Former Pence Aid Endorses Biden, Says Trump Cared More About Re-election Than Stopping Coronavirus
18 September
Politics
In an ad released by Republican Voters Against Trump, former coronavirus task force member Olivia Troye roasted the president for his response. Republican Voters Against Trump / YouTube
Yet another former Trump administration staffer has come out with an endorsement for former Vice President Joe Biden, this time in response to President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
<p>In an ad released by Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT) Thursday, a former homeland security advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, as well as his top aide on the White House coronavirus task force, accused the president of caring more about his chances of reelection than the pandemic.</p><p>"Towards the middle of February, we knew it wasn't a matter of if Covid would become a big pandemic here, it was a matter of when," the aide, Olivia Troye, said in the video, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/17/politics/former-pence-aide-coronvirus-task-force-slams-trump/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>. "But the President didn't want to hear that, because his biggest concern was that we were in an election year, and how was this going to affect what he considered to be his record of success?"</p>
<div id="af97a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="998a352f5cc7ff389416d2b3276d97c9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1306685541220524046" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">NEW AD: @OliviaTroye was @VP's lead staffer on COVID-19. She put her heart & soul into the job.
After a while she… https://t.co/Erfsf9W6cY</div> — Republican Voters Against Trump (@Republican Voters Against Trump)<a href="https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/statuses/1306685541220524046">1600373084.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Troye also said she witnessed Trump dismiss the severity of the new disease.</p><p>"It was shocking to see the president saying that the virus was a hoax, saying that everything's OK when we know that it's not," Troye said. "The truth is, he doesn't actually care about anyone else but himself."</p><p>Troye's video comes about a week after the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-coronavirus-woodward-tapes-2647565763.html" target="_self">release of tapes</a> in which Trump acknowledged to journalist Bob Woodward that he did in fact understand the severity of the virus, but downplayed the risks to the public in order to prevent panic. The disease has now sickened more than 6.6 million Americans and killed almost 200,000, according to Friday morning figures from <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">Johns Hopkins University</a>.<br></p>
<p>In another shocking revelation, Troye recalled an extremely callous remark Trump had made about the new disease.</p><p>"Maybe this Covid thing's a good thing," Troye claimed the president said during a meeting. "I don't like shaking hands with people. I don't have to shake hands with these disgusting people."</p><p>Troye continued by reflecting that "those disgusting people" were the same people who supported the president and who he claimed to care about, as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/olivia-troye-pence-advisor-endorses-biden-coronavirus-task-force/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CBS News reported</a>.</p><p>"If the president had taken this virus seriously, or if he had actually made an effort to tell how serious it was, he would have slowed the virus spread, he would have saved lives," Troye said.</p>
<p>The White House responded by saying that Troye, who left the administration in late July, was merely lashing out at her former employers.</p><p>"I haven't read her comments in any detail, but it reads to me like one more disgruntled employee who's left the White House and now has decided to play politics during an election year," Pence told reporters, as CNN reported. "I think my staff has indicated that she made no comments like that when she was serving on our team here at the White House coronavirus task force."</p><p>White House spokesperson Judd Deere said that Troye never attended private meetings with the president and that her statements were inaccurate, as CBS News reported. And White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1306747024210001922" target="_blank">tweeted</a> a letter Troye sent to the coronavirus task force upon her departure in which she praised its members for their efforts.</p>
<div id="2a391" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2ec3a912ad5dfd294d10417281f42254"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1306747024210001922" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Interesting departure letter from a disgruntled former detailee who typically sat in the overflow room of task forc… https://t.co/wWBvf1Vusx</div> — Kayleigh McEnany (@Kayleigh McEnany)<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec/statuses/1306747024210001922">1600387743.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>However, POLITICO pointed out that the letter was addressed to the task force and did not mention Trump, while Troye's video criticized Trump specifically. In the ad, Troye maintained that serving on the task force was the "honor of a lifetime," but she felt her efforts were undermined by Trump's decisions.</p><p>"I put my heart and soul into this role every single day," she said in the ad, as POLITICO reported. "But at some points I would come home at night, I would look myself in the mirror and say, are you really making a difference? Because no matter how hard you work or what you do, the president is going to do something detrimental to keeping Americans safe."</p><p>Fellow task force member and top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that Troye was a "good person" and "important to the team," as CBS News reported.</p>
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Trump Denies Climate Science in California, Biden Labels Him a 'Climate Arsonist'
15 September
Politics
Trump meets with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials in McClellan Park, California on Sept. 14, 2020. CBC News: The National / YouTube
The climate crisis has wedged its way into the presidential campaign as President Trump, who has barely mentioned the fires raging on the West Coast, visited California on Monday. When pressed on global warming, Trump told a briefing, "I don't think science knows, actually."
<p>In the meantime, former Vice President Joe Biden, who has campaigned while observing social distancing, called the president a "climate arsonist" from a museum in his home state Delaware, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/us/politics/trump-biden-climate-change-fires.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>Trump has claimed that the fires were caused by California's mismanagement of forests, even though most of the fires have started and burned on federally owned lands, not state forests.</p><p>On the way to Monday's briefing near Sacramento with California Governor Gavin Newsom and other top Democratic officials, Trump once again blamed forest mismanagement as the issue.</p><p>"When trees fall down after a short period of time, they become very dry — really like a matchstick," Trump said, as The New York Times reported. "And they can explode. Also leaves. When you have dried leaves on the ground, it's just fuel for the fires."</p>
<p>Then he had this exchange during the briefing, as <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/516380-as-wildfires-rage-trump-and-biden-diverge-on-climate" target="_blank">The Hill</a> reported.</p><p>Newsom: "We obviously feel very strongly the hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting dryer. Something has happened to the plumbing of the world and we come from a perspective, humbly, where we submit the science in and observed evidence is self-evident that climate change is real and that is exacerbating this."</p><p>Trump: "Absolutely."</p><p>Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, then warned against putting one's "head in the sand" by ignoring what the data and the science say is happening due the climate crisis.</p><p>Trump: "It'll start getting cooler, you just watch."</p><p>Crowfoot: "I wish science agreed with you,"</p><p>Trump: "I don't think science knows, actually."</p>
<p>Trump did not explain his thoughts or pontificate further on what science does and doesn't know, For millions of Americans, the effects of the climate crisis are difficult to ignore. Another hurricane is headed for the Gulf Coast, which is still recovering from Hurricane Laura a couple of weeks ago. The Southwest saw a record stretch of triple-digit temperature days. On the West Coast, the raging fires have consumed millions of acres and have made the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/west-coast-wildfires-air-pollution-2647637806.html" target="_self">air hazardous to breathe</a> in several cities.</p>
<p>From Delaware, Biden gave a speech where he spoke of his own proposed climate crisis policies and called Trump a "climate arsonist." Biden drew a connection between Trump's handling of climate-crisis issues and his mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial tension roiling through the country, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/devastating-wildfires-out-west-inject-climate-change-into-the-presidential-campaign/2020/09/14/5418cd62-f694-11ea-be57-d00bb9bc632d_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>"If we have four more years of Trump's climate denial, how many suburbs will be burned in wildfires?" Biden asked, as The New York Time reported. "How many suburban neighborhoods will have been flooded out? How many suburbs will have been blown away in superstorms? If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze?"</p><p>"Donald Trump's climate denial may not have caused these fires and record floods and record hurricanes," Biden said, according to The Washington Post. "But if he gets a second term, these hellish events will continue to become more common, more devastating and more deadly."</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b4ba38ee55b4eac2739d8cfe6cd3b95c"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eGtCnuqZnhw?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
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Climate change protesters disrupt Joe Biden during a campaign event on Oct. 9, 2019 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Scott Eisen / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
A diverse coalition of nearly 150 progressive advocacy groups is demanding that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ban fossil fuel executives and lobbyists from his 2020 campaign and commit to barring them from his administration if elected in November, warning that a cabinet stocked with Big Oil representatives would render empty the former vice president's vows to confront the climate crisis with ambition and urgency.
<p>In a <a href="http://oilchangeusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Letter-to-VP-Biden-%E2%80%94-No-Fossil-Fuel-Representatives.pdf" target="_blank">letter</a> Tuesday morning, 145 organizations representing a wide array of progressive interests called on Biden to "ban all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives from any advisory or official position on your campaign, transition team, cabinet, and administration," arguing there are countless qualified experts and advocates who have not attempted to benefit financially from polluting and extractive industries.</p><p>"People who left government to serve on a fossil fuel industry board, enrich themselves as oil and gas advisors, receive funding from fossil fuel companies to espouse 'reasonable' climate positions, or work with industry front groups should have no role in a Biden administration or campaign," the groups wrote. "Neither should fossil fuel backers on Wall Street, who have attempted to profit off pollution."</p>
<p>The letter's signatories — which include Oil Change U.S., Greenpeace, Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, People's Action, and Public Citizen — raised alarm at a Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/climate-hawks-urge-biden-to-shun-obama-era-energy-moderates" target="_blank">report</a> earlier this month indicating that industry-tied individuals like Jason Bordoff, a member of the <a href="https://www.npc.org/members/byNamcon.html" target="_blank">National Petroleum Council</a>, are advising the Biden campaign in an informal capacity.</p><p>"Joe Biden can't address the climate crisis while listening to people taking checks from the fossil fuel industry like Ernest Moniz, Jason Bordoff, Ken Salazar, and Heather Zichal," Collin Rees, senior campaigner at Oil Change U.S., said in a statement. "Biden must act boldly in collaboration with grassroots leaders fighting for environmental and climate justice — which means ruling out positions for dangerous 'all-of-the-above' boosters whose time has passed."</p>
<p>The letter points to <a href="https://filesforprogress.org/datasets/2020/9/dfp_ff_executives_polling.pdf" target="_blank">polling</a> from progressive policy shops Data for Progress and Fossil Free Media showing that 61% of Democratic voters oppose "fossil fuel industry lobbyists or representatives working in the White House and other government agencies." Voters overall oppose fossil fuel industry representatives serving in the federal government by a 22-point margin, the survey found.</p><p>"Banning fossil fuel representatives isn't just good policy — it's good politics," the groups wrote. "Ruling out positions for fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives is a critical way to show your commitment to a future that prioritizes people, not polluters."</p><p>The groups' call comes hours after Biden, speaking in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Monday, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/31/despite-poll-showing-aggressive-climate-action-winning-issue-biden-boasts-i-am-not" target="_blank">told</a> supporters that contrary to President Donald Trump's claims, he has no plan to ban fracking even as he pushes for <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">large investments</a> in clean energy and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/901380014/fact-check-bidens-address-to-the-dnc-annotated" target="_blank">promises</a> to treat the climate crisis like the "existential threat" that it is.</p>
<p>Tamara Toles O'Laughlin of 350 Action said Biden's approach to the climate emergency will be judged not by soaring rhetoric and promises but by his actions during the presidential campaign and, if elected, while in office.</p><p>"Thanks to the environment and climate movement's decades of tireless work to make decision-makers act boldly, the Biden-Harris campaign has adopted the strongest climate platform of any presidential ticket in history," said O'Laughlin. "However, real progress will be measured by relationship to communities most impacted and investments in the same."</p><p>"Fossil fuel representatives have no place at the table except to hand over their dirty profits to rebuild what they have broken," O'Laughlin continued. "Any accommodation to fossil fuel executives will undermine the promise of our shared work and throw away our chances of a livable future in the climate decade."</p>
<p>Read the full letter:</p><blockquote><em>Dear Vice President Biden,</em><br><em>Congratulations on your nomination as the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. As you have said, this is a historic time for our nation. Over 180,000 Americans have lost their lives to theCOVID-19 pandemic that continues to ravage the nation. Millions are rising up to demand racial justice and an end to white supremacy. Donald Trump has put our democracy on the line with his attacks on our right to vote and threats to contest the election. Meanwhile, the climate emergency is ravaging our country, as supercharged wildfires burn across western states, climate-intensified floods and derechos slam the Midwest, and sea level rise threatens our coasts.<br></em><br><em>We want to thank you for your bold plans to combat the climate crisis and create millions of good-paying, union jobs in a clean energy economy. We applaud the ways in which you have put environmental justice at the heart of your plans, making sure that the communities of color who are on the frontlines of this crisis are at the forefront of its solutions. Implementing your plans would be a major step toward putting this country back on track to meet our global commitments under the Paris Agreement while centering the communities most harmed by environmental injustice.<br></em><br><em>Your leadership on climate and environmental justice is why we urge you to ban all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives from any advisory or official position on your campaign, transition team, cabinet, and administration.<br></em><br><em>For decades, oil, gas, and coal executives have lied to the American people about the threat of climate change and lobbied against government action, all while attempting to present themselves as part of the solution. During this election, the American Petroleum Institute is spending <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-gas-climatechange-insight/in-the-run-up-to-u-s-election-drilling-lobby-promotes-natural-gas-as-clean-idUSKCN25E1DB" target="_blank">upwards of $24,000 per day</a> to mislead voters into thinking that fossil gas is "clean" energy, even though methane emissions associated with gas can make it worse than coal. Meanwhile, fossil fuel corporations have continued to expand their operations, destroy our environment, and pollute communities—especially communities of color—across this nation and around the world.<br></em><br><em>The Trump Administration has fully embraced these fossil fuel interests. Former oil and gas lobbyists now run the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. At their behest, the Trump administration has instigated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html" target="_blank">100 environmental rollbacks</a>, putting our health and safety at risk. During the coronavirus pandemic, the administration has continued to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/21/white-house-coronavirus-regulations/" target="_blank">slash environmental protections</a> and give <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-15/-stealth-bailout-shovels-millions-of-dollars-to-oil-companies" target="_blank">billions of dollars</a> in bailouts to fossil fuels.<br></em><br><em>These abuses have real costs in the communities that you have pledged to serve. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-04-21/nearly-half-of-americans-breathe-polluted-air" target="_blank">Nearly half of Americans</a> now breathe polluted air, the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5800116/#B17-ijerph-15-00016" target="_blank">vast majority</a> of which comes from burning fossil fuels, according to research by the American Lung Association. According to a 2016 NAACP report, <a href="https://www.naacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Coal_Blooded_Action_Toolkit_FINAL_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">71% of African Americans</a> live in counties in violation of air pollution standards. Indigenous people have seen their rights trampled to build dangerous new pipelines like Dakota Access and Keystone XL. Latina women in Texas who live near gas flaring are seeing a <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Risk-of-premature-births-50-higher-for-mothers-15408663.php" target="_blank">50% increase</a> in premature births.<br></em><br><em>To advance environmental justice, you must stand up to fossil fuel CEOs, stop the expansion of oil, gas, and coal production, and rapidly transition us away from fossil fuels. A Biden administration free of fossil fuel interests would signal your commitment to restoring a government by and for the American people.</em><br><em>Banning fossil fuel representatives isn't just good policy—it's good politics. According to a new <a href="https://filesforprogress.org/datasets/2020/9/dfp_ff_executives_polling.pdf" target="_blank">Data for Progress poll</a>, American voters oppose fossil fuel industry lobbyists or representatives working in the executive branch by a 22-point margin. Sixty-one (61) percent of Democrats oppose fossil fuel industry representatives working in the administration, while only 22 percent are open to the idea. Ruling out positions for fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives is a critical way to show your commitment to a future that prioritizes people, not polluters.<br></em><br><em>This critical need to advance climate and environmental justice is why we are concerned by initial <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/climate-hawks-urge-biden-to-shun-obama-era-energy-moderates" target="_blank">reports</a> that people with ties to fossil fuel interests have been advising your campaign and may be angling for roles in your administration. People who left government to serve on a fossil fuel industry board, enrich themselves as oil and gas advisors, receive funding from fossil fuel companies to espouse "reasonable" climate positions, or work with industry front groups should have no role in a Biden administration or campaign. Neither should fossil fuel backers on Wall Street, who have attempted to profit off pollution.</em><br><em>We appreciate your team's recent reiteration of your commitment to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies as part of your comprehensive approach to climate action and environmental justice. A commitment from you to ban all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives from your administration would go far to assuage any lingering concerns about your climate commitments that may have been raised when the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-national-committee-climate_n_5f3c2907c5b6d8a9173f0268" target="_blank">DNC dropped support</a> for ending fossil fuel subsidies from the 2020 Platform.<br></em><br><em>Many thousands of talented experts, advocates, and community leaders who do not represent coal, oil, and gas companies would gladly serve in your administration and help move our country forward into the clean energy future. They've shown the expertise, principles, and dedication that should be a requirement for any administration role. We urge you to choose them over the fossil fuel CEOs, lobbyists, and representatives who are profiting from climate destruction.<br></em><br><em>We thank you for making combating the climate crisis a top priority for your campaign. We look forward to working alongside you to build back better, create a new, clean energy economy that creates millions of good-paying, union jobs, and address the crises of climate change, Covid-19, mass unemployment, and the environmental injustice and racism that have plagued our nation for too long. Millions of us are ready to get to work: There's no need to slow us down with people tied to fossil fuel interests.</em></blockquote>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/01/isnt-just-good-policy-its-good-politics-145-groups-demand-biden-ban-fossil-fuel" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a></em><em>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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A woman walks into a polling center to vote in the midterm elections on Nov. 6, 2018 in Provo, Utah. George Frey / Getty Images
The dangers of climate chaos are conspicuous across the country as wildfires rage in the West where prolonged drought has turned some forests into a tinderbox, the Gulf Coast braces for back-to-back tropical storms, and the Midwest picks up the pieces from the derecho storm.
<p>Now, more Americans than ever before feel the climate will take on a larger role than ever before in this year's election, according to new research, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/climate/climate-change-survey-voters.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p><em><a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/climateinsights2020/" target="_blank">Climate Insights 2020</a></em> is based on survey data collected by <a href="https://www.rff.org/" target="_blank">Resources for the Future</a>. The report is intended to take into account the manifold issues facing the American public — from the global pandemic to mass unemployment to racial injustice — to provide insights to policy makers and the public about the current sentiments of voters. It turns out that despite the upheaval from the pandemic, the climate crisis is a major issue for the American public.</p>
<p>"We continue to see huge majorities of Americans believing that climate change is real and a threat, and passion about the issue is at an all-time high. No doubt, this issue will weigh heavily in the minds of a substantial number of Americans when they cast their ballots in November," said Jon Krosnick, a Stanford University professor and report co-author, in a <a href="https://www.rff.org/news/press-releases/climate-insights-2020-survey-overall-trends/" target="_blank">statement</a>. "People are more sure than they've ever been."</p><p>The report found that the need to address the global pandemic did not become an either/or choice for voters. Voters believe that mitigating the climate crisis needs to be done simultaneously with addressing COVID-19 and the economic fallout, as The New York Times reported.</p>
<p>Two years ago, 68 percent of survey respondents said the government needs to do more to address global heating. In 2020, that number was unchanged.</p><p>As for climate crisis mitigation, 82 percent of survey respondents said the government should act, according to the report.</p><p>"People can walk and chew gum at the same time," said Krosnick, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>"The COVID-19 pandemic has been a unique test for how people feel about climate change when faced with a different global crisis," said Ray Kopp, Resources for the Future vice president for research and policy engagement, in a statement. "The argument that we can't do anything about climate change without crashing the economy, or that we need to just focus on the pandemic and not do anything on climate right now simply doesn't resonate with Americans."</p>
<p>One of the more striking elements of the survey was the growth in the number of people who feel the climate crisis strikes so close to home that they are motivated to take action. That subset is most likely to contact lawmakers, make donations, lobby for a cause, participate in protests and allow the issue to steer their decisions at the ballot box.</p><p>"They are the people who make things happen on the issue," said Krosnick, according to The New York Times.</p><p>The survey found that the percentage of people motivated to act by the climate crisis nearly doubled over five years, from 13 percent in 2015 to 25 percent in 2020.</p><p>That makes the climate crisis the second largest issue that motivates people to act after abortion, which clocked in at 31 percent. The group of American voters that are passionate about gun control is 17 percent, according to the survey, as The New York Times reported.</p>
<p>The survey also found that 81 percent of Americans believe the earth has gotten warmer over the last 100 years; more than three-fourths believe it will continue to do so over the next century; and the same amount say they have seen the effects of global heating first hand, according to the report.</p><p>The data shows that the climate crisis is "not fading from people's memories, it is not fading from their sense of importance just because other issues have arisen," said <a href="https://environment.yale.edu/profile/leiserowitz" target="_blank" title="">Anthony Leiserowitz</a> of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, to The New York Times.</p><p>This year, former Vice-President Joe Biden has reaped the benefits of voter concerns as waves of donations from the climate-concerned have flooded into his campaign, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/climate/climate-change-biden.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported last week.</p><p>"That is a sea change. We've now got a class of people called 'climate donors' in a way we had environmental donors before," said David Bookbinder, general counsel for the Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, to The New York Times. "Climate has taken over as an issue on its own. People are finally understanding that we have a truly existential crisis on our hands."</p>
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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden at the Democratic National Convention at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware on Aug. 19, 2020. OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP via Getty Images
The Democratic party made the curious move of removing a ban on fossil fuel subsidies from its platform earlier this week as its convention kicked off. The move, which also backtracked from a clean energy commitment, raised the ire of environmental activists. However, presidential nominee Joe Biden, who will steer the party's agenda if elected, has recommitted to a ban on fossil fuel subsidies, as The Verge reported.
<p>What happened was this: earlier this week <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-national-committee-climate_n_5f3c2907c5b6d8a9173f0268" target="_blank">HUFFPOST</a> revealed that the amendment to the party's platform that was approved, "Democrats support eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuels, and will fight to defend and extend tax incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy," was not included the <a href="https://www.demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-07-31-Democratic-Party-Platform-For-Distribution.pdf" target="_blank">platform document</a> that Democrats released on Monday.</p><p>That stoked the ire of activists who had been buoyed by the aggressive climate plan that Biden agreed to. Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA, called the removal of the amendment, "immoral, criminal, inexcusable," as <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/19/immoral-criminal-inexcusable-climate-groups-furious-dnc-drops-support-ending-fossil" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a> reported.</p><p>"We are nearing global tipping points on climate, fires and extreme weather are killing people and devastating the economy, and the DNC can't even accept an end to public subsidies for making it worse?" Leonard <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnieMLeonard/status/1295898217662386177" target="_blank">tweeted</a>.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are nearing global tipping points on climate,<br>fires & extreme weather are killing people and devastating the economy and <a href="https://twitter.com/DNC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DNC</a> can’t even accept an end to public subsidies for making it worse? This is immoral, criminal, inexcusable. <a href="https://t.co/7UXxS6JneG">https://t.co/7UXxS6JneG</a></p>— Annie Leonard (@AnnieMLeonard) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnieMLeonard/status/1295898217662386177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>"This platform is a step backwards, and we deserve better," Charlie Jiang, a campaigner at Greenpeace, said in a statement, as HUFFPOST reported.</p><p>And yet, the <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank">public document</a> of Biden-Harris campaign's climate agenda says it will end subsidies for fossil fuels. The Verge reached out to the campaign to get some clarity on the discrepancy between the campaign and the party's platform.</p><p>"Vice President Biden's commitment to ending fossil fuel subsidies remains as steadfast as it was when he outlined this position in the bold climate plan he laid out last year," Stef Feldman, policy director for the Biden campaign said in a statement to The Verge. "He will demand a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies and lead the world by example, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies in the United States during the first year of his presidency."</p>
<p>The amount of money that the fossil fuel industry receives from the U.S. government is staggering, though the estimates vary widely, as Vox reported. The <a href="https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fossil-fuel-subsidies-a-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-costs" target="_blank">Environmental and Energy Study Institute</a> estimates the number is around $20 billion a year, but the <a href="https://www.imf.org/~/media/Files/Publications/WP/2019/WPIEA2019089.ashx" target="_blank">International Monetary Fund</a> puts the number around $649 billion.</p><p>The decision to remove the language about subsidies from the party platform is still confounding as the party tries to bring more activists into its fold. Greta Thunberg tweeted her dismay at the decision, simply saying, "So, not even the very minimum…"</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">”The Democratic National Committee this week quietly dropped language calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks from its party platform”<br><br>So, not even the very very minimum...<a href="https://t.co/2h7A1bDmj9">https://t.co/2h7A1bDmj9</a></p>— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1296083687130320896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Despite frustrating activists, the party's platform does call for an aggressive transition to renewable energy and to eliminating carbon emissions from power plants in 15 years. It also seeks net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all new buildings in 10 years with the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/us/politics/democratic-party-platform.html?searchResultPosition=2" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>However, it makes no mention of the Green New Deal, which is a strong rallying cry for the party's progressive wing.</p>
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Trump Wanted to Withhold Wildfire Aid to California Over Political Differences, Former DHS Official Says
18 August
Politics
Trump and Paradise Mayor Jody Jones view damage from the Camp Fire in Paradise, California on Nov. 17, 2018. SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump wanted to cut off wildfire relief money to California because the state did not support his political goals, a former administration staffer has claimed.
<p>In a scathing campaign ad released Monday by Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT), former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Miles Taylor said that his experience had showed him that the president wanted to "exploit the Department of Homeland Security for his own political purposes and to fuel his own agenda."</p><p>In one example, Taylor cited a phone call Trump made to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).</p><p>"He told FEMA to cut off the money and to no longer give individual assistance to California," Taylor said. "He told us to stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down from a wildfire because he was so rageful that people in the state of California didn't support him and that politically it wasn't a base for him."</p>
<div id="6bf8a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6e65d0bb81b3536a01b11b1e10e42798"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1295428131503964162" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Revelations by Trump's former DHS chief.
POTUS
- Tried to stop CA fire victim relief funding b/c blue state
- Want… https://t.co/Qvggd5iqjC</div> — Republican Voters Against Trump (@Republican Voters Against Trump)<a href="https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/statuses/1295428131503964162">1597689109.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Taylor does not say when Trump made the alleged call, the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Rageful-Trump-wanted-to-cut-off-California-15490529.php" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle pointed out</a>.</p><p>However, Trump did publicly clash with California over wildfire aid two months after the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/camp-fire" target="_self">Camp Fire</a> killed 84 people and devastated the town of Paradise.</p><p>In January 2019, he <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-wildfire-funding-fema-2625553888.html" target="_self">said</a> he had ordered FEMA not to give any more money to the state, but said the reason was <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forest" target="_self">forest</a> management policies, not politics.</p><p>"Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen," the president tweeted at the time. "Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!"</p>
<div id="8ee70" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="65c68dadcb57f6f53593f64d71263b3b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1083022011574747137" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would… https://t.co/l5Jyjb8lEs</div> — Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1083022011574747137">1547047543.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The tweet was widely criticized by California firefighters and politicians at the time for making such a threat following a major tragedy. Trump's focus on forest management was also seen as a way to downplay the role of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> in fueling more extreme fires.</p><p>"Californians endured the deadliest wildfire in our state's history last year. We should work together to mitigate these fires by combating climate change, not play politics by threatening to withhold money from survivors of a deadly natural disaster," California Senator <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/kamala-harris" target="_self">Kamala Harris</a>, who is now <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/joe-biden" target="_self">Joe Biden</a>'s <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/kamala-harris-environmental-legacy-biden-2646958079.html" target="_self">running mate</a> in his bid to unseat Trump in November, tweeted at the time.</p>
<div id="9f935" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="48ac78198bfc72a939cf49db480ca15b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1083022784895303680" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Californians endured the deadliest wildfire in our state’s history last year. We should work together to mitigate t… https://t.co/ni9zzpaqte</div> — Kamala Harris (@Kamala Harris)<a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/statuses/1083022784895303680">1547047728.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Trump critics also pointed out that more than half of forested land in California is controlled by the federal government, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. However, despite Trump's threat, the aid was never actually withheld.</p><p>The White House responded to Taylor's video by saying he had never raised any complaints while working for DHS from 2017 to 2019.</p><p>"This individual is another creature of the D.C. Swamp who never understood the importance of the President's agenda or why the American people elected him and clearly just wants to cash-in," White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/17/trump-california-wildfire-money-397340?fbclid=IwAR2hOyquSnLgw_OUW3ZHX7OR6KJGjPzJTsKnSu1j1DtVGnhS92Rd-u2lKQo" target="_blank">POLITICO</a>.</p><p>In the video, Taylor also endorsed Biden in the November election, becoming one of the highest ranking former administration officials to do so, <a href="https://abc7.com/president-donald-trump-cal-fire-california-wildfires-federal-funding/6374757/" target="_blank">ABC 7 reported</a>.</p>
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The Environmental Legacy of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s Newly-Announced Running Mate
12 August
Politics
California Senator Kamala Harris endorses Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at a campaign rally at Renaissance High School in Detroit, Michigan on March 9, 2020. JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP via Getty Images
Former Vice President Joe Biden made a historic announcement Tuesday when he named California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate in the 2020 presidential election.
<p>Harris is now the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to run for national office for a major political party in the U.S., the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) pointed out. She also has a strong legacy of championing environmental justice throughout her career.</p><p>"Congratulations to Senator Kamala Harris, a true environmental champion!" LCV Action Fund Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld said in a <a href="https://www.lcv.org/article/lcv-action-fund-statement-joes-bidens-vp-pick-senator-kamala-harris/" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
<div id="dd1a3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="68af3c0112c4b985dfd2678d05cb02d9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1293294015278985217" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">@JoeBiden @KamalaHarris Her stellar 91% lifetime score on LCV's Environmental Scorecard speaks for itself:… https://t.co/ZClO9w8soC</div> — LCV – League of Conservation Voters (@LCV – League of Conservation Voters)<a href="https://twitter.com/LCVoters/statuses/1293294015278985217">1597180296.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Harris has a lifetime LCV environmental voting score of 91 percent, better than Biden's 83 percent, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11082020/kamala-harris-joe-biden-election-2020-climate-change" target="_blank">InsideClimate News noted</a>. Her selection won praise from several mainstream environmental groups, including the <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/08/sierra-club-statement-biden-harris-2020" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a>, <a href="https://foeaction.org/news/friends-of-the-earth-action-applauds-the-historic-selection-of-kamala-harris-as-the-democratic-nominee-for-vice-president/" target="_blank">Friends of the Earth Action</a> and <a href="https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/kamala-harris-for-vice-president/?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=AFciven" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund</a>.</p><p>Harris is a co-sponsor of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/green-new-deal" target="_self">Green New Deal</a> resolution, according to <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/what-the-kamala-harris-vp-pick-means-for-bidens-energy-and-climate-platform" target="_blank">Greentech Media</a>, and promised to end the filibuster during her own presidential campaign so that the major climate legislation would have a chance at passing. Her unique contribution to the green movement, however, is her lifetime focus on environmental justice in particular. This is a key issue for the Biden campaign as a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/2020-election-climate-change-abortion-2638025748.html" target="_self">growing awareness</a> of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> corresponds with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-activist-racial-justice-2646152490.html" target="_self">nationwide protests over racial injustice</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/black--hispanic-americans-coronavirus-2645677258.html" target="_self">health disparities</a> made starker by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic.</p>
<h3>Environmental Justice</h3><p>When Harris served as San Francisco district attorney, she created the office's first environmental justice unit in 2005, InsideClimate News reported.</p><p>"Crimes against the environment are crimes against communities, people who are often poor and disenfranchised," Harris said at the time, as <a href="https://grist.org/politics/kamala-harris-is-bidens-vp-pick-what-does-that-mean-for-the-climate/" target="_blank">Grist reported</a>.</p><p>She has continued championing the issue as a Senator. This summer, she introduced the Environmental Justice for All Act with Senators Tammy Duckworth and Cory Booker to ensure the federal government considers low income communities and communities of color when issuing permits, Greentech Media reported.</p><p>She also teamed up with New York Representative and Green New Deal champion <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/alexandria-ocasio-cortez" target="_self">Alexandria Ocasio Cortez</a> to introduce the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/harris-aoc-climate-legislation-2639501313.html" target="_self">Climate Equity Act</a>, which would create a new Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability within the Office of Management and Budget to make sure that all environmental legislation and regulations are assessed based on their impact on frontline communities.</p><p>The duo first proposed the act last summer and formally introduced it last week.</p>
<div id="c4f11" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="67da6c1aa88b185f74fa063adbac316a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1292181834571354115" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">This week, @RepAOC and I introduced the Climate Equity Act, legislation to ensure that we center the fight against… https://t.co/bpQi8aELxk</div> — Kamala Harris (@Kamala Harris)<a href="https://twitter.com/SenKamalaHarris/statuses/1292181834571354115">1596915131.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"COVID-19 has laid bare the realities of systemic racial, health, economic, and environmental injustices that persist in our country," Harris said in a statement about the new legislation reported by <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510920-harris-aoc-push-climate-equity-bill-with-green-new-deal-roots" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. "The environment we live in cannot be disentangled from the rest of our lives, and it is more important than ever that we work toward a more just and equitable future."</p>
<h3>Climate Liability</h3><p>During her presidential campaign and her time as California attorney general, Harris also emphasized holding <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuel" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> companies accountable for their pollution, InsideClimate News pointed out.</p><p>As attorney general, she opposed a Chevron refinery expansion in Richmond, a majority Black and Hispanic community. She also sued Southern California Gas Co. over a methane blowout near Los Angeles.</p><p>Finally, she joined AGs United for Clean Power, a group of 17 attorneys general who said they would hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change. However, Harris never actually sued ExxonMobil, despite mistakenly claiming she had during a debate last year. She did repeatedly emphasize the need to hold fossil fuel companies responsible on the campaign trail and promised to have the Department of Justice launch an investigation.</p><p>"They are causing harm and death in communities. And there has been no accountability," she said at a CNN Town Hall on climate change.</p>
<h3>Weaknesses</h3><p>But Harris' prosecutorial record has another side. She has faced criticism from Black and progressive voters for her role as top prosecutor in a state that incarcerates African Americans at a rate five times higher than their share of the population. This has dampened her image somewhat with younger climate activists.</p><p>"I think Kamala Harris is a big win for women of color and environmental justice, however she definitely has some work to do in order to show our generation that she's become more progressive since her prosecutor days," 15-year-old climate activist and <a href="https://earthuprising.org/" target="_blank">Earth Uprising</a> founder Alexandria Villaseñor told InsideClimate News.</p><p>On the environmental front, Harris' weaknesses include the fact that she was one of the last Democratic candidates to unveil a climate plan, and, when she did, it did not include a ban on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/fracking/" target="_self">fracking</a>, Grist pointed out. She has also accepted donations from fossil fuel companies in the past, though she pledged not to do so this election.</p><p>Weighing Harris' legacy, <a href="https://www.sunrisemovement.org/" target="_blank">Sunrise Movement</a> co-founder Varshini Prakash said the Senator was willing to grow in response to criticism.</p><p>"Throughout the course of her campaign for President, Senator Kamala Harris showed her responsiveness to activist and movement pressure to make climate a top priority, and demonstrated her willingness to be held accountable," Prakash said in a statement reported by Greentech Media. "I'm also deeply aware of Senator Harris' record as a prosecutor and the ways in which a number of her decisions harmed communities of color, which our movement has spoken about in the past and will continue to."</p>
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As Biden Embraces More Ambitious Climate Plan, Fossil Fuel Execs Donate to Trump 'With Greater Zeal' Than in 2016
04 August
Politics
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a White House Clean Energy Investment Summit on June 16, 2015 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
With presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's climate platform becoming increasingly ambitious thanks to nonstop grassroots pressure, fossil fuel executives and lobbyists are pouring money into the coffers of President Donald Trump's reelection campaign in the hopes of keeping an outspoken and dedicated ally of dirty energy in the White House.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Houston Chronicle <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Oil-donors-flock-to-Trump-as-Biden-hardens-15453270.php" target="_blank">reported</a> Monday that oil and gas executives "are writing checks to President Donald Trump with greater zeal than they did four years ago, as Biden campaigns on a climate plan that seeks to eliminate carbon emissions by mid-century."</p><p><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=E01&cycle=2020&recipdetail=P&mem=N&sortorder=U" target="_blank">According to</a> the Center for Responsive Politics, Trump's reelection campaign has thus far raised over $936,000 from the oil and gas industry — more than three times the $265,000 the industry has donated to Biden as of July 21. By contrast, the Chronicle noted, Trump only narrowly led Hillary Clinton in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> industry donations during the 2016 campaign cycle.</p>
<p>"As the incumbent, Trump might seem a surer bet for companies than he was as a political outsider four years ago," the Chronicle reported. "At the same time, Biden's recent climate stance is very different from Clinton's, who as secretary of state had promoted the U.S. fracking industry overseas — Biden has sworn off donations from the oil and gas sector, though through loopholes executives are still giving."</p><p>Trump, for his part, is openly courting the oil and gas industry by warning that a Biden presidency would spell disaster for the fossil fuel sector, which has been <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/09/game-report-says-asset-sales-and-debt-driven-dividends-show-fossil-fuel-industry" target="_blank">hammered</a> by the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>"If these far-left politicians ever get into power, they will demolish not only your industry but the entire U.S. economy," Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-restoring-energy-dominance-permian-basin-midland-tx/" target="_blank">said</a> at the site of an active oil rig in Midland, Texas last week. The president went on to falsely claim that Biden supports a total ban on fracking. (Biden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/07/31/us/ap-us-trump-biden-fact-check.html" target="_blank">only supports</a> banning fracking on public lands.)</p><p>"No fracking, no drilling, no oil," Trump said of the former vice president's position.</p><p>While Biden's refusal to commit to the Green New Deal and a complete fracking ban has drawn the ire of environmentalists and advocacy groups, the former vice president's release last month of a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">$2 trillion green energy plan</a> was celebrated as an encouraging step in the right direction.</p>
<p>Biden's plan, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">reported</a>, calls for 100% clean electricity by 2035 and sweeping infrastructure upgrades that would create millions of new jobs.</p><p>"We've seen a pretty huge transformation in Biden's climate plan," Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/how-joe-bidens-surprisingly-ambitious-climate-plan-came-together/2020/07/31/b73e78d0-cd11-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html" target="_blank">told</a> The Washington Post on Sunday. "What I've seen in the last six to eight weeks is a pretty big transition in upping his ambition and centering environmental justice."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/03/biden-embraces-more-ambitious-climate-plan-fossil-fuel-execs-donating-trump-greater" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a "Build Back Better" Clean Energy event on July 14, 2020 at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Joe Biden / Facebook
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden announced a $2 trillion plan Tuesday to boost American investment in clean energy and infrastructure.
<p>His plan would spend the money over the next four years to boost the transportation, electricity and building sectors' clean energy profiles. It is also part of a plan to create new economic opportunities, improve the nation's aging infrastructure, and to combat the climate crisis, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/biden-climate-plan.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>Biden's sweeping proposals would put an end to all greenhouse gas emissions spewed by U.S. power plants by 2035, arguing that large-scale dramatic moves are necessary to tackle the impending threat of the climate crisis and to revive the economy after the coronavirus pandemic, as <a href="https://apnews.com/7cdf40d9bd40c75861fc0053212d034a" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported. It would also ban fracking on public lands.</p>
<p>Speaking near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden also sought to reframe the discussion around the climate crisis, moving it away from a moral imperative and toward an economic one, dismissing <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a>'s and the Republicans' arguments that investments in green energy would cost jobs. Biden looked to play up how many jobs clean energy creates.</p><p>"When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax,'" Biden told reporters, <a href="https://apnews.com/7cdf40d9bd40c75861fc0053212d034a" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported. "When I think about climate change, what I think of is jobs."</p><p>Biden's <a href="https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/" target="_blank">climate initiative</a> calls to chart the U.S. on "an irreversible path" to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In addition to achieving a carbon-free power grid by 2035, Biden's plan calls for upgrades to 4 million buildings and to weatherize 2 million homes over four years to increase energy efficiency, as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/14/890814007/biden-outlines-2-trillion-climate-plan" target="_blank">NPR</a> reported. Homeowners would be given cash rebates to upgrade home appliances and install more efficient windows. Car owners would receive rebates to swap their old, less efficient cars for newer ones that release fewer pollutants, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-set-to-offer-newly-ambitious-climate-goals/2020/07/14/39ced8b8-c578-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>The proposal, Biden's campaign said, would aim to shift major cities towards increased use of public transportation and "create millions of good, union jobs rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure," according to NPR.</p><p>"We're not just going to tinker around the edges," Biden said his speech. "We're going to make historic investments and seize the opportunity and meet this moment in history."</p><p>Environmentalists and liberals quickly praised the climate initiative as a step forward in the climate effort. Predictably, Republicans quickly denounced it as an unwieldy plan that would raise energy costs, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>The new goals align Biden more closely with three primary opponents: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Washington Governor Jay Inslee. They follow the recommendations of a unity task force of Sanders and Biden supporters that was co-chaired by New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who co-sponsored the Green New Deal, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/14/joe-biden-climate-jobs-plan" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>"This is not a status quo plan," said Inslee, as The New York Times reported. "It is comprehensive. This is not some sort of, 'Let me just throw a bone to those who care about climate change.'"</p><p>Inslee called the proposal "visionary."</p><p>Gina McCarthy, the former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator who is now president of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, told The Guardian that the plan was "by a long shot – the most ambitious we have ever seen from any president in our nation's history."</p>
<p>In the proposal, Biden also linked environmental advocacy with racial justice, noting that pollution and other toxins disproportionately affect communities of color. His plan calls for establishing an office of environmental and climate justice within the Justice Department and developing a broad set of tools to address how "environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of color," according to The New York Times.</p><p>Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said, as The Guardian reported, that Biden's plan responds to many of the group's previous criticisms by "dramatically increasing the scale and urgency of investments, filling in details on how he'd achieve environmental justice and create good union jobs, and promising immediate action — on day 1, in his first 100 days, in his first term, in the next decade — not just some far off goals."</p>
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‘Among the Most Ruinous Presidential Decisions in Recent History’: Trump Begins WHO Withdrawal
08 July
Health + Wellness
Trump sits during a meeting about safely reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic on July 7, 2020, in Washington, DC. JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images
The Trump administration began the formal process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO), a White House official said Tuesday, even as coronavirus cases continue to surge in the country.
<p>President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> first began attacking the WHO's handling of the new coronavirus in April, when he made the decision to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-who-funding-coronavirus-2645722550.html" target="_self">halt funding</a>. But <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a> experts and Congresspeople from both sides of the aisle say leaving the organization will make Americans, and people around the world, less safe in the midst of a pandemic that has sickened more than 11 million people and killed more than 544,000, according to Wednesday morning <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">figures from Johns Hopkins University</a>.</p><p>Lawrence Gostin, who directs the WHO's Collaborating Center on National & Global Health Law, said the withdrawal was "among the most ruinous presidential decisions in recent history," according to a statement reported by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/world/coronavirus-updates.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-#link-7536f61f" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>"It will make Americans less safe during an unprecedented global health crisis," Gostin, who cosigned a <a href="https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/letter-to-congress-on-who-withdrawal-from-public-health-law-and-international-relations-leaders/" target="_blank">letter</a> to Congress from 750 health and legal experts opposing withdrawal, said. "And it will significantly weaken U.S. influence on W.H.O. reform and international health diplomacy."</p>
<div id="9153d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2369a1a33aa73794a885ae5aaa19ad92"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280600975867289601" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Thread explains why US w/drawal from @WHO is unlawful & unethical, among most ruinous presidential decisions in his… https://t.co/BK4SsmPARP</div> — Lawrence Gostin (@Lawrence Gostin)<a href="https://twitter.com/LawrenceGostin/statuses/1280600975867289601">1594154039.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Trump first announced he would pull the U.S. from the organization May 29, arguing that it had responded too slowly to the pandemic and was under the "total control" of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/china" target="_self">China</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/07/888186158/trump-sets-date-to-end-who-membership-over-its-handling-of-virus" target="_blank">NPR reported</a>. But the organization issued its first warning about the new virus Jan. 4, just five days after the first announcement from local health authorities in Wuhan, China, The New York Times pointed out. It had completed a detailed report by the next day.</p><p>In order to withdraw from the WHO, the U.S. must pay any unpaid dues — which stood at $198 million as of June 30 — and give a year's notice, NPR explained. The UN confirmed to reporters that it had received that notice and was checking with the WHO if all the conditions for withdrawal had been met.</p><p>"On 6 July 2020, the United States of America notified the Secretary-General ... of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, effective on 6 July 2021," UN Secretary-General António Guterres's spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric wrote in an email to reporters.</p>
<p>The yearlong delay means the withdrawal might not go into effect at all if Trump loses to Democratic rival and former Vice President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/joe-biden" target="_self">Joe Biden</a> in November's Presidential election.</p><p>"Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health," Biden tweeted in response to the news. "On my first day as President, I will rejoin the<a href="https://twitter.com/WHO" target="_blank"> @WHO</a> and restore our leadership on the world stage."</p>
<div id="bb485" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eb75831d048b6be5b5be8d58a106cd3e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280603719831359489" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as President, I will re… https://t.co/qNgyOKHOlE</div> — Joe Biden (@Joe Biden)<a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/statuses/1280603719831359489">1594154693.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>But it isn't only Democrats speaking out against Trump's withdrawal.</p><p>"I disagree with the president's decision," Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement reported by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-administration-gives-formal-notice-withdrawal-who-n1233100" target="_blank">NBC News</a>. "Certainly there needs to be a good, hard look at mistakes the World Health Organization might have made in connection with coronavirus, but the time to do that is after the crisis has been dealt with, not in the middle of it. Withdrawing U.S. membership could, among other things, interfere with clinical trials that are essential to the development of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/vaccines" target="_self">vaccines</a>, which citizens of the United States as well as others in the world need. And withdrawing could make it harder to work with other countries to stop viruses before they get to the United States."</p><p>Public health experts agreed with Alexander's assessment of the risk. In their letter to Congress, the 750 health and legal experts wrote that, by leaving the organization, the U.S. would lose access to the WHO's system for sharing data and vaccines. The U.S. also contributes more funds than anywhere else to the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, which means withdrawal will cost the whole world funds for contact tracing and vaccine development.</p><p>The U.S. historically has contributed around 15 percent of the WHO's overall budget, or $450 million a year. Beyond COVID-19, that money helps fund programs fighting health concerns like polio, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.</p><p>"Pulling funding could reverse hard-won progress and erode the ability of the U.S. to shape and lead policy," the letter writers said.</p>
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Trending
A man walks by a memorial for those who have died from the coronavirus outside Green-Wood Cemetery on May 27, 2020 in Brooklyn, New York. Green-Wood Cemetery, one of New York's oldest cemeteries, has been the site of hundreds of burials and cremations of Covid-19 victims. Spencer Platt / Getty Images
The U.S. death toll from the new coronavirus surpassed 100,000 Wednesday, even as all 50 states begin to reopen.
<p>The U.S., with less than five percent of the world's population, accounts for nearly a third of its coronavirus deaths, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/27/860508864/we-all-feel-at-risk-100-000-people-dead-from-covid-19-in-the-u-s" target="_blank">according to NPR</a>. It has by far the highest death toll of any country in the world, and the virus that causes COVID-19 has now killed more Americans than every military conflict since the Korean War, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/us/coronavirus-live-news-updates.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>.</p><p>"Back in March, I did not think this would be possible — I was not expecting 100,000 deaths," Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, told NPR. "I really believed we as a nation would have taken the decision to put in place social distancing and accepted the economic hardship that it's creating, and that we would have stuck to it to get transmission down to a very low level."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">JUST IN: More than 100,000 people have now died in the US from the coronavirus, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.<br><br>In just four months, the virus has killed almost twice the number of Americans lost during the entire Vietnam War. <a href="https://t.co/RNH5IROg3B">https://t.co/RNH5IROg3B</a> <a href="https://t.co/9baVumuaUc">pic.twitter.com/9baVumuaUc</a></p>— CNN (@CNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1265766289487912962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>The first known U.S. coronavirus death occurred in Northern California Feb. 6, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-coronavirus-deaths-top-100-000-n1214106" target="_blank">NBC News reported</a>. That ballooned to an average of 2,000 deaths a day in April, and has fallen to an average of 1,400 a day in May, <a href="https://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN233351" target="_blank">Reuters calculated</a>. The U.S. now has more than 1.7 million confirmed cases. Worldwide, the disease has infected more than 5.6 million and killed more than 350,000.</p><p>The new virus has not been an equal opportunity killer in the U.S., NPR pointed out. According to calculations based on the first nearly 69,000 fatalities, it killed around twice the number of men than women under 75, and 80 percent of the dead were 65 or older. It has disproportionately impacted <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/black--hispanic-americans-coronavirus-2645677258.html" target="_self">African American</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/navajo-nation-covid-19-infection-rate-2646033759.html" target="_self">Native American</a> communities, and has taken a higher toll on low income areas.</p>
<p>"If you look at the locations where people are disproportionately dying, they are in places that are lower income," University of Chicago Population Research Center Director Kathleen Cagney told NPR. "They are places that likely have multiple residents in a single-unit space. They are places where people rely on public transit and rely on services like big-box locations, where by entry alone you're putting yourself at risk."</p><p>The grim 100,000 milestone comes about a week after a Columbia University study found that the death toll could have been significantly lower if the country had entered lockdown just one week earlier, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/21/860077940/u-s-could-have-saved-36-000-lives-if-social-distancing-started-1-week-earlier-st" target="_blank">NPR reported at the time</a>. If social distancing measures had begun March 8 instead of March 15, around 36,000 lives could have been saved.</p>
<p>President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a>, who <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-infections-trump-2645393552.html" target="_self">claimed as late as March</a> that those with mild cases could still go to work, took to Twitter Wednesday to stave off criticism of his handling of the virus.</p><p>"The Radical Left Lamestream Media, together with their partner, the Do Nothing Democrats, are trying to spread a new narrative that President Trump was slow in reacting to Covid 19," he wrote, as The New York Times reported. "Wrong, I was very fast, even doing the Ban on China long before anybody thought necessary!"</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Radical Left Lamestream Media, together with their partner, the Do Nothing Democrats, are trying to spread a new narrative that President Trump was slow in reacting to Covid 19. Wrong, I was very fast, even doing the Ban on China long before anybody thought necessary!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265633761024188417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Former Vice President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/joe-biden" target="_self">Joe Biden</a>, his rival in the upcoming 2020 presidential election, posted a video Wednesday in which he did fault the administration for not acting sooner.</p><p>"This is a fateful milestone we should have never reached," he said, according to The New York Times.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There are moments in our history so grim, so heart-rending, that they're forever fixed in each of our hearts as shared grief. Today is one of those moments. 100,000 lives have now been lost to this virus.<br><br>To those hurting, I'm so sorry for your loss. The nation grieves with you. <a href="https://t.co/SBBRKV4mPZ">pic.twitter.com/SBBRKV4mPZ</a></p>— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1265757168504049664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>The concern now is that states will reopen too quickly. While the number of new cases and deaths have fallen nationwide, some locations have seen a surge in cases.</p><p>In New York state, the nation's hardest hit, the daily death toll has declined to numbers not seen since March.</p><p>But a White House coronavirus task force report found that cases were surging by as much as 72 percent in cities around the country, according to NBC. In Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, where Charlotte is located, cases had nearly doubled between May 1 and Saturday. In Montgomery County, Alabama, they had nearly tripled during the same period, and the hospitals have been forced to send people to Birmingham.</p><p>"Right now, in Montgomery, we're at a point where we can see the cliff, and we don't want to get too close to it for fear of falling off," Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Thursday. "We're in a very dangerous predicament."</p>
<p>Public health experts warn the death toll could keep climbing as all 50 states are moving to ease their lockdowns, surging past 140,000 by August.</p><p>"Now we're almost getting the worst of both worlds — we're getting the economic hardship and we're relaxing," Murray told NPR. "And it seems either now or in the fall, we're going to have a big second wave, and we'll be right back to dealing with pressure on the hospital system and dealing with, when is the peak surge coming?"</p>
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Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks on the coronavirus outbreak on March 12. SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Image
If elected president in November, Joe Biden will ax the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
<p>The long-delayed pipeline, which would carry around 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to the U.S., was <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/breaking-president-obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline-1882117930.html" target="_self">first rejected by the Obama administration</a> when Biden served as vice president. However, President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/state-department-approve-kxl-2326597009.html" target="_self">revived</a> it when he took office, and the Biden campaign had so far been silent on what Biden would do about the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> project if he defeats him. That silence ended Monday.</p><p>"Biden strongly opposed the Keystone pipeline in the last administration, stood alongside President Obama and Secretary Kerry to reject it in 2015, and will proudly stand in the Roosevelt Room again as President and stop it for good by rescinding the Keystone XL pipeline permit," Biden campaign policy director Stef Feldman wrote in a statement to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/18/biden-white-house-keystone-xl-permit-265041" target="_blank">POLITICO</a>.</p>
<p>In a fuller statement reported by CBC News's Katie Simpson, the Biden campaign used the occasion to criticize the Trump administration's attitude towards <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/science" target="_self">science</a>.</p><p>"He reversed our decision to not permit the Keystone pipeline without any further process or review, and contrary to the science and now his Administration and its allies are even using the coronavirus pandemic as cover for a stealth attack on environmental protections that keep us safe," the campaign wrote. "That denial of science ends on day one of a Biden presidency."</p>
<div id="c398c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e64870c562b2ed8c31cbd5f5f513329f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262428503947034625" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Part of the Biden campaign statement on Trump and Keystone: “He reversed our decision to not permit the Keystone pi… https://t.co/p9k4nPz0aV</div> — Katie Simpson (@Katie Simpson)<a href="https://twitter.com/CBCKatie/statuses/1262428503947034625">1589821384.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>When President Barack Obama rejected the pipeline in 2015, he did so partly because it would contribute to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, making him the first world leader to reject a major fossil fuel project for climate reasons. Biden reportedly opposed the project as early as 2013, saying he was "in the minority" of those in the administration who did, according to <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/18/joe-biden-campaign-said-he-would-rescind-keystone-pipeline-permit/5216015002/" target="_blank">USA TODAY</a>.</p><p>However, as a candidate, Biden did not join other primary contenders like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in signing the activist-supported "<a href="http://boldnebraska.org/democratic-presidential-candidates-sign-nokxl-pledge-to-stop-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-on-day-one-if-elected/" target="_blank">NoKXL Pledge</a>" to revoke the pipeline's permit on day one of their presidency.</p><p>His announcement Monday was met with enthusiasm by pipeline opponents.</p><p>"When Biden wins, KXL is finished, dead in the water, stake-in-the-heart dead," chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and longtime anti-pipeline activist Jane Kleeb said in an email to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/biden-kxl-1.5574515" target="_blank">CBC News</a>. "Biden just provided the last nail in the KXL pipeline coffin."</p>
<div id="a66bd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5f1a39b9c9c85513eccae9e9bfdf61ad"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262404201507938304" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hell ya! Go @JoeBiden, thanks for standing with the people over big oil. “Biden strongly opposed the Keystone pipel… https://t.co/sMhaL0xYtC</div> — Jane Fleming Kleeb (@Jane Fleming Kleeb)<a href="https://twitter.com/janekleeb/statuses/1262404201507938304">1589815590.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Pipeline owner TC Energy did not respond immediately to POLITICO's request for a comment, but Biden's position could be a major hurdle for the project, which just <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/keystone-xl-pipeline-construction-montana-2645658110.html" target="_self">started construction in April</a>. There is no way the project, which is expected to take two years, will be complete before the November presidential election, according to CBC News. The pipeline also hit another legal roadblock this spring when a federal judge in Montana <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/keystone-xl-pipeline-waterways-endangered-species-2645978077.html" target="_self">revoked</a> a key permit it needs to cross streams.</p>
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., along with affordable housing advocates and climate change activists announce the introduction of public housing legislation as part of the Green New Deal outside the Capitol on Nov. 14, 2019. Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
When former Vice President Joe Biden effectively clinched the Democratic nomination in April, one major concern for the climate movement was the fact that his plan for tackling the issue was less ambitious than that of some of his primary rivals.
<p>But Biden signaled a willingness to boost his climate platform. And now, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/green-new-deal" target="_self">Green-New-Deal</a> champion Representative <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/alexandria-ocasio-cortez" target="_self">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> (D-NY) has agreed to serve on a panel helping him shape his plan to address the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>"She made the decision with members of the Climate Justice community — and she will be fully accountable to them and the larger advocacy community during this process," a representative of the Congresswoman told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-biden-climate/democrat-ocasio-cortez-will-serve-on-bidens-climate-change-panel-idUSKBN22P0F8?fbclid=IwAR1sVcrqWBpfV6rxppA6z8u8IA4104nCx1JmVhLogxJduRJsJjDk_R_PdU4&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook" target="_blank">Reuters</a> by email Tuesday. "She believes the movement will only be successful if we continue to apply pressure both inside and outside the system."</p>
<p>Ocasio-Cortez has made a name for herself in Congress as an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/green-new-deal-ocasio-cortez-2628265318.html" target="_self">advocate</a> for a Green New Deal to transition the U.S. away from fossil fuels while providing jobs and supporting greater equality. In the primaries, she endorsed Independent Vermont Senator <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bernie-sanders" target="_self">Bernie Sanders</a>, whose climate plan promised $16.3 trillion for a Green New Deal-type mobilization and earned a 94 out of 100 on <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a>'s <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/climate2020/" target="_blank">climate scorecard</a>. Biden's initial plan, meanwhile, promised only $1.7 trillion and earned a 72 from Greenpeace.</p><p>But when Sanders, the last major primary contender to drop out, endorsed Biden, the campaign announced a series of task forces that would work to bring together supporters of the two candidates on issues from health care to criminal justice to the economy, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/12/politics/ocasio-cortez-biden-campaign-task-force-climate-change/index.html" target="_blank">CNN explained</a>. It is the climate-centered of these task forces that Ocasio-Cortez will be serving on, as Biden himself confirmed in an interview with News8 in Las Vegas Tuesday.</p>
<p>"I'm working with Bernie and with his people. And so, and we've made some changes. We've listened to Bernie supporters and, you know, for example, we have Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, she is on one of the panels," Biden said.</p><p>A source with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN that Ocasio-Cortez would actually be co-chairing the panel.</p><p>Ocasio-Cortez spokeswoman Lauren Hitt told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/aoc-joins-biden-s-climate-policy-panel-n1205886" target="_blank">NBC News</a> the Congresswoman would be representing Sanders on the panel.</p>
<p>When the panels were first announced, Sanders explained them as a way to unify the Democratic party's progressive and moderate wings.</p><p>"It's no great secret out there, Joe, that you and I have our differences, and we're not going to paper them over. That's real," Sanders said, as CNN reported. "But I hope that these task forces will come together utilizing the best minds and people in your campaign and in my campaign to work out real solutions to these very, very important problems."</p><p>Biden told News8 he was reaching out to Sanders supporters, but said their positions were not as far as voters may have believed.</p>
<p>"My message to all — and what they're finding out now that the nomination process is de facto over, they're finding out the positions I had on an awful lot of things were not accurately characterized and they're feeling more comfortable with it," Biden said, as NBC News reported. "But I'm listening. I'm here, I need them, and I hope they all will join us."</p><p>President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a>, who Biden will be running against in November, has not taken any steps to address the climate crisis and has a Greenpeace score of zero.</p><p>"Trump denies the reality of the climate crisis and is actively promoting fossil fuels while weakening existing climate protections. His Cabinet is filled with former coal and oil lobbyists. Trump gets an 'F' for putting our most vulnerable communities — and our very futures — at risk," Greenpeace wrote.</p>
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