Clinton's Carbon Corruption: Why Hillary Won't Say Yes to a Carbon Tax

Roughly two-thirds of the way through last week's Democratic debate in Brooklyn, things got interesting. The night to that point had been a rehash of every other debate, with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton hollering from their respective ramparts the same arguments we've heard over and over. As a wraithlike Wolf Blitzer presided over the spot lit chasm between the candidates, Sanders advocated a complete rupture with the dark-money-engorged American politics as we know it while Clinton, implicitly at least, asked voters to enshrine it. Then, in the midst of this ceremonial shaking of fists, the conversation turned to climate change.

"Let me start by saying we need to talk about this issue," Clinton opened, only to have Bernie, who's been talking about it for years, lambaste her. As he often does, Sanders went after Clinton's inscrutable relationship with fracking interests, with the oil and gas lobbyists who bundled donations to her campaign, and with the large financial institutions with substantial energy holdings that have given her millions. (Hedge (Hedge fund D.E. Shaw, to name one, ponied up $1.5 million to her campaign and owns $470 million in shares of oil refinery behemoth Marathon Petroleum.)

Then Sanders turned to the carbon tax — the plan to charge air polluters a fee for each ton of emitted CO2 — and finally we had a show.

"Are you in favor of a tax on carbon so that we can transit away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy at the level and speed we need to do?" Bernie asked his opponent.

The moment stretched on; a sub dermal twitch darted across Clinton's face. Then she gave this a whirl: "You know, I have laid out a set of actions that build on what President Obama was able to accomplish, building on the clean power plan, which is currently under attack by fossil fuels and the right in the Supreme Court, which is one of the reasons why we need to get the Supreme Court justice that President Obama has nominated to be confirmed so that we can actually make progress."

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...when Bernie put the carbon tax question to her, she simply sidestepped it. Such is the state of modern obscurantist politics: The closest we may ever get to seeing the influence of money on Clinton's position was that moment, that twitch, that bridling against the tax's inexorable logic. In her refusal to admit the obvious, overwhelmingly agreed-upon, scientifically sound solution — in that moment of muteness — she proved Sanders right.

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http://www.villagevoice.com/news/clintons-carbon-corruption-why-hillary-wont-say-yes-to-a-carbon-tax-8528717