Vice President Mike Pence rejected the role of global warming on worsening hurricanes and wildfires during Wednesday’s debate with Sen. Kamala Harris.
Moderator Susan Page asked Pence, who has spoken skeptically about global warming like President Trump, if he believes the science that shows “manmade climate change has made wildfires bigger, hotter and more deadly and hurricanes wetter, slower, and more damaging.”
Pence acknowledged the “climate is changing” but avoided answering if human use of fossil fuels is the main cause, as scientists say.
“The issue is what’s the cause and what do we do about it?” Pence said, noting that the United States has reduced emissions over the past decade largely through natural gas replacing coal. “President Trump has made it clear he will continue to listen to science.”
He then pivoted to accuse “climate alarmists” of using “hurricanes and wildfires to try and sell the bill of goods of the Green New Deal.”
During his debate with Trump last week, Joe Biden moved to distance himself from the progressive Green New Deal, a 14-page resolution that calls for an economic transformation to curb climate change while also addressing social issues by providing government healthcare and housing.
The Biden campaign has previously called the Green New Deal, which Harris co-sponsored in the Senate, a “crucial framework.”
Harris, seeking to contrast Biden’s approach to climate science, said: “Joe understands that the West Coast of our country is burning, including my home state of California. Joe sees what is happening on the Gulf states, which are being battered by storms. Joe has seen and talked with the farmers in Iowa, whose entire crops have been destroyed because of floods.”
