Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Clinton Calls On Americans To Take Action To Solve Climate And Energy Crisis, Provides Tools To Help Them "Go Green"

Home Improvement Expert Bob Vila Joins Hillary In NH To Discuss Ways Consumers Can Green Homes

Hillary Clinton will call on Americans to take action to stop global warming and outline steps they can take to move the U.S. toward energy independence today, at a New Hampshire discussion with home improvement expert Bob Vila.

At the core of Hillary's comprehensive energy plan is the principle of shared responsibility. That's why today she's launching a citizen pledge on her web site, www.hillaryclinton.com, to ask Americans to take concrete steps to help meet the twin challenges of global warming and dependence on foreign oil.

"My plan to meet these challenges is based on the old fashioned idea of shared responsibility. It will take leadership – but also citizenship. It will take a movement for change from the ground up," Clinton said.

"We can empower individuals with new tools and technology to lead the green revolution one home, one car and one business at a time. These choices determine the energy we use, the carbon we emit, and the world we leave for our children. I believe, when called upon, Americans will choose a clean energy future. This generation can become the Greenest Generation. We only need to light a spark – and that's what I'll do as president."

Clinton and Vila will discuss ways to make America's homes more energy efficient by taking simple steps such as using compact fluorescent light bulbs and wrapping water heaters in a blanket to dramatically reduce energy usage across the country.

Hillary will also outline her plans to issue Energy Independence Bonds—like U.S. Savings Bonds—to fund clean and renewable energy projects, and to modernize the nation's electricity grid so that unused power can be resold by consumers who conserve energy.

Hillary's plan to empower Americans with tools to address global warming and move us toward energy independence, includes:

• Asking Every American to Take a Pledge to Reduce Global Warming and Decrease our Dependence on Foreign Oil
• Issuing new "Energy Independence Bonds"
• Giving Individuals New Tools to Assess their Communities Fight Against Global Warming
• Helping Homeowners Improve the Energy Efficiency of Their Houses
• Calling on Colleges and K-12 Schools to Reduce Emissions on Campus and in Their Communities
• Supporting Healthy, High Performance Schools
• Create a "Climate Star" Program and National Clearinghouse to Help Consumers Evaluate the Global Warming Impacts of Products They Buy
• Using 21st Century "Smart Grid" Technology to Empower Consumers to Become More Energy Efficient
• Setting "Net Metering" Standards and Provide Tax Incentives to Helping Families and Small Business Generate Their Own Renewable Power

On Monday, Hillary outlined her comprehensive agenda to address global warming and move us toward energy independence. At the core of Hillary's plan is the principle of shared responsibility. Her energy agenda spells out the roles of the federal government, state and local governments, utilities, oil companies, and businesses. Hillary understands that addressing the profound challenges of global warming and dependence on foreign oil is not just going to take a President and a set of policies, but action from all Americans.

Throughout our history, America has always risen to meet big challenges, thanks in large measure to the commitment of its citizens. In that spirit, Hillary is issuing a call to action to all Americans to take concrete steps to help meet the twin challenges of global warming and dependence on foreign oil, and she is offering specific policies to empower individuals to do their part.

Hillary's Plan to Catalyze Individual and Community Action

Hillary has a specific plan to encourage individuals, families, and communities to reduce their demand for energy and to promote a culture of accountability for confronting these pressing challenges. As President, Hillary will:

Ask Every American to Take a Pledge to Reduce Global Warming and Decrease our Dependence on Foreign Oil: If every American replaced one traditional light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, we would save enough energy to light three millions homes for a year. A home energy audit can help families reduce their global warming pollution by 1,000 pounds. A simple task like wrapping a water heater in a blanket can also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1,000 pounds. Planting one tree would absorb one million pounds of carbon dioxide over the course of the tree's lifetime. Hillary has proposed on her website a list of 10 action items to help people determine the easy but important steps they can take to reduce their carbon emissions. She is asking people to go to: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/poweringamericasfuture/ to take the pledge and learn how they can do their part for America's future. Hillary will also invest in tools to help individuals measure their greenhouse gas emissions, so they can track their progress in reducing their emissions. And Hillary believes that individuals should hold their local leaders accountable to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the community, state, and federal level, and challenges all Americans to do so.

Issue new "Energy Independence Bonds:" After 9/11, President Bush asked everyone to go shopping. Hillary wants to harness Americans' patriotic impulses in a movement for energy independence. In order to encourage broad citizen participation in the effort to move toward energy independence, Hillary will direct the U.S. Treasury to issue new "Energy Independence Bonds," a limited series of U.S. Savings Bonds. She will ask Americans to invest the money saved from reducing their energy use in these Bonds. A large-scale, sustained advertising campaign will promote the Bonds, similar to the way war bonds were promoted during World War II. She will enlist community teams of volunteers to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint and spend energy savings on the Bonds. Hillary will set a goal of selling 50 million bonds over 10 years and will invest the proceeds in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in communities across America through the Strategic Energy Fund.

Empowering Individuals with New Tools to Assess their Communities' Fight Against Global Warming: As President, Hillary will invest in new technology that will allow local communities to measure their progress in lowering green house gas emissions. For example, researchers have now created instruments that are placed on existing towers to track greenhouse gas emissions at the local and regional level. California has trail-blazed in this area by creating a pilot project called CALGEM: the California Greenhouse Gas Emissions Project. Hillary will invest in new and upgraded measurements of greenhouse gas emissions at the community level, so that individuals can hold their community leaders – and themselves – accountable for lowering emissions annually.

Helping Homeowners Improve the Energy Efficiency of Their Houses: Hillary is proposing a new "Carbon Reduction Mortgage Association," or "Connie Mae," pioneered by Vice President Gore, which would directly assist homeowners in making their homes more energy efficient. This program would direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to facilitate the origination of energy efficiency improvement loans in order to help homeowners with the additional costs of investing in energy efficiency. Individual loans will be capped at the greater of 5% of the property's value (up to $10,000) or $5,000, and tough efficiency standards will apply. An energy audit of the home will determine the size of the improvement loan needed, and the energy bill savings that will result. Borrowers will not be required to make down payments on the loans. And the energy bill savings will ultimately offset the cost of the loan. Hillary will commit up to $1 billion per year to the program, assisting upwards of 100,000 homeowners. The program will target lower- and middle-income homebuyers.

Calling on Colleges and K-12 Schools to Reduce Emissions on Campus and in Their Communities. Student activists have sounded the alarm bell about global warming and campuses across the country are leading the way by investing in energy efficiency, renewable energy, habitat restoration and awareness projects. In 2006, the College of the Atlantic in Maine became the first to vow to become a zero-emissions school. Since then 270 more have taken the same pledge. Hillary wants to harness the excitement, energy, and activism of young people by calling on them to lead the way for our larger communities. As President, she will establish a set of awards through the Department of Energy to recognize the most outstanding climate achievers among K-12 schools, colleges, and communities large and small. These national awards will be competitive and prestigious and will help inspire more institutions, towns, and cities to act.

Supporting Healthy, High Performance Schools: Our nation's schools spent over $8 billion on energy costs last school year, an increase of $2 billion in just four years. These skyrocketing energy prices are forcing officials to make very difficult decisions, such as cutting back on academic programs in order to keep the heat and lights on in schools. In 2001, Hillary created a federal program called Healthy, High Performance Schools (HHPS) to provide information and technical assistance to school districts to help them implement plans reduce energy use in schools by 30 percent and to meet federal and state health codes. The Healthy, High Performance School program will allow many schools to achieve energy-efficiency, potentially saving over $1.5 billion for schools nationwide. Healthy, High Performance Schools will also improve children's health. President Bush has failed to provide funding for this important program. As President, Hillary will fully fund Healthy, High Performance Schools.

Create a "Climate Star" Program and National Clearinghouse to Help Consumers Evaluate the Global Warming Impacts of Products They Buy: The highly successful "Energy Star" program provides valuable information to consumers about the energy performance of appliances, home electronics, office equipment, and buildings. The "Energy Star" label tells a shopper that a product is a superior performer in terms of energy efficiency. Hillary would expand this program to include both new products and new information about how a product stacks up in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Hillary will also expand on EPA's existing web-based tool that enables people to calculate their household's emissions. And she'll create an easy-to-use, national clearinghouse containing local information and resources for making homes more energy efficient.

Use 21st Century "Smart Grid" Technology to Empower Consumers to Become More Energy Efficient: Our electricity grid is antiquated, resulting in costly blackouts, the overbuilding of generation capacity, and large losses in energy during transmission. Consumers face unnecessary obstacles to reducing their energy use. We need to move aggressively toward a smart grid -- a web-enabled, digitally controlled, intelligent power delivery system that efficiently distributes electricity and protects against blackouts, brown-outs and excess energy use. With smarter two-way communications, consumers will get more control over consumption, improve energy efficiency, and save money. For example, a smart grid could enable consumers to get better rates in the summertime by allowing utilities to cycle their air conditioner off while they are at work during the day, when electricity demand is highest. It would enable people to set dishwashers to turn on when demand for power is less and the cost lower. Smart grid technology would also help with "net metering" of renewable power produced by rooftop solar. And when "plug-in" hybrids electric vehicles become available, smart grids will enable people to charge their cars in their garages at night, and then sell power back to the utility when their car is parked at work during the hours of peak energy demand. To accelerate the deployment of smart grid technology, Hillary will fund 10 "Smart Grid Cities." These public-private partnerships between states, cities, utilities, automakers and battery makers will deploy smart grid technology and plug-in hybrid vehicles on a large scale. These projects will provide a market for cutting-edge smart grid technology and would demonstrate and prove the benefits. Hillary will also require state utility commissions to consider incentives for utilities to deploy smart grid technology in order to promote its broad adoption.

Set "Net Metering" Standards and Provide Tax Incentives to Helping Families and Small Business Generate Their Own Renewable Power: Hillary will establish national "net metering" standards to make it easier and more economical for families and businesses to generate their own renewable power and sell it back to their utilities. Net metering simply means that those who produce more electricity than they take from the grid, get credits to offset electricity they use at other times. For example, if a household's solar panels generates 800 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in August, but the family uses only 500 kWh of electricity, they would get a 300 kWh credit on their bill to count against future electricity use. Many states have some kind of net metering rule, but they vary widely. Hillary will set national standards to ensure that families and businesses everywhere can sell power to the grid on fair terms. Hillary will also provide tax incentives for families and businesses to install small-scale renewable energy such as rooftop solar panels. Getting more small scale solar and other renewable energy in place will reduce pollution and reduce the need to build new power plants.