Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told rowdy Democratic delegates Monday night that the 2016 election was about issues like health care, wages and even global warming.
“This election is about climate change, the greatest environmental crisis facing our planet, and the need to leave this world in a way that is healthy and habitable for our kids and future generations,” Sanders told liberals gathered at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Sanders praised his primary opponent former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in his speech, and went so far as to say Clinton “will make an outstanding president.” Sanders’ praise for Clinton comes just four months after he said her judgement was “clearly lacking.”
The self-described democratic socialist laid out the differences between Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump on a slew of policy issues, including global warming.
“Hillary Clinton is listening to the scientists who tell us that – unless we act boldly and transform our energy system in the very near future – there will be more drought, more floods, more acidification of the oceans, more rising sea levels,” he said. “She understands that when we do that we can create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs.”
“Donald Trump? Well, like most Republicans, he chooses to reject science,” Sanders said. “He believes that climate change is a ‘hoax,’ no need to address it. Hillary Clinton understands that a president’s job is to worry about future generations, not the short-term profits of the fossil fuel industry.”
Trump has called global warming a “hoax,” while Clinton and Sanders have both put forward policies aimed at pushing green energy and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. But it wasn’t long ago Sanders was attacking the former first lady for her flip-flop on hydraulic fracturing.
“Even worse, as secretary of state, she worked to export fracking throughout the world to reward companies such as Chevron, Halliburton, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. That, in my view, is unacceptable,” Sanders wrote in an op-ed leading up to New York’s Democratic primary.
Sanders is opposed to fracking, but Clinton supported fracking while heading the Department of State. Clinton promoted fracking for natural gas while America’s top diplomat, and the Clinton Foundation, her non-profit, has taken money from large oil companies and petro-states.
Clinton came out against fracking during the primaries in an effort to move left and garner support from hardcore environmentalists.
“By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place,” Clinton said during the Democratic presidential debate in Flint, Michigan in March.
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