Editor,
With much of community life on pandemic pause, Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s virtual Candidate Forum in Indiana’s 5th District occurred as planned on Earth Day, April 22. It is available for viewing at https://bit.ly/CCLForum.
Four candidates were present for the forum: Republican Matthew Hook, Democrats Dee Thornton and Jennifer Christie and Libertarian Ken Tucker. They are united in climate change concern. All favored passage of HR 763, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend bill.
Matthew Hook, who refers to himself as “an old CPA and finance guy,” asserts that we should eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. Clean energy will create jobs. He co-owns a wind farm, drives a hybrid and heats with a geothermal furnace. All of these choices make environmental and economic sense.
Dee Thornton warns against lack of preparedness, noting our disastrous pandemic experience. It is time to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and reinstate auto mileage standards.
Jennifer Christie, environmental chemist and mother of four young children, enumerated many pros for HR 763: bipartisan support, allows us to achieve net zero emissions relatively quickly, drives innovation and applies a truer cost to carbon. Outreach to young people is among her campaign tenets.
Ken Tucker states that we are beyond the preemptive action stage in climate change. We must focus on the crisis. Indiana is third in the nation in wind power. Let’s expand on that.
CCL’s virtual forum was an excellent way to meet the candidates. I enjoyed their collegial interaction, picked a favorite and feel ready to vote.
Myrna Gray, Indianapolis
