President continues to hammer his rival over the Democrat’s stance on climate change.
President attacks Biden’s climate stance ahead of vote
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump continued to hammer former Vice President Joe Biden over his stance on climate change Monday, with polls showing tight races in the oil and gas states of Texas and Pennsylvania ahead of Tuesday’s election.
As he prepared for a rally in North Carolina on Monday morning, Trump tweeted, “Texas, Pennsylvania: Biden is against Second Amendment and Fracking. Please remember!”
The president’s call to his supporters follows a presidential debate two weeks ago in which Biden said he planned to “transition from the oil industry” toward renewable energy to combat climate change.
That drew attacks from Trump and many in the oil sector. Even U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a Houston Democrat and former energy attorney, questioned Biden’s statement.
After the debate, Biden sought to downplay his remark, explaining, “We’re not getting rid of fossil fuels for a long time.”
Biden has also said he supports a national ban on assault rifles, a position gun advocates such as the National Rifle Association oppose.
Trailing in most national polls, Trump has focused on Biden’s climate stance as a potential avenue to winning over undecided voters in oil and gas states. Texas, with its 38 electoral votes, is the most important and is considered toss-up, according to polls.
Among those taking up the issue for the Trump campaign is
Rick Perry, the former U.S. energy secretary and Texas governor from 2000-2015, who called Biden’s climate plans “devastating” to oil and gas workers. Biden, however, has argued that his $2 trillion climate plan will grow the economy and create more jobs for energy and other workers through projects such as modernizing the power grid and pumping money into developing American electric vehicles.
On Saturday, Trump instructed federal agencies to analyze the economic impacts of a ban on hydraulic fracturing, which Biden has said he does not support. Biden’s has said he would ban new gas and oil permits, including fracking, on federal lands only.
Even though many on the left are calling for a fracking ban, some lawyers for environmental groups question whether a president has the authority to do so without an act of Congress.
“It is technology like fracking that unleashed America’s natural resources and made us the number one producer of oil and gas in the world,” Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said in a statement Saturday. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we will continue to move forward-not backward-and ensure American energy remains the envy of the world.”