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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the National Clean Energy Summit 7.0 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on Sept. 4, 2014, in Las Vegas. Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Last Updated Sep 4, 2014 9:45 PM EDT

Hillary Clinton predicted Thursday the United States will become the leading 21st century "superpower" in clean energy if the nation confronts the "most consequential, urgent, sweeping collection of challenges we face."

"We shouldn't have to state the obvious ... the data is unforgiving" in demonstrating that climate change and environmental crises are at hand, Clinton said at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.

Waving off a passionate sector of Americans who believe otherwise, she cited melting ice caps and the discovery of "carbon dioxide in our atmosphere not seen in millions of years" as evidence of potentially disastrous climate change.

"The threat is real - but so is the opportunity," Clinton said.

"If we come together to make the hard choices, the smart investment in infrastructure, technology and environmental protection, America can be the clean energy superpower for the 21st century," she added.

The speech, which yielded little news but drew impressive audience numbers and hefty national media coverage, was a safe bet for Clinton on all fronts. It offered the 2016 Democratic presidential early frontrunner a chance to plug her book, "Hard Choices," her work as secretary of state and the Clinton Global Initiative. She was also squarely among friends.

Clinton was introduced by her longtime cohort and former colleague, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who largely orchestrated the event. And she concluded her remarks with a Q&A moderated by longtime family adviser John Podesta, who's rumored to top a shortlist of contenders to chair her White House campaign should she mount one.

Coincidentally, though, the summit's timing pitted Clinton in something of an unplanned head-to-head against a potential 2016 Republican rival. Just 24 hours earlier, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie delivered before a crowd in Mexico City a strongly conservative approach for how to seize on "the North American energy renaissance."

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Hillary Clinton urges U.S. to become clean energy "superpower"

Sep 4, 2014 10:20pm

If Hillary Clinton has it her way, every casino in Las Vegas would soon be getting a makeover.

During her keynote at the 7th annual National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas today, Clinton called for companies to retrofit buildings to become more energy efficient, and challenged the citys biggest industrycasinosto start making the change.

Imagine if every casino in Las Vegas retrofitted to improve energy efficiency and if they made it possible for all their employees to do the same in their homes, Clinton said. It would save on utility bills. It would save on energy. It would save on greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Clinton, retrofitting buildings is the most overlooked opportunity for clean energy in the United States, as it also helps to create jobs and save money.

We are once again not doing the lowest hanging fruit picking that we could.

Clinton cited an initiative created by the Clinton Foundation, which helped retrofit the Empire State building in New York City as an example to emulate. According to Clinton, the project, which included an overhaul of 2.8 million square feet of office space, created 275 jobs over two years, saved the building $4.4 million annually, and dropped the buildings annual energy consumption by 38 percent.

The majority of Clintons keynote was focused on the need to make the United States a global leader in the fight against climate change. Clinton commented on fracking, saying we must put in place smart regulations but also know when not to drill when the risks are too high. And she vehemently put down climate change deniers, saying that Republicans who stop investment in clean energy are denying people jobs and upward mobility.

The Keystone XL Pipeline, however, was never mentioned.

Clintons remarks came at the end of Senator Harry Reids annual day-long National Clean Energy Summit, and was followed by a 30-minute Q&A with White House Counselor (and, according to a new report from Politico, a top contender to be Hillary Clintons campaign chairman should she decide to run for president) John Podesta.

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In Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton Pushes for Energy-Efficient Casinos

The Democratic Party that rejected Hillary Clinton in 2008 is even more distant from her now. Its more resistant to military entanglements, more leery of Wall Street and more firmly in favor of pot smoking.

And theres Clinton, still stubbornly centrist to the core, straddling the fence on legalizing marijuana, staying close to her supporters in the world of finance, making clear shed have armed Syrian moderates when President Barack Obama didnt -- and all but certain to win the partys nomination this time.

If this Clinton Paradox seems hard to explain, its not, some Democrats contend.

Rather than having fallen in love with Clinton, many of her would-be detractors are motivated by a trio of cold calculations: They want to win, shes the strongest candidate in an otherwise weak 2016 field, and she might prove better at advancing items on their agenda than Obama, who has struggled to push a legislative agenda since Democrats lost control of the U.S. House two years into his first term.

Clinton could be forgiven for chuckling at the irony. Turns out for a lot of Democrats, Obamas hope and change was a lot more hope than change -- which was her point all along in 2008.

Regardless of your philosophical leanings within the Democratic Party, theres overwhelming support for Clinton, says Mitch Stewart, who embodies the changes of mind and money about Clinton that have made her the clear choice of a Democratic Party that sent her packing six years ago.

If she runs again, advisers to Hillary Clinton have said, shell do more to appeal to voters who want to see the first woman president -- a tack she avoided in the early stages of the 2008 campaign but began to embrace at the end. Close

If she runs again, advisers to Hillary Clinton have said, shell do more to appeal to... Read More

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If she runs again, advisers to Hillary Clinton have said, shell do more to appeal to voters who want to see the first woman president -- a tack she avoided in the early stages of the 2008 campaign but began to embrace at the end.

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Different Party, Different Year, Same Hillary

LAS VEGAS Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday the United States should become what she called the worlds 21st-century clean energy superpower, during remarks resembling both a campaign speech and a call to action at the annual National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.

Clinton cast the threat of global climate change as real, and the most consequential, urgent, sweeping collection of challenges faced by the nation and the world.

The data is unforgiving, the former New York senator and first lady said to a standing room crowd of more than 800 people at a Las Vegas Strip resort. No matter what the deniers try to assert. Sea levels are rising. Ice caps are melting. Storms, droughts and wildfires are wreaking havoc.

The threat is real but so is the opportunity, she said.

Clinton, widely considered a leading Democratic candidate for president, used her speech to plug her book, Hard Choices, and the work of the Clinton Climate Initiative arm of a foundation founded in 2005 by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

She also segued into the topic of the day at the seventh annual green energy conference hosted by U.S. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Clinton credited northern Nevadas selection for a $5 billion Tesla automobile battery plant to the emergence of Nevada as a leader in solar, wind and geothermal energy projects.

She also cited a quote by Robert Lang, director of Brookings Mountain West, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, comparing the promised investment in the Tesla plant near Reno to the importance of the 1930s Hoover Dam project on the Colorado River east of Las Vegas.

Nevada was competitive because it had already invested in green energy, solar, geothermal and wind, Clinton said.

Clintons speech to a standing-room crowd of more than 800 marked her return to the Las Vegas Strip hotel where a 36-year-old Phoenix woman was arrested in April after throwing a shoe but missing Clinton on stage. Security was tight, with federal agents and local police visible, and there was no similar disruption on Thursday.

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Hillary Clinton: U.S. should lead on clean energy

Its clear that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have hugged it out.

In a review of Henry Kissingers new book, Clinton lauds her former boss, quoting his Nobel lecture in 2009 and describing her pride in helping Obama to begin reimagining and reinforcing the global order to meet the demands of an increasingly interdependent age.

Clinton penned the review of Kissingers World Order for The Washington Post, noting in her positive appraisal that he is a friend.

It is vintage Kissinger, with his singular combination of breadth and acuity along with his knack for connecting headlines to trend lines very long trend lines in this case, she writes. (He is 91, after all.)

Throughout the piece, Clinton presents herself and Obama as an ideological team on foreign policy: what comes through clearly in this new book is a conviction that we, and President Obama, share: a belief in the indispensability of continued American leadership in service of a just and liberal order.

This, of course, stands in stark contrast to critical comments she made in early August assessing Obamas handling of burgeoning issues overseas. But the two former political foes have made up.

Notably, Clinton shows remarkable self-restraint in waiting 939 words before mentioning her own book, Hard Choices.

Colby Itkowitz is a national reporter for In The Loop.

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In the Loop: Clinton reviews Kissinger, makes up with Obama