July 30, 2019

Contact: Kevin Zeese, kzeese@howiehawkins.us

Hawkins Becomes First Candidate To Endorse 350.org Climate Pledge

Green POTUS candidate also opposes Enbridge 5 tunnel construction

(DETROIT, MI) Howie Hawkins, a Green Party candidate for president, is the first candidate to endorse the candidate pledge of 350.org on the climate crisis. Hawkins has made confronting the climate crisis central to his campaign.

Hawkins is opposed to the proposed tunnel for the Enbridge Line 5 through the Straits of Mackinack, which has leaked 33 times into Michigan’s public waters since 1968. Most recently Michigan suffered from the largest oil pipeline spill in the nation’s history in 2010, when an Enbridge pipeline burst and dumped heavy crude oil into the Kalamazoo River and its tributaries. “We should oppose new fossil fuel infrastructure and instead invest resources into developing renewable energy,” Hawkins commented.

The 350.org climate pledge states:

From 350 Action:

To ensure we take action at the scale of the climate crisis, we’re asking candidates to pledge to do the following on their first day in office:

Reject all new federally-approved coal, oil, gas, and other fossil fuel project permits. From the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, our next president will have the ability to block new fossil fuel infrastructure and expansion. New fossil fuel projects will, without a doubt, catalyze climate change. If we’re serious about cutting emissions, we need to stop building new projects that will lock us into decades of fossil fuel use. Ban oil and gas drilling and fracking on public lands and off our coasts. Oil and gas from public lands make up roughly a quarter of domestic oil and gas production. A real climate leader cannot allow more dangerous emissions to be pumped out of our public lands and waters. Rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. While we know the Paris agreement isn’t nearly strong enough to stop the climate crisis, it establishes a floor for our nation’s ambitions on fighting for a stable climate. Ask Congress to investigate the fossil fuel industry’s role in misleading the public and stalling climate action, and to prepare to hold the industry accountable.

Hawkins goes further than the 350.org pledge. He not only would ban fracking, drilling, and fossil fuel infrastructure on public lands or requiring federal permits, Hawkins supports a ban fracking on all lands and off US coasts.

Hawkins, the original Green New Deal candidate, is seeking the nomination for president from the Green Party of the United States. Hawkins has put forward an ecosocialist Green New Deal that interrupts climate change through a plan of economic democracy that upholds the rights of humans and nature. His plan calls for transition to clean, renewable energy by 2030 with zero greenhouse gas emissions. It also includes an Economic Bill of Rights to develop programs to secure basic economic human rights for all. And, includes a Green Economy Reconstruction Program that will reconstruct all economic sectors for ecological sustainability, from agriculture and manufacturing to housing and transportation.

The Hawkins Ecosocialist Green New Deal should be the standard by which all proposals by Democrats and others are measured as it is based on science and the urgent need for transformation to confront the climate crisis. It is not watered down by the politics of the big business-funded Democratic Party but provides for the necessities of the people and protection of the planet.

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