Martin O'Malley: Zero Out Fossil Fuels by 2050

In an op-ed in USA Today, practicing Catholic has used Pope's climate change speech to launch his climate change agenda:

Today, Pope Francis published his first encyclical —an official teaching document to all 1.2 billion Catholics — on the moral imperative of addressing climate change. He is not alone among leaders of world faiths making such a clarion call for action.

Given the grave threat that climate change poses to human life on our planet, we have not only a business imperative but a moral obligation to future generations to act immediately and aggressively.

This is why protecting the United States from the devastating impact of climate change — while capitalizing on the job creation opportunity of clean energy — is at the center of my campaign for president.

We cannot meet the climate challenge with an all-of-the-above energy strategy, or by drilling off our coasts, or by building pipelines that bring oil from tar sands in Canada.

As president, on day one, I would use my executive power to declare the transition to a clean energy future the number one priority of our Federal Government.

As president, I would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to take aggressive action to limit greenhouse gases: expanding rules to other large sources of emissions beyond power plants, adopting a zero-tolerance policy for methane leaks from current oil and gas production, and setting higher energy efficiency standards for new buildings while requiring energy costs to be transparent to building tenants and purchasers.

And I would reject projects like Keystone XL and drilling off our coasts and in Antarctica and Alaska. Furthermore, I would keep domestically produced oil and gas in the U.S., instead of selling it abroad — unless there is a clear strategic security rationale.