Clinton Announces Energy Plan, Wants to Install A Half-Billion Solar Panels By End Of First Term

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Sunday she doesn't want future generations looking back and us and wondering how we could "possibly be so irresponsible" when it comes to climate change. Clinton, in announcing her climate and energy agenda, made her first goal having more than a half-billion solar panels installed across the country by the end of her first term. Her second goal is to generate enough renewable energy to power every home in America within 10 years of taking office.

“Future generations will look back and wonder what were we thinking. How could we possibly be so irresponsible?” Clinton said in the opening seconds of a video posted to her website. “I’m just a grandmother with two eyes and a brain, and I know what’s happening in the world is going to have a big effect on my daughter, and especially on my granddaughter.”

In the video, Clinton said the renewable energy industry prevents as many as 70,000 asthma attacks and 3,000 premature deaths each year. Last year, the industry created 50,000 jobs and drove more than $35 billion in investments, according to the video.

“It’s hard to believe there are people running for president who still refuse to accept the settled science of climate change, who’d rather remind us they're not scientists than listen to those who are,” Clinton said in the video. “You don’t have to be a scientist to take on this urgent challenge that threatens us all. You just have to be willing to act.”

Clinton reinforced her energy plan at a campaign stop in Ames, Iowa, calling for an extension of federal clean energy tax incentives and to make them more cost effective, Reuters reported.

She also has plans to fight back against efforts that attempt to push back President Barack Obama’s executive actions to curb carbon emissions from power plants. Clinton will be talking about her proposals Monday at an energy-efficient transit station Iowa.