Energy

Biden attacks Trump's climate record amid Western wildfires, lays out his plan


Democratic presidential nominee Joe BidenJoe BidenCrowd aims ‘lock him up’ chant at Obama during Trump rally Biden campaign plans to run ad during every NFL game until Election Day LA mayor condemns protesters shouting ‘death to police’ outside hospital treating ambushed officers MORE hit President TrumpDonald John TrumpCrowd aims ‘lock him up’ chant at Obama during Trump rally Nevada governor: Trump ‘taking reckless and selfish actions’ in holding rally Michigan lieutenant governor blasts Trump coronavirus response: He ‘is a liar who has killed people’ MORE for his climate denialism Monday, attacking the president for failing to respond to natural disasters like the wildfires raging across the West while outlining an economic vision he promises will clean the environment. 

Responding to fires that have raged for weeks across California, Oregon, and Washington, Biden took a broader view, listing off disasters from flooding in the Midwest, to hurricanes battling the Southeast and accusing Trump of ignoring the changing climate as the underlying thread exacerbating each.

“What we’re seeing in America, in our communities, is connected to all of this, with every bout with nature’s fury caused by our own inaction on climate change,” Biden said from Delaware.

“If we give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If we leave a climate denier with four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is underwater. We need a president that respects science, understands that the damage from climate change is already here. Unless we take urgent action, it will soon be more catastrophic.”

Trump didn’t publicly acknowledge the fires that have been raging for weeks in the West until a Friday night tweet, thanking firefighters and first responder for their work and adding that he is “with them all the way.” 

His Monday visit to the state came sandwiched between campaign stops in Nevada and Arizona on a swing out West and included a closed-door briefing on the wildfires in McClellan Park, Calif., a former air base now a hub for officials combatting the blazes.

Trump has repeatedly denied or diminished climate science and climate change–something that has increasingly become a central line of attack for Democrats. 

California Gov. Gavin NewsomGavin NewsomNewsom signs legislation changing sex offender law in California Newsom signs legislation allowing pathway for inmate firefighters to become professional after release Trump to visit California Monday amid West Coast wildfires MORE (D) has blamed climate change for the hot, dry air, drought, and lightning storms that set the state ablaze.

“This is a climate damn emergency,” Newsom said Friday while surveying damage in Northern California.

“The debate is over on climate change,” Newsom added. “Just come to the state of California.”

Experts say both climate change and mismanagement of public lands are a contributing factor to the extreme fires. The federal government oversees more than 45 percent of the acreage in California.

Biden also attacked Trump for past comments he’s made about California’s management techniques, referring to 2018 comments where the president said the state needed to be “raking and cleaning” the forest floor.   

“This is another crisis, another crisis, he won’t take responsibility for. The West is literally on fire. And he blames the people whose homes and communities are burning. He says, ‘You got to clean your floors; you got to clean your forest.’ This is the same president who threw paper towels on the people of Puerto Rico.”

Trump has already approved disaster declarations for the wildfires, but at an August rally he flouted the idea of withholding emergency funding to California.

“Maybe we’re just going to have to make them pay for it because they don’t listen to us,” Trump said at a Pennsylvania rally last month, according to Politico, again referencing cleaning the forest floor of leaves and brush.

Biden pointed to a history of Trump comments threatening to withhold emergency funding to various states, saying the president needs to “care for everyone.”

“Here’s the deal. Hurricanes don’t swerve to avoid red states or blue states. Wildfires don’t skip towns that voted a certain way. The impacts of climate change don’t pick and choose. That’s because it’s not a partisan phenomenon,” Biden said, adding later that Trump “has already said he wanted to withhold aid to California, punish the people of California, because they didn’t vote for him.”

The former vice president sees fighting climate change as part of his economic vision, one that will create new jobs as the U.S. develops technology to battle rising temperatures.

Biden’s climate plan would fight global warming with a transition to cleaner technologies, including electric vehicles and renewable energy, as well as a requirement that all power be carbon free by 2035. 

This story is developing.





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