Looking Back
How did Trump describe the U.S.’s emissions over the past 35 years?
"We have the best carbon emission numbers that we’ve had in 35 years under this administration"
Throughout the debates overall, what are some states that Trump mentions frequently?
Texas, Pennsylvania
What did Trump say he has done for renewable energy?
"We do give to solar and wind"
What is Trump’s defense of not getting rid of oil?
The economy
"if you want to kill the economy, get rid of your oil industry you want"
Throughout the debate, how does Trump frame his environmental stances?
in terms of energy independence and jobs
Fill in the blank. Biden states that president Trump believes windmills lead to _____
CANCER.
"He thinks wind causes _____ (...)"
What was Trump talking about when he mentioned a tree program? What is the current status of this project?
reforestation program started a decade ago by the United Nations.
President Trump historically opposed reducing greenhouse gases to prevent climate change, but supports planting more trees as a remedy for greenhouse gas buildup.
little to no action has been made on this initiative
What were the three reasons Trump listed in his claim that windmills were bad?
"It’s extremely expensive. Kills all the birds. It’s very intermittent."
Towards the end of the climate change portion of the debate, what was Bidens stance on the oil industry?
Transition away from oil industry
"We need other industries to transition, to get to ultimately a complete zero emissions by 2025."
When does Biden say we will pass a “point of no return” regarding climate change?
Pass point of no return within next 8-10 years.
Throughout the debates, Donald Trump has stated the reason for withdrawing from the Paris Agreement - what were his stated reasons?
-Unfair, expensive
"The Paris Accord, it was so unfair. China doesn’t kick in until 2030, Russia goes back to a low standard, and we kicked in right away, it would have been… It would have destroyed our businesses."
"I took us out because we were going to have to spend trillions of dollars and we were treated very unfairly."
From Bidens website, what are some of his stated climate and environmental justice goals?
Ensure the U.S. achieves a 100% clean energy economy and reaches net-zero emissions no later than 2050.
Biden will make smart infrastructure investments to rebuild the nation and to ensure that our buildings, water, transportation, and energy infrastructure can withstand the impacts of climate change.
He will lead an effort to get every major country to ramp up the ambition of their domestic climate targets.
What is bidens plan to support electric cars?
Invest in 50000 charging stations on highways to own electric car market in the future.
Trump repeatedly brought up Biden’s stance on fracking - what is Bidens stance on fracking?
Says no fracking on federal land not in general
Throughout the debate, how does Trump frame his environmental stances?
in terms of energy independence and jobs
Trump says we have clean air and water. How many environmental protections has he rolled back in the past four years?
99 (72 have already been rolled back and 27 are on the way)
What are two kinds of groups that Biden cites as supporting his environmental plans?
-Able to get many environmental organizations and labor to support his climate plan.
"I was able to get both all the environmental organizations as well as the labor, the people worried about jobs, to support my climate plan."
What is Trump’s criticism of solar power?
"It’s not powerful yet to really run our big, beautiful factories that we need to compete with the world."
When asked a question about environmental justice and people impacted by pollution, what was the main theme of Trump’s response?
"They make money still"
One the White House’s website, what is their positions on energy and the environment?
Americans have long been told that our country is running out of energy, but we now know that is wrong.
American energy policy must balance environmental protection with economic growth in order to encourage innovation, discovery, and prosperity.
separate from the debates, what are some of the major decisions Trump has made in the last few years regarding the environment?
-reduce EPA funding
-ANWR region
-exxon revealed collaborations?
-clean power plan
-affordable clean energy plan
What was Trump’s comment about Biden removing windows from buildings about?
"When he says buildings, they want to take buildings down because they want to make bigger windows into smaller windows. As far as they’re concerned, if you had no window, it would be a lovely thing."
[in response to..."We’re going to be in a position where we’re going to see to it that we’re going to take 4 million existing buildings and 2 million existing homes and retrofit them so they don’t leak as much energy"].
Why is Trump’s criticism of solar power wrong?
Energy.gov claims (accurately) that solar “is now economically competitive with conventional energy sources” in much of the country despite the ~$700 billion per year in fossil fuel subsidies.
In the debate last night, what did Biden say was his emissions goal?
Need to move towards net 0 - through energy production by 2035 best way.
In what context did Trump bring up AOC?
Trump responds and says that his plan is a disaster. Says AOC + 3 developed it. “She has a good line of stuff but she doesn’t know about the climate”. Real plan costs more. If best plan for the next 100 years won’t come close to a number like that."