NEWS

Clinton proposes $1 billion “green building” fund

07/25/2007

By Holly Ramer

Associated Press

Calling dependency on foreign oil and global warming the nation's greatest technological challenges, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday proposed spending $1 billion a year to improve energy efficiency in schools and other public buildings.

The federal money would be distributed by states as grants or low-interest loans, said Clinton, who estimated that her "Green Building Fund" would create as many as 50,000 new jobs.

"We know we can create millions of jobs if we're smart about how we go about dealing with energy and global warming," the Democratic presidential hopeful said in Portsmouth, where the city's new $7.9 million library will be one of the first public buildings in the state to win approval by the U.S. Green Building Council and where a "green" fire station is in the works.

Clinton repeated her plan to establish a $50 billion "Strategic Energy Fund" that would create a research agency focused on reducing the threat of global warming. The agency would be funded by ending tax subsidies for oil companies and requiring them to pay royalties for drilling on public land. Oil companies also would face a choice: invest $20 billion in alternative fuel technology and build cleaner refineries or pay taxes on some of their profits.

"There will be all kinds of crocodile tears shed ... I can hear the guys on TV saying I'm going after the oil companies," she said. "Well, I am going after the oil companies.

"They have refused to be part of the solution, and they've had a friend in the White House by the name of Dick Cheney, who has protected them and helped them to profit so enormously," she said. "It's time for them to start contributing to America again. That is not too much to ask."

Amber Wilkerson, a Republican National Committee spokeswoman, responded that Clinton's proposal "to allow big government to step in and seize private revenues will only hurt average Americans who will pay for this at the pumps."

Clinton told her audience that individuals also must make their own contributions, in terms of reducing carbon emissions and electricity consumption. Asked what sacrifices she'd expect the average American to make, Clinton said the nation's wealthiest residents would be giving up the tax cuts they enjoyed under the Bush administration, but otherwise she would promote the idea of responsibility instead of sacrifice. Turning off the lights when leaving a room or making fewer trips to the store aren't acts of sacrifice, she said, but rather taking responsibility for the future.

Responding to another question from the audience, Clinton said she considers herself "agnostic" when it comes to nuclear energy. She said she doesn't believe more reactors will be built in the United States any time soon, but the nation should continue to research nuclear power to keep close tabs on other countries that will be building plants.

"I'm not for it, but I'm not 100 percent against it," she said.

She also said she does not support taxing corporations for their carbon emissions because she fears companies would find ways to avoid paying.

"There are a lot of ways to game that," she said. "No doubt the people who'd be asked to pay for it would not only game it but try to pass it along."

On a lighter note, Clinton struck a chord with female audience members when describing how the federal government could spark wider use of compact fluorescent light bulbs if it installed them in its own buildings.

"You know the big problem with fluorescent bulbs: too many women have tried on bathing suits in dressing rooms (with fluorescent bulbs)," she said. "We don't like that color of light."