Some of Hillary’s Energy Policies

In the Daily Texan’s February 29, 2008 article “Hillary wants Houston to lead space, energy development,” Teresa Mioli reports about some of Hillary’s energy plans as she races for her party’s nomination. Clinton said that the U.S. needs to be more committed to new energy standards and pointed out that the U.S. depends on the energy developments in Houston for much of its progress. One of her new standards would be a new fuel efficiency standard of 55mpg by 2030. She would also increase energy-efficient buildings and create new jobs with a Green Building Fund. In addition, she proposed creating a “$50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, which would be financed by taking away tax breaks from oil companies.” The president of Shell Oil Co. was not opposed to this fund. Clinton even proposed a “GreenCorp” program that would exist within AmeriCorp to promote “energy efficient projects.” She closed with the idea that the U.S. energy’s future will depend upon “innovators and visionaries.”

Although I disagree with many of Clinton’s policies, I have to admit that her proposed energy policy is certainly better than Bush’s (although I’m not aware of how it compares to Obama’s). She gave many details about how she would execute a more energy efficient society, and I’m probably most impressed with the wide rage of programs that she has considered, such as GreenCorp. Clinton is certainly making the effort to have the public aware of her policies since she was the only candidate to show up at Houston’s Presidential Summit last Thursday.