Elizabeth Warren is shaking things up. The democratic presidential leader is out to attack some of the biggest issues in the United States—no, the world—head on. On April 15, she unveiled her ideas to fight climate change on Medium.
Once elected into the presidential position, Warren will be working toward creating a new oil, gas, and coal lease on both federal and offshore policies. The plan starts with creating a ban on fossil fuel usage and instead promoting the use of renewable energy on federal lands and waters. This policy will begin to generate 10 percent of the the nations power from renewable energy on public land. Warren is among the first of the presidential candidates to create a solid plan oriented toward public policy change.
Warren says, “It’s is not enough to end our public lands’ contribution to climate change. We have an enormous opportunity to make them a part of the climate solution and for both the economic and environmental reasons, we should take it.”
The proposal is a response to President Trump’s proposal to sell public land for oil, gas, and coal usage for as little as 1.50 per acre and open up offshore US waters to drilling, according to Huffpost. “The Trump administration is busy selling off our public lands to the oil, gas, and coal industries for pennies on the dollar—expanding fossil fuel extraction that destroys pristine sites across the country while pouring an accelerant on our climate crisis.”
Warren’s policy proposal asks to reinstate the Obama-era rule that limited the amount of methane that can be vented from oil and gas operation on federal and tribal lands. The policy also promises to restore protections for the lands impacted by the Trump Administration’s national monument rollback. Warren is also proposing to make all national parks free to all Americans and unlocking half of the almost 10 million federally controlled acres in the American West that are surrounded by private land. The plan aims to fully fund land management agencies and the Land and Water Conservation Fund, whose funds are created by taking offshore fossil fuel revenue to establish and protect parks, wildlife refuges, and forest and wildlife habitats.
Warren is among the 100 democratic lawmakers who sponsored the Green New Deal, a climate resolution policy unveiled by Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (D-NY) and Sen Ed Markey (D-MA). The Green New Deal outlines the goals for reaching net-zero emission by 2050, which would build a climate resilient infrastructure and reverse income inequality by creating higher-wage green jobs.
Warren’s proposal has been widely accepted by environmental groups. Evan Weber, a political and policy director of the Sunrise Movement, the climate activist group that stormed democratic leaders offices last year to push the plan, told Huffpost via email, “It’s great to see Elizabeth Warren put out such a thoughtful vision for the future of the public lands so early on, and I hope that more Presidential contenders will follow suit.”