"O'Malley laid out an aggressive, moral case for tackling climate change. Let's hope it catches on"
The Pope is a tough act to follow, but Martin OMalley made a good show of it. Last week, on the same day that the pontiff released his new encyclical calling for a global effort to combat climate change, OMalley released his own plan for reducing emissions and staving off global climate catastrophe. Its an aggressive platform that frames the fight against climate change as a moral imperative, rather than simply a question of science and economics, and in an op-ed for USA Today, the former governor of Maryland said that climate change is at the center of my campaign for president.
Well hot damn, Martin. As the Huffington Posts Kate Sheppard notes, the OMalley plan sets a very high standard for other Democratic candidates to meet. He directly rejects the all of the above energy policy favored by the White House (and quite a few Republicans) and instead calls for an end to the use of fossil fuels within the next 35 years. In keeping with the framing of climate change as a moral issue, OMalley makes a point that ending fossil fuel use is a public health imperative, and would extend the lives of 200,000 Americans each year. He also says outright that hed reject approval for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Rest of the article by Simon Maloy of Salon here:
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/22/this_is_what_a_real_climate_plan_looks_like_martin_omalleys_bold_approach_sets_the_standard/
x-posted from the O'Malley Group