Climate Change And Environment Get Little Time In Democratic Debate – Again

2020 Election, Opinions, Policy

November 21, 2019

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(Our Daily Planet) Two hours, ten candidates, four moderators, and less than 10 minutes of serious discussion of climate change in the Democratic Debate last night. Only four of the ten candidates were asked a direct question or given a chance to provide a significant follow-up response on the issue that most agree is an “existential crisis” and the “#1 Priority” of several of the candidates. Amazingly, during the debate, Tom Steyer tweeted or retweeted more than 10 times on climate change and sustainability, literally forcing it into the discussion about the debate on social media.

Why This Matters: Two questions and ten minutes are not enough time to discuss the existential crisis of our time. Period.

What They Said in a Nutshell: …

…

Amy Klobuchar, Corey Booker and Kamala Harris did not have the chance to talk about climate change at all.

Andrew Yang complemented Tom Steyer for his decade of work on climate change.
Tom Steyer said that climate change would be his #1 Priority as President — both as a matter of foreign and domestic policy — and that he would create millions of well paid, union jobs by fighting climate change, and in his closing re-emphasized the point that climate change is our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity to recreate our country.
Tulsi Gabbard talked about the importance of clean air and clean water for all Americans and about transitioning from a fossil fuel economy to a sustainable one.
Pete Buttigieg said that farms and the agricultural sector could make a huge contribution to fighting climate change.
Elizabeth Warren mentioned that we could use the military budget as a way to fight climate change, and in her closing wrapped climate change into her anti-corruption argument for her candidacy, saying we need to end the fossil fuel companies’ stranglehold on our government.
Joe Biden said he too would make climate change the #1 issue of his Presidency because it is an existential threat and cited his experience in passing the first climate legislation and implementing renewable energy in the Obama stimulus package.
Bernie Sanders stuck to his climate message of urgency — that we only have a decade to turn things around — and that we have to end the corruption of political money from fossil fuel companies and their lies and greed. READ MORE

Down on the farm: (Politico’s Morning Energy)

Democrats use debate to target fossil fuels (E&E News)

Transcript: The November Democratic debate (Washington Post)

Buttigieg pledges allegiance to ethanol (Washington Examiner)

Pete Buttigieg Climate Advisor Is a Fossil-Fuel-Funded Witness for The Trump Administration Against Children’s Climate Lawsuit (Hill Heat)

Excerpts from Politico’s Morning Energy: Down on the farm: South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg continued his play for rural voters, emphasizing the role farms could play in extracting carbon from the atmosphere and criticizing the Trump administration’s decision to spare so many oil refineries from the federal ethanol mandate. “American farming should be one of the key pillars of how we combat climate change,” he said during the debate. “I believe that the quest for the carbon negative farm could be as big a symbol as dealing with climate change as the electric car in this country.”

Criminal minds: Sanders scored the only applause line in the climate section of the debate, reiterating his desire to go after fossil fuel companies. “What we have got to do tonight, and I will do as president, is to tell the fossil fuel industry that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet,” Sanders said. “And by the way, the fossil fuel industry is probably criminally liable because they have lied and lied and lied when they had the evidence that their carbon products were destroying the planet, and maybe we should think about prosecuting them as well.”

Still, some environmental voices on Twitter pointed out the few minutes dedicated to climate change left out candidates like front-runner Sen. Elizabeth Warren and were not sufficient to the scale of the problem. READ MORE

Excerpt from Washington Post/Transcript: BUTTIGIEG: We shouldn’t have to pay farmers to take the edge off of a trade war that shouldn’t have been started in the first place. I will support farmers, but not long ago, I was in Boone, Iowa, a guy came up to me, he said I got my Trump bailout check, but I would have rather spent that money on conservation.

By the way, this isn’t even making farmers whole. If you’re in soybeans, for example, you’re getting killed. And it’s not just what this president has done with the trade war. In a lot of parts of the country, the worst thing is these so-called small refinery waivers, which are killing those who are involved in ethanol.

Look, I don’t think this president cares one bit about farmers. He keeps asking them to take one for the team, but more and more I’m talking to people in rural America who see that they’re not going to benefit from business as usual under this president.

I believe that so many of the solutions lie with American farmers, but we have to stand up for them, not just with direct subsidies and support, but with making sure we do something about the consolidation, the monopolies that leave farmers with fewer places to purchase supplies from and fewer places to sell their product to.

And American farming should be one of the key pillars of how we combat climate change. I believe that the quest for the carbon negative farm could be as big a symbol of dealing with climate change as the electric car in this country. And it’s an important part of how we make sure that we get a message out around dealing with climate change that recruits everybody to be part of the solution, including conservative communities where a lot of people have been made to feel that admitting climate science would mean acknowledging they’re part of the problem.

MADDOW: Mr. Mayor, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I need you to answer the question. Would you continue those subsidies or not?

BUTTIGIEG: Yes, but we won’t need them because we’re going to fix the trade war. READ MORE

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