Hillary Clinton's campaign pledge that on day one as president she would commit to an "ambitious national goal" of "half a billion solar panels installed across the country by the end of my first term" is the subject of my column this week. Please check it out at the New York Sun (here), Reason (here), and Newsmax (here).
The New York Times sheds further light on the solar issue in a news article:
The Clinton campaign emphasized that her targets cleared a bar set last week by the billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, who spent $74 million on political races in 2014. He announced that for candidates to receive his support in 2016, they must offer policies that would lead the nation to generate half its electricity from clean sources by 2030, and 100 percent by 2050....
Although Mrs. Clinton has emphasized fighting global warming as a priority in earlier speeches, the role of a single large donor, Mr. Steyer, in apparently influencing the details of her proposal was suggested by her press secretary, Brian Fallon. On Twitter he said, "Counting nuclear, as Steyer does, she exceeds his 50 percent goal" for 2030.
If the Times genuinely believes Mrs. Clinton's energy-policy decisions are being driven by "a single large donor," it might be worth a headline or an editorial, too, given the paper's professed desire to get big money out of politics. Otherwise it might look as if there is one standard for Adeleson and Koch, another standard for Steyer.