Bloomberg, focusing on climate change, vows to battle coal industry

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — On a wintry day, Michael R. Bloomberg stood in black tassel loafers in melting snow while he inspected solar panels on a rooftop, then said he would make climate change “the issue” of the 2020 presidential race.

Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who is mulling a run for president, once again made clear his determination to combat humans’ impact on the environment, so much so that he indicated his willingness to take on the coal industry.

“I’ve been very active in closing coalfired power plants,” Bloomberg boasted when asked whether a candidate whose top concern is climate change could appeal to voters in the regions like eastern Ohio who helped put President Donald Trump in the White House.

While praising Iowa’s corn-based ethanol as an intermediary fuel needed in the short run, Bloomberg said it was well past time to cut coal entirely from the energy picture.

“One thing that shouldn’t be part of the mix at all now is coal,” he said.

It was reminiscent of a comment that came to haunt Hillary Clinton in 2016, when she said her policies would put many coal miners out of work — a stance diametrically opposed to that of Trump, who made reinvigorating the coal industry a centerpiece of his economic message.

While touring a company that installs solar panels in Cedar Rapids, Bloomberg, 76, attacked Trump’s rejection of his administration’s own report about the dire economic costs from climate change.

“If you don’t believe in science, I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “I guess when you need a doctor, you go to a witch doctor or something.”