Martin O’Malley is attacking Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton on climate change from the left, saying she doesn’t take the issue seriously enough.
The former Maryland governor, who consistently polls much lower than Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), told E&E Publishing that he thinks climate change can be a significant wedge issue in the race for the Democratic nomination.
{mosads}“I don’t believe that her plan is very serious,” O’Malley told E&E in an interview published Monday. “I believe that it’s an incrementalist approach. And an incrementalist approach is not going to get us to where we need to go, nor is it going to claim this tremendous business opportunity for the United States.”
Clinton’s climate plan centers on trying to encourage the use of renewable energy, with certain goals for solar panel installations and renewable generation as a whole.
O’Malley also supports vastly increasing renewable energy, but he wants a price on carbon dioxide emissions.
“I also believe that under her climate plan, the planet would literally burn up,” O’Malley said. “I mean, her plan is a voluntary solar panel plan for residential energy. That’s only about one-third of our energy consumption.”
Clinton’s climate policy has also been under fire recently from Sanders, who says it would be ineffective without a price on carbon dioxide emissions.