Former Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown warned Democrats that climate change should take priority over impeachment.
Brown, 81, expressed his outrage with the Trump administration’s decision to block a California law implementing tailpipe emissions standards in a speech before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Environment.
He claimed that a failure to prevent CO2 emissions has led to problems across the planet, including wildfires in California.
“California is burning while the deniers make a joke out of the standards that could protect us all,” he said.
Brown explained that 22 states support California’s lawsuit against the Environment Protection Agency to prevent the agency from blocking the emissions standards.
“Our standards that you don’t like, Republicans, it covers 42% of America. We’ve seen this move before,” Brown claimed.
Many Democrats agree with Brown, though several left the hearing to tend to other votes in the House, prompting Republicans to call a quorum vote which delayed the hearing because not enough Democratic members were present.
Brown warned the members against prioritizing impeachment over the climate.
“There are a lot of important things going on. Impeachment is important but the climate is even more important,” he said. “The most important threat facing the world and America is what’s happening to our climate, our weather, our well-being.”
Brown had two separate stints as governor of California, first taking office from 1975 to 1983 and again from 2011 to 2019.
