Bloomberg vows to shut down all coal-power plants, kill new gas facilities

Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg on Friday unveiled his climate change plan, which includes shutting every coal plant in America and stopping the construction of any new natural gas plants.

“We have to start working as hard as we can building a 100 percent clean energy economy because the alternative is just too bad for all of us," the former New York City mayor said during a speech in Alexandria, Virginia, according to his website. "As president, I will accelerate America's transition to a zero-carbon economy."

“First, I will push for an 80 percent reduction in electricity emissions by the year 2028, and 100 percent clean electricity shortly thereafter," he said. “To get it done, we’ll replace all U.S. coal plants with clean energy. We’ll also replace existing gas plants and we’ll stop the construction of new gas plants. "

We’ll also replace existing gas plants – and stop the construction of new ones. This is critical to stopping the worst effects of climate change because gas is now a bigger source of climate pollution than coal, and emissions from gas are growing. https://t.co/9XCU1xBFYJ pic.twitter.com/IweS27Etsk

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) December 13, 2019

Bloomberg attacked operators of coal-fired plants and threw in a jab at President Donald Trump along the way.

“What’s happened is an awful lot of coal fired power plants just declare bankruptcy, they walk away from their obligations to help the coal miners who have damage to their lungs from breathing all the air. They walk away from their obligation to honor pension contracts. They walk away from their obligation to reclaim the land afterwards and just say we’re bankrupt, sorry. That’s what Donald Trump did in his businesses and we just can’t allow that anymore," he said.

Bloomberg said that he would  "cut greenhouse emissions across the entire United States by 2030, and that is a realistic goal. To get 100 percent by 2030 probably not going to happen, but we certainly can get halfway there."

Bloomberg said there is not much time to act as climate change is a crisis.

“By 2045 or 2050, if not before, the consequences of climate change really can be catastrophic," he said.

Bloomberg said that if elected he would "quadruple our investment in research and development across multiple federal agencies, to work with the private sector to unlock more private capital for clean energy investment, and work on sustainable development."

"And we also have to end the war on science that the Trump Administration is waging," he added.

Bloomberg also said that federal agencies charged with overseeing the environment should be "managed by independent scientists."

Although Bloomberg's plan would impact coal miners, he said he had their best interests at heart.

“The coal miners are the ones that suffer more than anybody else. Their health is not great so when we say we’re going to move them to areas where the jobs are -- a lot of them can’t do that, and we’ve got to understand," he said.

Bloomberg hammered home his point that Trump was the enemy.

“I think we should find a way to defeat Donald Trump who keeps trying to drag us backwards. This is not a game. This is not something we should be playing politics with. This is people’s lives,” he said.

In its reporting on the plan, Politico noted that Bloomberg has not said how much his plan would cost aside from spending $25 billion on research and development.

Politico also noted other issues with the proposal including how the administration would pay for the plan, legal challenges from the oil and gas industry and the fact that the plan ignores a large source of carbon dioxide coming from emissions from cars and trucks.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

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