Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden on Thursday blasted President Trump for taking an ax to the Obama administration’s extensive environmental regulations, arguing that they were needed to combat climate change.
“Four more years of this man eliminating all the regulations that were put in by us to clean up the climate, to limit emissions, will put us in a position where we’re going to be in real trouble,” said Mr. Biden during the second and final presidential debate.
He said that “climate change, climate warming, global warming is an existential threat to humanity.”
“We have a moral obligation to deal with it, and we’re told by all the leading scientists of the world, we don’t have much time,” said Mr. Biden. “We’re going to pass the point of no return within the next eight to 10 years.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump touted the continued decline of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions during his administration. In 2019, the U.S. lowered emissions by 2.9%, leading the world, as natural gas continued to replace coal in electricity generation.
“We have done an incredible job environmentally,” Mr. Trump said. “We have the cleanest air, the cleanest water, and the best carbon emissions standards that we’ve seen in many, many years, and we haven’t destroyed our industries.”
Mr. Biden touted his $2 trillion clean-energy plan, saying “it’s going to create millions of jobs and it’s going to clean the environment” by, for example, retrofitting millions of buildings and homes to make them more energy-efficient.
The president said the plan would cost more like $100 trillion, citing one estimated cost of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal resolution, and accused Mr. Biden’s plan of being written by “AOC plus three.”
“When he says buildings, they want to take buildings down because they want to make bigger windows into smaller windows,” Mr. Trump said. “As far as they’re concerned, if you had no window, it would be a lovely thing. This is the craziest plan that anyone has ever seen.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.