Candidates’ exchange on energy policy from the second presidential debate. Transcript
courtesy of Politico.
Anderson Cooper: We have one more question from Ken Bone about energy policy.
Bone: What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs, while at the same
time remaining environmentally-friendly and minimizing job loss for fossil power plant
workers?
Cooper: Mr. Trump, two minutes.
Donald Trump: Such a great question because energy is under siege by the Obama
administration. Under absolute siege. The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, is killing
these energy companies. And foreign companies are now coming in. Buying so many of our
different plants and then rejiggering the plant, so they take care of their oil. We are killing,
absolutely killing our energy business in this country. Now I am all for alternative forms of
energy including: wind and solar, etc. But we need much more than wind and solar. And you
look at the miners, Hillary Clinton wants to put the miners out of business. There is a thing
called clean coal. Coal will last for 1,000 years in this country. Now we have natural gas, and
so other things because of technology, we have unbelievable, we have found over the last
seven years, we found tremendous wealth right under our feet. So good, especially when you
have $20 trillion in debt. I will bring our energy companies back and they will be able to
compete and they’ll make money and pay off our national debt and budget deficits which are
tremendous. But we are putting our energy companies out of business. We have to bring
back our workers. You take a look at what's happening to steel and the cost of steel and
China dumping vast amounts steel all over the United States, which essentially is killing our
steelworkers and steel companies. We have to guard our energy companies, we have to make
it possible. The EPA is so restrictive that they are putting our energy companies out of
business. And all you have to do is go to a great place like West Virginia or places like Ohio
which is phenomenal or places like Pennsylvania and you see what they are doing to the
people, miners and others in the energy business. It's a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace.
Cooper: Your time is up. Secretary Clinton, two minutes.
Hillary Clinton: Well, that was very interesting. First of all, China is illegally dumping steel
in the United States and Donald Trump is buying it to build his buildings, putting
steelworkers and American steel plants out of business. That's something that I fought
against as a senator and something I would have a trade prosecutor to make sure we don't get
taken advantage of by China on steel or anything else. You know because it sounds like you
are in the business or you’re aware of people in the business. You know that we are now for
the first time energy independent. We are not dependent on the Middle East, but the Middle
East controls a lot of prices. So the price of oil has been way down and that has a damaging
effect on a lot the oil companies, right? We are however producing a lot of natural gas that
serves as a bridge to more renewable fuels and I think that's an important transition. We’ve
got to remain energy independent. It gives us much more power and freedom than to be
worried about what goes on in the Middle East. We have enough worried over there without

 having to worry about that. So I have a comprehensive energy policy, but it really does
include fighting climate change because I think that is a serious problem. And I support
moving towards more clean renewable energy as quickly as we can. Because I think we can
be the 21st century clean energy superpower and create millions of new jobs and businesses.
But I want to be sure that we don't leave people behind. That’s why I'm the only candidate
from the very beginning of this campaign who had a plan to help us revitalize coal country.
Because those coal miners and their fathers and grandfathers, they dug that coal out, a lot of
them lost their lives. They were injured. But they turn the lights on and powered our
factories. I don't want to walk away from them. So we’ve got to do something for them. But
the price of coal is down worldwide. We have to look at this comprehensively and that's
what I have proposed. I hope you will go to hillaryclinton.com and read my entire policy.