2:43
O'Rourke's campaign claims the $5 trillion investment to fight climate change will be paid for by \"revenues generated by structural changes to the tax code that ensure corporations and the wealthiest among us pay their fair share and that we finally end the tens of billions of dollars of tax breaks currently given to fossil fuel companies.\"
Echoing a commitment made by nearly the entire Democratic field, the plan would also re-enter the United States in the Paris Climate Accord and then taking the lead on even more aggressive goals to combat climate change by 2030 and beyond. It also calls for a \"first-ever, net-zero emissions by 2030 carbon budget for federal lands, stopping new fossil fuel leases, changing royalties to reflect climate costs, and accelerating renewables development and forestation.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/wildfire-ap-er-181124_hpEmbed_3_3x2_384.jpg\")
The plan garnered praise from a number of prominent environmental organizations hoping to see climate change rise to the upper echelon of issues as Democrats continue to sort out their crowded and competitive primary.
\"This plan to confront the climate crisis is the kind of leadership we need from our next president. We commend O’Rourke for putting forward an ambitious and detailed climate plan that would start on day one of his presidency and continue throughout every day of it,\" Tiernan Sittenfeld, the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, wrote in a statement Monday provided to ABC News.
Big thanks to Dr. Anne Kelly and Leslie Martinez for sharing their expertise on climate science and community impacts with us while hiking in Yosemite this morning. pic.twitter.com/RKI5nDuqpW
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) April 29, 2019
“Beto’s new climate platform is an important contribution to the national effort to boldly tackle the climate crisis...We’re excited to see consensus building among 2020 candidates that stopping fossil fuel expansion — starting with oil, gas, and coal production on public lands — is necessary to protect our most vulnerable communities from climate catastrophe,\" Greenpeace USA Climate Campaigner Charlie Jiang wrote in a statement released Monday.
Climate change finds a newfound prominence as the 2020 primary heats up
The roll-out from O'Rourke also comes as Democrats continue to debate the best way to combat climate change, an issue that is poised to take on a greater level of importance this cycle than any the party has held in year's past.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee, another Democrat running for President, has proposed that the Democratic National Committee hold a debate solely focused on climate change, an idea that some in the field, including O'Rourke, have expressed support for.
“We want to look at the details of the debate that you proposed, but I like that idea...I can’t see why we wouldn’t want to participate in that,\" O'Rourke said during a campaign event in Las Vegas last week.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/inslee-ap-er-190429_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
While Inslee has yet to release a full-fledged plan on climate change, his website also previews a four-point plan on the issue which prioritizes \"Powering our economy with clean energy,\" \"Investing in good jobs, infrastructure and innovation,\" \"Fighting for environmental justice and economic inclusion,\" and \"Ending fossil fuel giveaways.\"
Last week, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker released the specifics of what he calls his \"environmental justice plan,\" which he says would take \"immediate steps\" to strengthen the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which he accuses the Trump administration of \"gutting.\"
“Right now under this president, the number of actions that are being taken against polluters has gone dramatically down,\" Booker said during a campaign stop in Columbia, South Carolina last Friday.
What greater civil right is there than access to clean air? Or clean water? Big thanks to South Carolina for hosting me last week as I rolled out the first planks of my environmental justice plan during the Justice For All tour. https://t.co/EjgsGnZOfR pic.twitter.com/rENAyNDfDK
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) April 29, 2019
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks often of the \"climate crisis\" on the campaign trail, and released a plan earlier this month on protecting public lands, which would roll back many of President Trump's environmental policies, halt offshore drilling on publicly owned lands and restore original boundary line for two national monuments shrunk under the current administration.
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