Could climate change submerge Joe Biden's presidential bid?

[nitpicker]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/11/could-climate-change-submerge-joe-bidens-presidential-bid

Could climate change submerge Joe Biden's presidential bid?

Oliver Milman

Sun 12 May 2019 07.00 BST

Climate change is transforming life by redrawing coastlines, turning vast areas of forest into infernos, stirring enormous storms and spreading exotic diseases. An indirect casualty of this upheaval could be Joe Biden’s hopes of becoming US president.

Biden, frontrunner in the polls to secure the Democratic nomination, has not laid out a plan to address the crisis. This is set to change, according to Reuters, with the Biden campaign working on a strategy to reinstate climate policies torn down by Donald Trump, such as restrictions on coal-fired power plants and vehicle fuel efficiency requirements.

The plan, which is being worked on by the former Barack Obama adviser Heather Zichal, would see the US remain in the Paris climate agreement and offer support for nuclear energy and also natural gas, which is generally cleaner than coal but still emits planet-warming pollutants. Biden is also said to favour nascent carbon capture technology, which aims to contain and store emissions from industrial facilities.

But this “middle ground” approach has been roundly attacked by environmental groups and progressive Democrats for being woefully insufficient.

More importantly, it does not appear to chime with the urgent action scientists say is required to avert disastrous climate change. A landmark UN report last year stated that “unprecedented”, “rapid and far-reaching” transformations across energy, land use and transportation are needed to avoid increasingly dire flooding, wildfires, heatwaves, food insecurity and unrest.
(snip)

TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for Biden, tweeted that the former vice-president had called climate change an “existential threat”. “He knows how high the stakes are,” Ducklo tweeted. “As president, Biden would enact a bold policy to tackle climate change in a meaningful and lasting way, and will be discussing the specifics of that plan in the near future. Any assertions otherwise are not accurate.”

Proponents of the GND hope that if Biden does manage to secure the Democratic nomination he will embrace the plan due to its focus on creating high-paying jobs in clean energy generation. The worry for climate activists is that the issue could revert to being largely overlooked, much like in the 2016 election, should Biden end up facing Trump in the 2020 contest.
(snip)

[nitpicker]

1. Link to the Reuters article

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-biden-climate-exclusive/exclusive-presidential-hopeful-biden-looking-for-middle-ground-climate-policy-idUSKCN1SG18G?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter

[EveHammond13]

2. LOL

[Demit]

3. Why doesn't he have a plan already? The other candidates do.

What was he doing while he was delaying jumping into the race?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

5. IDK but a candidate refusing to support GND has no chance to win the 2020 primary to be our nominee

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[brooklynite]

7. Endorsing a meaningless symbolic bumper sticker is essential for nomination?

Pocketbook issues will still be the decider.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

8. Minimizing environmental destruction on a global scale all but guarantees that Joe loses

his third Presidential primary election. Joe needs to come out strongly against climate change and in favor of the GND... I think he will, as Joe's a smart politician. I mean, what's a bigger pocketbook issue than losing our entire planet to the catastrophe of global warming?! #GND


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[brooklynite]

9. There's a chasm of positions between "minimizing climate change" (which he's not doing)...

...and signing on to a set of environmental goals that no politician (including AOC) has come up with a realistic strategy to accomplish.

And you haven't shown any evidence that this will be the driving issue for Democratic voters (most of which don't hang out in political blogs).

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

11. I hear ya...not until we get into debate season will the defining issues really begin to crystallize

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Demsrule86]

35. Sanders is going to lose and the left should not do Donnie dirty work.

I believe Biden will be the candidate . We need to beat Trump...a handful of AOC types won deeply blue district...40 moderates gave us the house. This is the reality of a center left country.

[LibFarmer]

15. Climate change

(or any of Bernie's latest platitudes) are the most important issue/s of this election when said "cheer"-fully.

Bernie is going to wipe the floor with the rest of the candidates since he is such a great debater.

Rah Rah

[Thekaspervote]

40. Biden calls for America to rejoin the Paris accord

[George II]

19. Who has refused to support climate change? Any candidates have any REAL plans themselves yet?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

21. LOL! You asked, "Who has refused to support climate change?" Uhmm, just EVERY CANDIDATE, that's who!

I don't want Democratic candidates SUPPORTING climate change... I prefer that they FIGHT AGAINST climate change based on sound environmental policies. But, hey, that's just me!


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[George II]

23. That's all you've got?

[Demsrule86]

34. I don't support the Green new deal...it is meaningless. I would prefef

something that could actually pass congress.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

39. That's cool, but we need our candidates to go on the record with their positions & then voters will

have a basis for deciding who should win the 2020 Democratic primary and be our nominee.

BTW, your preference for "something that could actually pass Congress" should hardly be the standard for a candidate's policy positions. Hell, if RethugliKKKons retain the Senate in 2020, pretty much NO Democratic Presidential nominee who wins will get ANY meaningful legislation they're proposing passed through Congress, just like Drumpf can't the House to pass any bills he would like to now sign.

Legislation sponsored by Democrats on gun control, environmental standards, bank regulation, tax reform, criminal justice reform, immigration reform, you name it, would still die in the Senate, just like it currently does!!

But, that shouldn't stop candidates from LEADING on important progressive issues in the Democratic primary race to be the eventual nominee and convincing the electorate to FOLLOW them!!


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[George II]

18. Some of them don't, even the one who talks about it the most. They have "concepts"....

....but no concrete plan.

[Demsrule86]

33. Because he is smart...

[revmclaren]

4. The answer to your question is a resounding no...

"I'm one of the first guys to introduce a climate change bill, way, way back in ‘87."

— Joe Biden on Wednesday, May 1st, 2019 in a stump speech.


Was Joe Biden a climate change pioneer in Congress? History says yes.

By John Kruzel on Wednesday, May 8th, 2019 at 2:30 p.m.

Joe Biden may not be the most progressive candidate in the crowded Democratic primary field. But one thing is for certain: Among 2020 presidential candidates, he has the longest legislative record on climate change.

In fact, Biden has taken this title a good deal further by claiming to have pioneered some of the earliest climate change legislation in U.S. history.

"I'm one of the first guys to introduce a climate change bill, way, way back in ‘87," Biden said during a stump speech in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 1.

We were curious if that was accurate. A review of the legislative history shows Biden is right.

Much, much more in the Politifact article..

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/may/08/joe-biden/was-joe-biden-climate-change-pioneer-congress-hist/?bcmt=1

Sorry... Democrats know his climate change history and will support any plan he puts forward.


I suggest reading the complete article and educating yourself on his history.

Also yes, he has put forward a plan but some other candidates and their supporters and/or 'fans' think it's too centerist. But since he is climbing in the polls and in popularity, I guess many voters trust him and his experience.



ONLY!!! 2019 and beyond.

[MFM008]

6. Thats why

I support Inslee for now.
There can be no half measures on this issue.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

24. Yeah, that's why I have Inslee ahead of Joe on my "Top-10" list.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Demsrule86]

31. Be honest . Biden was for climate change in the 80's.

[Demit]

36. Climate change is a looming crisis. How on earth do you be "for" climate change?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

37. LOL, was wondering the same thing!! Personally, I'm AGAINST climate change...

that's how I like my Demoratic candidates too!!


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Demsrule86]

32. Total crap. Biden supported climate change years ago.

[Cosmocat]

10. A drop dead no

I personally believe climate change is an epic disaster in process, but the electorate at large does not view it as such, and will vote with countless other lesser important factors well before climate change.

Climate change will not impact this election in any meaningful way.

[TwilightZone]

12. Politifact: Was Joe Biden a climate change pioneer in Congress? History says yes

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/may/08/joe-biden/was-joe-biden-climate-change-pioneer-congress-hist/

[Kahuna7]

14. Yes! You beat me to it by mere seconds...

But I will add:



<<Biden spoke about the bill on the Senate floor in January 1987 in terms that seem uncannily familiar to present-day warnings. He discussed, among other ills, the threat to human habitat resulting from melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels.

"Life on this planet exists only under highly specialized circumstances," Biden said during a Senate session. "Indeed, so special are these circumstances that even a small rise in temperature could disrupt the entire complicated environment that has nurtured life as we know it."

The measure also called on the president to make climate change a higher priority item on the U.S.-Soviet agenda.>>

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/may/08/joe-biden/was-joe-biden-climate-change-pioneer-congress-hist/

[Kahuna7]

13. Why should it? In 1987..before AOC was born....

Biden was a climate change pioneer.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/may/08/joe-biden/was-joe-biden-climate-change-pioneer-congress-hist/

[LibFarmer]

16. There is a phrase that describes OPs like this

I can't seem to think of it right now.

Concern something ....

[Kahuna7]

17. Team Sanders will not get away with distorting Biden's record

on climate change. Their attempt will backfire for sure.

[NurseJackie]

20. That "team" (filled with Stein supporters) won't get away with it.

That type of kneecapping and cutthroat politics isn't going to play well this year... we've already seen the consequences. It simply serves no good purpose... it's divisive and it causes distrust and resentment. It weakens the party... and that only serves to benefit Trump, the GOP and Russia.

Personally, I've had just about all I can stand... and looking at the recent polling data, it's encouraging to see that the voters have had just about enough of BS too.

[Kahuna7]

25. "IT'S GOING TO BE A GUERRILLA WAR": THE SANDERS LEFT OPENS FIRE ON BIDEN

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/04/progressives-attack-joe-biden-2020

<<The left’s animosity toward Biden derives in part from a feeling that the Democratic Party is at a crossroads, that the answer to Donald Trump isn’t a restoration of the old order but a brash, new, left-wing politics. In fact, about half of registered Democrats identify as moderate or conservative, suggesting that Biden, far from being out of step with the party’s base, is actually its best representative. But groups like Justice Democrats, the Working Families Party, Data for Progress, and others, are hoping to seize the moment to change the conversation, either by supporting candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, or pushing the centrists further to the left. Hence the all-out, shock-and-awe style blitzkrieg. “Whoever you will support, if it is not Biden, Biden is an existential threat to your candidate. So you have to fuck him up, and he’s just the most vulnerable to attack for the most shitty stuff, ” said progressive activist Sean McElwee, a co-founder of Data for Progress. “It’s going to be a guerrilla war of placing the shittiest issues and getting the oppo out there.”>>

[Demsrule86]

30. And these folks would cause nothing but losses for Democrats.

They need to do the heavy lifting....Win hearts and minds.

[MineralMan]

22. Why would it? Joe Biden has been about climate change issues since 1987,

before many DUers (and some competing candidates0 were even born.

Do your homework.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. No; in fact, he was one of the first to make it an issue - 30 years ago.

[samnsara]

27. only if we let it....

...and i for one dont want trump back in office.. thats why im voting for *** to keep trump out. I will deal with the issues after we get the pres AND the Senate back..because until then it wont matter if the planet catches fire and burns... we will have little power to do anything about it.

[peggysue2]

28. Joe Biden was talking Climate Change, while . . .

most were shrugging their shoulders and saying, 'don't worry about it.' These attacks are meant for those not willing to look up the facts of Biden's history in the climate arena. And those willing to twist the facts to their own advantage.

Will it damage Biden's bid for the White House??

No.

The current attacks just look desperate and sad. I'm quite confident Joe Biden will speak directly to the issue. And then his critics will move on to something else. Because that's the strategy: wound and damage in any way possible, facts be damned.

[Demsrule86]

29. No it won't. He was the fist to put climate change on the Senate floor...such desperation.

[still_one]

38. Gee, for the last several days the Guardian has been working overtime putting out anti-Biden OPeds,

and I don't seem them providing a counter point

However, here is the story. Biden has a long history of combatting global warming. The league of conservation of voters give Biden an 83% lifetime score on the environment, and he has been doing this since the seventies.

http://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/joe-biden

but Milman wants to claim this as the "middle ground approach", we'll see what the voters say