The following is part of a post by Dan Rather:
President Biden calls climate change an “existential threat.” His administration has been responsible for more than 100 new laws and initiatives aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and cutting pollution. A big part of his agenda is transitioning from gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles. . . .
For months Donald Trump has been openly hostile toward electric vehicles, saying they will “kill” the auto industry. His remarks are at odds with an industry embracing EV production. Maybe it’s because the United Auto Workers endorsed Biden. But perhaps there’s a different reason — money.
Trump, long a climate change denier, doesn’t want to unplug only the electric car effort; he’s against wind and solar energy too. Last month he held a dinner at Mar-a-Lago for 20 oil and gas executives. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee reportedly offered that, if elected, he would scrap every one of Biden’s new environmental regulations in exchange for the oil execs raising $1 billion for Trump’s campaign.
Call it what you want: a shakedown, quid pro quo, scandalous, but apparently it isn’t illegal. He went on to suggest that $1 billion is a “deal” for the oil companies because of the taxes and financial regulations they wouldn’t have to pay. While dealmaking like this isn’t new, the stunning transparency is.
Senate Democrats think so too. Today, they opened a second investigation into that now infamous meeting and whether Trump offered a “policies-for-money transaction.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or an environmental scientist, to know our planet is changing, and fast. We can all feel it. Weather experts say higher temperatures are causing more severe weather, more frequently.
More needs to be done. The White House climate initiatives are only a beginning. To abandon them now would be, well, madness. I want my grandchildren and your grandchildren to know that we did our best to save our democracy and our planet.
