Despite Dem Platform Fail, McKibben May Get A Shot At Senate Environment Committee

Radical Environmentalist Bill McKibben may have a chance to dangerously impact the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee if his friend Bernie Sanders is named chairman

September 20, 2016

It’s been a rough year for Bill McKibben: his efforts to further radicalize an extreme Democratic Party platform failed in committee this summer, and his chosen presidential candidate, democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), lost his primary to Hillary Clinton.

But fear not, Bill! Politico’s Morning Energy suggests you may get another chance to move the Democratic Party further to the left through your firm ally, Sen. Sanders:

Even as Democrats have lurched leftward on climate policy in recent years, the party appears likely to elevate Sen. Tom Carper — a moderate who backed the Keystone XL oil pipeline — to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer for the top spot on the Environment and Public Works Committee next year, Pro’s Elana Schor and Darius Dixon report. The Delaware Democrat tells POLITICO it’s “a little too early to decide” whether he wants to lead Democrats on the environment committee, leaving the door cracked ajar for Sen. Bernie Sanders to possibly claim the gavel.

You read that right: Bernie’s consolation prize for his 2016 campaign may be a chairmanship in the Senate committee that manages the energy portfolio of Congress, should Democrats take back the Senate.

McKibben, a one-child-only advocate and gas tax proponent, is very close to Sanders. Just last month, McKibben introduced the senator to tens of thousands of livestreamers for the launch of the senator’s “Our Revolution” political group.

If Sanders is running the Senate’s energy and environment platform, McKibben will have his biggest opportunity yet to dangerously impact national policy on energy.

This is a scary thought, given that McKibben – a prolific op-ed drafter – recently wrote op-eds supporting a carbon tax, opposing biomass as a renewable form of energy, and comparing an incident at a pipeline protest to brutal civil rights violations in the 1960s.

Democrats have already passed their most extreme platform ever this year. Now, it seems, they are prepared to hand over national energy policy to the fringe crew of Bernie Sanders and Bill McKibben.