According to an article today in Bloomberg:
Wealthy democratic environmentalists are considering withholding support for a 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential bid unless she reassures them about their top priority: Killing the Keystone XL pipeline. “She’s kind of a closed book on the environment,” said Guy Saperstein, an Oakland-based venture capitalist and former president of the San Francisco-based Sierra Club Foundation. “I, for one, would not support her until she gives us more information.”
We highlighted Clinton’s duck and dodge on Keystone here and here.
Bloomberg continues:
Betsy Taylor, a political strategist who is working with environmental activists and donors, has heard other contributors talk of backing away from Clinton without more assurances on their top issue. To ward off that action, she’s using data to nudge the would-be candidate to clarify her stance.
“Many of Mrs. Clinton’s most prominent supporters hope she will acknowledge the rapidly changing data on climate disruption,” Taylor said. “New data is in, and Hillary is a woman who respects the facts. We hope she’ll encourage the president to step up and deny this permit.”
Potential Clinton donors aren’t the only ones who see her Keystone silence as problematic. The liberal grassroots organization MoveOn has posted a petition asking where’s Hillary on the Keystone XL pipeline? So far, the petition has over 16,900 Democrat signatures.
Clinton heads to Canada again next week to speak before the Montreal Board of Trade. Maybe the prospect of a potential donor backlash will encourage her to weigh in on Keystone – but we highly doubt it.