What Conservatives and Climate Hawks Learned From the CNN Climate Town Hall

Photo Credit: CNN

by Julia Pyper
September 11, 2019

Who stood out at the CNN Climate Crisis Town Hall? How did conservatives react? Did general voters even care?

Democratic presidential candidates covered a lot of ground over the course of the seven-hour climate policy telethon — from fracking bans to a new CarbonStar program, coal worker retraining programs to a major environmental justice fund. While there was widespread consensus on the need for climate action, some key differences also emerged between the contenders.

We discuss the top takeaways from town hall, as well as the latest candidate climate plans, in this week’s episode of Political Climate.

To understand how the Democratic platforms resonated on the right, we’re joined by Charles Hernick, director of policy and advocacy at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a non-profit organization founded to engage Republican policymakers and the public on conservative solutions to meeting the nation’s energy needs while preserving the environment.

Emma Foehringer Merchant, staff writer for Greentech Media, also joins the show to explain what’s new and novel in the latest release of candidate climate proposals.