Excerpt: Former Vice President Al Gore:
In the main, yes. There are always a few things that I would like to see go farther.
But, look, this is the strongest and best climate platform that the Democratic Party or any party in the United States has ever had. Joe’s position in the primaries was good, but some of his opponents had positions that were leaning a little bit farther forward.
And he has, since he got the nomination, reached out and picked up many of the great ideas that his opponents in the race for the nomination had offered. And the net result is really bold, net zero electricity production by 2035. I could go through the list, net zero total by 2050.
He personally reaffirmed eliminating — his intention to eliminate all subsidies for buying fossil fuels — for fossil fuels in our country, all the charging stations. He — retrofitting buildings. And it’s a great platform.
And he has come to be a very passionate advocate on climate. And after he got the nomination, in effect — he got the nomination just now, but when the winner was determined, I have had several long conversations with him since then. And, boy, he gets it. And he is really determined to do what our country needs to do on climate.
Judy Woodruff of PBS:
So, to sum up about that, what difference does it make whether it’s Joe Biden or Donald Trump who wins in November on the issue of climate?
Former Vice President Al Gore:
Well, there could not possibly be a starker difference. It’s the difference between night and day. It’s the difference between wrong and right.
Donald Trump, of course, wants to pull out of the Paris agreement. He’s called the climate crisis a hoax at different times. He is doing whatever the coal barons and the oil and gas polluters want him to do, ironically, at a time when some of the energy companies are saying, wait a minute, we would like to start moving toward reform.
And they have even opposed some of the proposals that Trump has put in place. He eliminated the rule requiring a cap on these methane emissions, also called natural gas, but it’s a very potent greenhouse gas.
And I started to say I could give you other examples. You could almost pick any topic related to climate at random, and you would find Donald Trump wrong and destructive, and you would find Joe Biden leading in the right direction. It really is crucially important.
And, by the way Judy, we have seen record temperatures again this week…
