In her first major break with US President Barack Obama over environmental policy, Hillary Clinton said she opposed drilling in the Alaskan Arctic because it is too dangerous.
“The Arctic is a unique treasure,” Clinton announced in a personally signed tweet on Tuesday. “Given what we know, it’s not worth the risk of drilling.”
The statement came just one day after the Obama administration gave final permitting approval for Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean’s Chukchi Sea, a move environmentalists fiercely oppose.
It provides the latest indication that Clinton will move to the left on environmental policy: late last month she laid out a climate plan in which she pledged the US would obtain 33 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2027, which exceeds Obama’s goal to generate 20 per cent of America’s electricity by 2030. Right now, renewable energy accounts for 7 percent of the nation’s electric power supply.
Clinton is the leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2016 eledction.
The issue of drilling in the Arctic is a contentious one, and comes just two weeks before Obama is set to become the first U.S. president to ever visit the Alaskan Arctic. Obama has consistently defended the idea of drilling there despite potential risks, saying Shell had taken additional precautions under pressure from federal regulators.
