Hillary Rodham Clinton used today’s the 50th anniversary of the Soviets launch of the Sputnik satellite to unveil a science agenda that would include a presidential executive order allowing “ethical stem cell research’’ and banning political appointees from altering the scientific conclusions in government publications.
Clinton also called on a focus on alternative energy – “We can call it energy 2.0’’ – that would end the United State’s dependence on foreign oil.
Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, pledged that if elected she would have a science advisor in the White House who will report directly to the president.
Even before Clinton uttered a word of her speech, she came under attack from the Republican National Committee which pointed out she “is lecturing about math, even though she’s having trouble adding up the figures to pay for her own health care plan.’’
Clinton did not put a dollar figure on her entire package, but she has pledged to spend $50 billion on a Strategic Energy Fund to promote energy conservation and combat global warming.
The 59-year-old presidential candidate noted that the Soviet satellite that beat the United States in the first leg of the space race fascinated her as a little girl. She recalled doing her eighth science project on space medicine and in junior high applied to NASA on how to become an astronaut.
