STEVE HORN, stevep[at]desmogblog.com, @SteveAHorn
Horn is an investigative journalist and writer for DeSmogBlog.com. He recently wrote the piece “Ken Bone, Internet Sensation from Presidential Debate, Works for Coal Company Opposed to Climate Regulations.”
He said today: “The new emails released by WikiLeaks via the Podesta files further call Hillary Clinton’s commitment to tackling the enormity of the issue that is the climate change crisis into question.
“They show her boasting [about] what is now well-documented elsewhere: that she sold fracking around the world. They show her inner circle trying to smear her primary opponent Bernie Sanders as out of touch and not realistic for opposing fracking. They show careful political calculus for when to come out against Keystone XL, which the science of climate change shows was a no-brainer, to nix it. And they show her saying “You need to have a public position and a private position on policy,” calling almost everything she says for public consumption, including her most recent speech in Florida where she stood alongside Al Gore, into question.
“Meanwhile, her opponent has called climate change akin to a Chinese hoax and has a climate and energy policy and transition team which includes an industry-funded think tank climate change denier, an oil/gas/coal industry lobbyist and the founder and CEO of one of the largest fracking companies in the U.S. in the form of Continental Resources’ Harold Hamm with a business stake in the hotly-contested Dakota Access Pipeline. Trump also has personal investments in Dakota Access.
“‘Troubling’ to describe such a state of electoral affairs would be to put it far too mildly, as the lethal Hurricane Matthew ripped its way through the Caribbean and southeast U.S. and as climate change-induced record monthly global temperatures continue to pile up.”