Greens to pursue recount plea
STEIN FIRM: The candidate vows to bring Pennsylvania recount petition to federal court
HARRISBURG: Green Party candidate Jill Stein late on Saturday vowed to bring her fight for a recount of votes cast in Pennsylvania in the US presidential election to federal court, after a state judge ordered her campaign to post a $1-million bond. “The Stein campaign will continue to fight for a statewide recount in Pennsylvania,” Jonathan Abady, lead counsel to Stein’s recount efforts, said in a statement. Saying it has become clear that “the state court system is so ill-equipped to address this problem,” the statement said “we must seek federal court intervention.” The Stein campaign said it will file for emergency relief in the Pennsylvania effort in federal court on Monday, “demanding a statewide recount on constitutional grounds.” The bond was set by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania a day after representatives of President-elect Donald Trump requested a $10-million bond, according to court papers. The court gave the petitioners until 5 pm local time (2200 GMT) on Monday to post the bond, but said it could modify the amount if shown good cause. Instead, Stein’s campaign withdrew. “Petitioners are regular citizens of ordinary means. They cannot afford to post the $1,000,000 bond required by the court,” wrote attorney Lawrence Otter, informing the court of the decision to withdraw. Stein, who garnered about 1 per cent of the presidential vote on November 8, has also sought recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump won narrow victories over Democrat Hillary Clinton in all three states, part of the industrial heartland of the country until manufacturers started leaving for Mexico and other low-wage countries. Trump and his allies have attempted to stop the initiatives in the states, calling the recount effort a “scam.” Clinton’s campaign has said it would take part in the recounts. “The judge’s outrageous demand that voters pay such an exorbitant figure is a shameful, unacceptable barrier to democratic participation,” Stein said in a statement. “No voter in America should be forced to pay thousands of dollars to know if her or his vote was counted.” Stein said she planned to announce “the next step” in the recount effort on Monday at a previously scheduled news conference at Trump Tower in New York City. She said recounts already under way in some Pennsylvania counties would continue. The state’s election commission had approved recounts in 75 precincts where voters requested one, but refused to allow a full forensic audit of voting machines. Even if all the recounts were to take place, the overall election outcome would not likely change. The race is decided by the Electoral College, or a tally of wins from the state-by-state contests, rather than by the popular national vote. OSLO: US greenhouse gas emissions are likely to fall irrespective of the pro-coal policies of President-elect Donald Trump, who may still surprise the world by embracing global action to limit climate change, former vice-president Al Gore said.
Gore, a climate activist who will lead a 24-hour televised marathon on December 5-6 about global efforts to limit rising temperatures, said that companies and US states would cut emissions despite Trump’s doubts that warming is manmade.
“Business alone, along with states, will almost guarantee that we meet the reduction targets (set by US President Barack Obama) regardless of the policies the new president ends up adopting,” Gore said in a phone interview.
Obama wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by between 26 and 28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2025, a goal opposed by Trump who wants to promote jobs and bolster national security by exploiting more US coal, oil and natural gas.
Gore said companies were finding that both customers and employees, especially the young, wanted greener, less polluting products. And prices of electricity from solar or wind power were falling below the cost of coal-fired power in many nations.
A Democrat, Gore also said it was premature to assume that Republican Trump would carry out campaign pledges to ditch the 2015 Paris Agreement signed by almost 200 nations, which aims to end the fossil fuel era by shifting to renewables in the second half of the century.
“It’s too early to write off the prospects of the new administration surprising people like me on the upside,” said Gore, a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his work to highlight the risks of global warming.
During the campaign, Gore once said Trump’s policies would “take us toward a climate catastrophe.”
Trump has dismissed the idea of man-made climate change as a hoax but told the New York Times on November 22 that he had an “open mind” on the Paris Agreement, softening past opposition.
After Trump won, Gore offered on November 9 to “do everything I can to work with him (Trump) and his administration.” He declined comment when asked if Trump’s transition team had been in touch.
Gore said it was hard to keep all campaign promises upon assuming what he called the “awesome responsibilities” of government, citing his own experiences from 1993-2001 with former president Bill Clinton.
Gore’s Climate Reality Project will run a 24-hour broadcast from Monday at 2300 GMT, televised in 75 nations and available globally online, about actions to slow climate change in major emitters led by China, the United States, India and Russia.
It will also feature celebrities including Ryan Reynolds, Jon Bon Jovi, Carole King, Thirty Seconds to Mars and PJ Harvey.