Sanders Campaign Press Release - Sanders Releases 'People before Polluters' Climate Plan

BURLINGTON, Vt. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday detailed a plan to combat climate change, which environmentalists praised as the boldest put forward by a candidate running for president in 2016.

"It is beyond my comprehension that we can have a Republican Party and Republican candidates who are more concerned about getting huge campaign contributions from the Koch brothers and Exxon Mobil and the coal industry than they are about accepting what the overwhelming majority of scientists are saying," Sanders said on CBS' Face the Nation Sunday. "Climate change is real, caused by human activity and already causing major and devastating problems in our country and around the world."

Sanders' plan will cut U.S. carbon pollution by 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels by putting a tax on carbon pollution and doubling the number of Americans working in clean energy jobs.

"The climate plan released by Senator Bernie Sanders today shows that he has broken free of the corporate and 1 percent money that has held back climate policy for far too long," Greenpeace U.S. executive director Annie Leonard said. "Sanders has issued a powerful call for climate justice and decisive action to keep fossil fuels in the ground and support the communities who are suffering from climate and environmental impacts. Greenpeace applauds this ambitious platform and challenges other candidates who are serious about climate change to reject polluter money and raise the level of ambition in their own plans to meet the greatest challenge of our time."

"Bernie's vision of a transformed America is powerful, because it recognizes both the ecological need and the human priority," environmentalist and co-founder of 350.org Bill McKibben said. "There's good useful work that we need millions of Americans to do – and he'll make sure it's done by the people left out of our economic booms of the past. Even more important than the plan is the credibility of the planner. Bernie has shown with years of committed action that he will not just talk about this stuff on the campaign trail, he will do it in the Oval Office."

"For too long frontline communities of color have been an afterthought in our nation's environmental policies," Environmental Action policy director Anthony Rogers-Wright said. "This platform is an excellent step toward reversing that trend and making progress to save our planet, climate and communities. Senator Sanders once again demonstrates his understanding of how to work alongside communities of color and low-wealth communities fighting disproportionate pollution by companies like Exxon Mobil. The plan is not only rooted in common sense, but also in justice. For these reasons and more, Environmental Action enthusiastically endorses Bernie Sanders' climate change platform."

Click here to read Sanders' plan.