By James Osborne Updated 10:01 pm CDT, Tuesday, September 29, 2020
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump attacked former vice president Joe Biden’s plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change as likely to wreck the U.S. economy during a presidential debate Tuesday night.
“We’re talking about the Green New Deal,” Trump said, referring to the plan put forward by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “They want to rip down buildings and rebuild the buildings. It’s the dumbest thing, where airplanes are out, the two-car system is out and they want to take out the cows too.”
Biden is proposing to spend $2 trillion over the next four years, to modernize the U.S. economy towards bringing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. But he has distanced himself from the Green New Deal, saying Tuesday night he did not support the plan, and argued his climate plan would create jobs.
“It’s going to create millions of good paying jobs,” Biden said. “We spend billions of dollars on floods and hurricanes.”null
The Democratic nominee also said it was essential the United States rejoin the Paris climate accord, which Trump announced he was pulling out of not long after taking office.
“Without us in it, look what’s happening, it’s all falling apart,” Biden said.
Trump, for his part, offered a more moderate take on climate change than he is the past. Under questioning by moderator Chris Wallace, of Fox News, the president said greenhouse gas emissions played “some role” in climate change and even said he liked electric cars.
And he defended his decision to roll back vehicle emissions standards, saying those put in place by former president Barack Obama and Biden would have driven up car prices for minimal climate gain.
“The cars has gotten so expensive because they have computers all over the place for a little bit of gasoline (savings),” he said. “What they’ve done in California is crazy.”