The issues of energy and climate change came up at the Democratic debate on Thursday night as expected. What was surprising, was Joe Biden’s response when asked about displacing American energy workers for the sake of fighting climate change.
Biden has no problem with the idea. His answer could not have been any more straightforward.
Paul Steinhauser reports at FOX News:
Biden says ‘yes’ when asked about sacrificing blue-collar jobs for clean energyFormer Vice Preisdent Joe Biden made clear at Thursday night’s Democratic presidential primary debate that he’d sacrifice economic growth due to a boom in oil and natural gas production and potentially risk displacing hundreds of thousands of blue-collar workers in order to combat climate change.Moderator Tim Alberta asked: “Three consecutive American presidents have enjoyed stints of explosive economic growth due to a boom in oil and natural gas production. As president, would you be willing to sacrifice some of that growth, even knowing potentially that it could displace thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of blue-collar workers in the interest of transitioning to that greener economy?”“The answer is yes,” the former vice president said.But Biden — the front-runner in national polling in the Democratic nomination race — emphasized that “the opportunity for those workers to transition to high-paying jobs … is real.”“We’re the only country in the world that’s taken great, great crises and turned them into enormous opportunities,” Biden added.
Even Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report, who is hardly a conservative, reacted on Twitter:
See the video below:
Biden’s response should alarm people working in the energy sector:
This followed a line of questioning about whether or not the United States government should relocate citizens in coastal cities that might be affected by climate change. My Twitter response:
Featured image via Twitter video.
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