In this blog, we examine the policies and position of Marquita Bradshaw, the Democratic nominee for Tennessee's U.S. Senator. Also in this series we profile Bill Hagerty, the Republican nominee for the seat.
Guest Blog | August 27, 2020 | Elections, Energy Policy, Tennessee
This blog post was written by Brady Watson, former Civic Engagement Coordinator for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
This post is part of a series of blogs examining where 2020 Southeastern candidates for state and federal offices stand on key energy and climate issues. Note: The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy does not support or oppose candidates or political parties. Links to reports, candidate websites and outside sources are provided as citizen education tools.
READ THE ‘WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND’ BLOG SERIES
In this blog, we examine the policies and position of Marquita Bradshaw, the Democratic nominee for Tennessee’s U.S. Senator. Also in this series we profile Bill Hagerty, the Republican nominee for the seat.
Marquita Bradshaw is a Tennessee native who grew up in South Memphis, and is an alumna of the University of Memphis. She has built a career in the environmental justice movement with groups like the Sierra Club, and an advocate for human rights with labor groups including the AFL-CIO. She has one child, a son.
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
“We can improve national security when we transition to cleaner technologies of energy and implement a plan to rapidly phase and scale up renewable sources of energy,” Bradshaw said when interviewed by the Crossville Chronicle this spring.
On Bradshaw’s website, she says we should invest heavily in training, education, and career opportunities for professionals who are desperately needed in a rapidly changing environment: biologists, climatologists, renewable energy engineers, inventors, regenerative farmers, conservationists, and specialists in fields as far-ranging as soil regeneration to closed-loop waste disposal to renewable energy financiers.
Climate Change
Bradshaw supports the Green New Deal and its initiatives to usher in a new era of economic growth for Tennessee. According to Bradshaw, this includes investing heavily in infrastructure, jobs and leaving our state a cleaner place for our children to explore.
Electric Transportation
We were unable to confirm the candidate’s position on this energy-related issue in published media, public records, or the campaign website.
Energy Equity and Energy Burden
Bradshaw has built her career working in the environmental justice space, and wants to build or retrofit manufacturing plants, particularly in fence line polluted communities and communities that have lost manufacturing jobs over the last four decades.
“My environmental justice work has taken me all over the state where I have met and engaged with people who are concerned with labor, environment, education, taxes, trade, and social justice policies. I am ready to serve, engage, and represent the people of Tennessee,” says Bradshaw on her campaign website and covered by the Washington Post.
She believes federal oversight and audit of the remediation of brownfields and superfund sites is needed, and that remediation should be paid for by polluters, not taxpayers.
High-Risk Energy (Coal, Nuclear, Oil, Gas)
On nuclear energy, Bradshaw stated this on her campaign website: “Our current leadership has failed Tennessee in this regard and has sought to turn Tennessee into a landfill for nuclear waste.”
If you are interested in learning more about where your state’s candidates for federal and state office stand on energy, click here to access the entire 2020 blog series. We encourage readers to register to vote well before registration deadlines, which are in early October but vary by state, and vote in the general election on or before November 3, 2020. For voting information in Tennessee, including updates about the impact of COVID-19 on voting, click here. Stay tuned for more posts in this series to come!
READ THE ‘WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND’ BLOG SERIES
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