Clinton declined to specify how she would pay for her proposal, telling reporters that while there would be some upfront costs, "A lot of these changes will pay for themselves."

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon estimated that the 10-year cost of the grant program would be $60 billion, which he said would be offset by raising taxes on the oil and gas industry.

Among Clinton's 2016 opponents, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has been vocal about the need for action to curb climate change and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley released a plan in Iowa several weeks ago that deals not just with consumer energy use, but also industrial and transportation, as O'Malley aims to make the U.S. entirely powered by renewable energy by 2050.

Both Sanders and O'Malley oppose the pipeline.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, presidential candidate Scott Walker said Monday that he would shift most of the responsibilities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to state-based regulators, leaving the EPA to serve as an "umbrella organization" that would resolve disputes between them.

Walker, Wisconsin's governor, said he would not eliminate the EPA if elected president but he would shift its powers and resources to state environmental agencies such as Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources.

In an interview with The Washington Examiner, and later during a campaign stop in Chicago, Walker said the proper role for the EPA is to serve as a mediator to resolve disputes between such state agencies.

The EPA's role, Walker said, should be "limited to mediating interstate conflicts over, say, where a body of water or a piece of land goes through multiple states."

Elsewhere, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush used a meeting with a crowd of pastors to focus on his conservative persona.

Bush told the nearly 150 clergy members Monday that he is not an "angry" conservative but a "committed conservative" who would, if elected president, build a robust economy to lift people out of poverty, give children a good education and encourage families to stay together.

As conservatives, "if we act with our heart, people will rise," Bush told the crowd at Centro Internacional de la Familia, a nondenominational church with a congregation made up largely of Puerto Ricans.

Bush said his goal of growing the economy 4 percent annually would do more to help struggling Americans than any government program.

"I want to help people rise up," he said, borrowing from the name of his super political action committee, Right to Rise.

"My message is one of optimism, inspiration," Bush said in Spanish and again in English. "We have to restore hope."

Bush also reiterated his plan to fix U.S. immigration laws and extend legal status to people in the country illegally, an issue that places him at odds with several of his Republican rivals.

"It's a broken system used as a wedge issue for political purposes," he said. Bush places the first priority on securing the borders, a standard position in the GOP field.

In other news, three super PACs supporting Rand Paul in the Republican presidential primary said they raised a combined $6 million through June 30, mostly from deep-pocketed libertarians. That's on top of the nearly $7 million that Paul's campaign reported pulling in between his April announcement and the end of last month.

"There are some very wealthy libertarians out there, and they're all going to be hearing from me," said Ed Crane, president of one of the pro-Paul super PACs, called Purple PAC. "It's a strong potential base for Rand."

Paul's top backer so far is Jeff Yass, managing director of high-frequency trading firm Susquehanna International Group, who split a $2 million contribution last month between Purple PAC and another pro-Paul super PAC, America's Liberty.

A third super PAC, Concerned American Voters, has not yet filed a fundraising report, but its leaders said they've raised $1.9 million.

Information for this article was contributed by Sergio Bustos, Julie Bykowicz, Scott Bauer and Michael Tarm of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/28/2015

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