During the second #2016 presidential debate, a nimble #Donald Trump (R) squared off against a heavily scripted #Hillary Clinton (D), and an unlikely subject became one of the most tweeted topics: energy policy. Ken Bone, a town hall member, asked near the end of the debate, “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?”
His question and each candidate’s response quickly sent Twitter and Facebook into overload. The St. Louis native even got his own #kenbone hashtag. Just add this to the crazy, historical #Election 2016. Even BuzzFeed is calling Ken Bone the hero of the debate (while more serious outlets say Trump was the winner, and Hillary was off her game).
Trump responded by saying that under President Obama’s administration, the energy industry is “under siege.” The EPA, Trump said, was “killing these energy companies. And foreign companies are now coming in buying our — buying so many of our different plants and then re-jiggering the plant so that they can take care of their oil. We are killing, absolutely killing our energy business in this country.”
Trump also talked about his energy policy: “I’m all for alternative forms of energy, including wind, solar, etc. But we need much more than wind and solar. And you look at our miners. Hillary Clinton wants to put all the miners out of business. There is a thing called clean coal.” Trump was referring to coal plants that scrub their vented emissions and pump mostly water vapor into the atmosphere.
