Hillary Clinton was the only presidential candidate to attend the Greater Houston Partnership’s America’s Energy Future summit on Thursday.  Facing a “tepid” crowd of energy industry leaders, Clinton said subsidies for Big Oil are not a sustainable investment. 

“I do not believe that now is the time when subsidies for the oil companies are necessary and appropriate,” Clinton said. Instead, “it is now time to subsidize new forms of energy,” she said according to an article from the Houston Chronicle.   

Her message suggests she will support an energy bill currently working its way through the Senate, which would finance more than $18 million in tax credits to renewable energy by ending subsidies to domestic oil producers like ExxonMobil.  

Her speech was described as “gutsy” by William Sweeney, Jr., vice president of government affairs for EDS, and she was dubbed ”the brave one” by the environmental blog Grist.

“Surrounded by folks from the energy industry, days before the crucial Texas primary, Clinton elected not to tell Big Oil what it wanted to hear…Clinton also boosted green-collar jobs, green building, solar power, and higher fuel-economy standards.”