Democratic candidates debate in Detroit Michigan, July 30-31, 2019: on Energy & Oil
Andrew Yang:
Energy & Oil
Time to start moving our people to higher ground
V.P. Joe Biden: We're responsible for 15% of all the [global emissions].Yang: The important number is that the U.S. was only 15% of global emissions. We like to act as if we're 100%, but even if we were to curb our emissions dramatically, the earth
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Cory Booker:
Climate change is the lens through which we view every issue
[Like President Trump exiting the Paris Climate Accord], there was another president that would not join an international accord. Then it was the Kyoto accords [under President Bush]. I was mayor then. And I stood up in national leadership
joining with other mayors to say climate change is not a separate issue. It must be the lens with which we view every issue.
Nobody should get applause for rejoining the Paris climate accords. We have to make sure that everything from our trade deals, everything from the billions of dollars we spend to foreign aid, everything must be sublimated to dealing with
the climate threat.Yes, the majority of this problem is outside the United States, but the only way we're going to deal with this is if the United States leads.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Jay Inslee:
Climate change must be top priority; no middle ground
If we make defeating the climate crisis the top priority of the United States, we will have a fighting chance to save ourselves and our children's future. It has to be our top priority. My plan is one of national mobilization, quickly bringing
100 percent clean energy to Americans, creating 8 million good union jobs. This is a big, bold, ambitious plan for clean energy for a big bold ambitious nation. Middle ground approaches are not enough. We can defeat the climate crisis. Let's get to work.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Jay Inslee:
We've got to do stop using coal in ten years
Q: Would there be any place for fossil fuels in a Biden administration?V.P. Joe Biden: No, we would work it out. We would make sure it's eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, any fossil fuel.
Inslee: We cannot work it out.
We cannot work this out. The time is up. Our house is on fire. We have to stop using coal in 10 years, and we need a president to do it or it won't get done. Get off coal. Save this country and the planet. That's what I'm for.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Joe Biden:
Either we run world trade or China will
Q: Would you rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership?BIDEN: I'd renegotiate. We make up 25% of the world's economy. Either China is going to write the rules of the road on trade or we are.
We have to join with the 40% of the world we had with us, and this time make sure environmentalists and labor are there. I would not rejoin the TPP as it was initially put forward.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Joe Biden:
Rejoin and raise standards of Paris Climate Accord
Gov. Jay Inslee: Climate change is not a singular issue, it is all the issues that we Democrats care about. It is health. It is national security. It is our economy. And we know this; middle ground solutions, like the vice president has proposed,
are not going to save us.Biden: There is no middle ground about my plan. We're responsible for 15% of all the pollution in the country. 85% of it is something
I helped negotiate; and that is the Paris Climate Accord. I would immediately rejoin that Paris Accord. I would make sure that we up the ante which it calls for.
I would be able to bring those leaders together and I would raise the standard. I also invested $400 billion in research for new alternatives to deal with climate change.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Joe Biden:
500,000 charging stations so we're all-electric by 2030
Jay Inslee [responding to Biden disagreeing with Inslee's climate plan] : Your argument is not with me, it's with science. Unfortunately, your plan is just too late. The science tells us we have to get off coal and fossil fuels in 10 to 15 years.
Your plan does not do that. Biden: My plan calls for 500,000 charging stations around the country so by 2030 we're all electric vehicles. My plan calls for making sure that we have $400 billion invested in technologies to learn how to contain what
we're doing, creating 10 million new jobs. We will double offshore wind. We will end any subsidies for coal or any other fossil fuel. But we have to also engage the world while we're doing it. We have to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Q: Would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?
Biden: No, we would work it out. We would make sure it's eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, either -- any fossil fuel.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Kamala Harris:
Rejoin Paris Accord on Day One; carbon neutral by 2030
Gov. Jay Inslee: : Climate change is not a singular issue, it is all the issues that we Democrats care about. It is health. It is national security. It is our economy. The science tells us we have to get off coal in 10 years. We have to have off of
fossil fuels in our electrical grid in 15. And we need a president to do it or it won't get done.Harris: I have to agree with Governor Inslee. We currently have a president in the White House who obviously does not understand the science.
The guy thinks that wind turbines cause cancer, but what in fact what they cause is jobs. I would take any Democrat on this stage over the current president of the United States.
We must have and adopt a Green New Deal. On day one I would re-enter us in the Paris agreement. And put in place so we would be carbon neutral by 2030.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard:
Off Fossil Fuel Act: plan to deal with climate change
Long before there was ever a Green New Deal, I introduced the most ambitious climate change legislation ever in Congress called the Off Fossil Fuels Act. That actually laid out an actionable plan to take us from where we are
today to transition off of fossil fuels and invest in green renewable energy, invest in workforce training, invest in the kinds of infrastructure that we need to deal with the problems and the challenges that climate is posing to us today.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (second night in Detroit)
Jul 31, 2019
Bernie Sanders:
Need to be fervent if we care about our children
Bernie SANDERS: I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas. We've got to ask ourselves a simple question, "What do you do with an industry that knowingly, for billions of dollars in short-term profits, is destroying this planet?"
Rep. Tim RYAN: We have to invent our way out of this thing. Make sure that people can actually make money off of the new technologies and then cut the worker in on the deal.
SANDERS: We have got to be super aggressive if we love our children and if we want to leave them a planet that is healthy and is habitable, so I don't disagree with Tim. What that means is we got to, A, take on the fossil fuel industry,
B, it means we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, at a hell of a lot of good union jobs, as we do that. We got to transform our transportation system, and we have to lead the world.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
Jul 30, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
Climate is the existential crisis for the world
Climate crisis is the existential crisis for our world. I have a plan for a green industrial policy that takes advantage of the fact that we do what we do best, and that is innovate and create. I've proposed putting $2 trillion in the research.
We then say anyone in the world can use it, so long as you build it right here in America. That will produce about 1.2 million manufacturing jobs. The second thing we will do is sell those products all around the world.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
Jul 30, 2019
John Delaney:
Keep climate change separate from other issues
Q: You say the Green New Deal is about as realistic as Trump saying Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Why isn't this sweeping plan to fight the climate crisis realistic?
DELANEY: It ties its progress to other things that are completely unrelated to climate, like universal health care, guaranteed government jobs, and universal basic income. That only makes it harder to do.
My plan will put a price on carbon, take all the money, give it back to the American people in a dividend. I'm going to increase the Department of Energy research budget by fivefold, because we have to innovate our way out of this problem.
I'm going to create a market for direct air capture, which are machines that actually take carbon out of the atmosphere, because I don't think we'll get to net zero by 2050 unless we have those things.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
Jul 30, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
We have 12 years until climate catastrophe
Science tells us we have 12 years before we reach the horizon of catastrophe when it comes to our climate. By 2030, the average house in this country will cost half a million bucks and a women's right to choose may not even exist. We are not going
to be able to meet this moment by recycling the same arguments, policies, and politicians that have dominated Washington for as long as I have been alive. We've got to summon the courage to walk away from the past and do something different.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
Jul 30, 2019
Steve Bullock:
Climate change vs. jobs: that's a false choice
BULLOCK: All of us agree that we have address climate change. The Republicans won't even acknowledge that climate change is real, and that's because of the corrupting influence and money. As we transition to this clean energy economy, there are folks
that have spent their whole life powering our country, and far too often, Democrats sound like they're part of the problem. We got to make sure to aid in those transition as we get to a carbon neutral world, which I think we can do by 2020.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: We are going to provide and make sure that those workers have a transition, new jobs, healthcare and education.
BULLOCK: We've set this false choice far too often. Are we going to actually address climate change?
Or are we going to give people a better shot at a better life? You can do both, but let's actually have the scientists drive this. Let's not just talk about plans that are written for press releases.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
Jul 30, 2019
Tim Ryan:
We have to invent our way out of this
Sen. Bernie SANDERS: I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas. We've got to ask ourselves a simple question, "What do you do with an industry that knowingly, for billions of dollars in short-term profits, is destroying this planet?"
Ryan: All I'm saying is we have to invent our way out of this thing. If we're waiting for 2040 for a ban to come in on gasoline vehicles, we're screwed. That's why I'm saying get a chief manufacturing officer, align the environmental incentives with
the financial incentives, and make sure that people can actually make money off of the new technologies that are moving forward. And then cut the worker in on the deal. Make sure these are union jobs.
SANDERS: I don't disagree with Tim. What that
means is we got to, A, take on the fossil fuel industry, B, it means we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. We got to transform our transportation system, and we have to lead the world.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
Jul 30, 2019
Tim Ryan:
Regenerative agriculture sequesters carbon in soil
You cannot get there on climate unless we talk about agriculture. We need to convert our industrial agriculture system over to a sustainable and regenerative agriculture system that actually sequesters carbon into the soil.
We can move away from all the subsidies that we're giving the farmers. They haven't made a profit in five years. And we could start getting good food into our schools and into our communities. And that's going to drive health care down.
Source: July Democratic Primary debate (first night in Detroit)
Jul 30, 2019
Page last updated: Sep 08, 2019