Joe Biden attacked Tom Steyer at Wednesday night’s debate for building his wealth through a hedge fund that invested in fossil fuel projects.
Steyer, a self-funded billionaire, had accused Biden and other front-running Democrats earlier in the debate of not sufficiently emphasizing climate change — Steyer’s signature issue.
“I am the only person on this stage who will say climate is the No. 1 priority for me,” Steyer said.
“Biden won’t say it. Warren won’t say it,” he added before repeating a campaign pledge to use the emergency powers of the presidency to declare a state of emergency for climate change on day one of his presidency.
Biden took offense at the jab, saying he did not need a “lecture” from someone who was “producing more coal mines, producing more coal around the world than all of Great Britain produces.”
Biden added that he too views climate change as an “existential threat to humanity” and the “No. 1 issue.”
Steyer is a longtime funder of climate change initiatives who entered the campaign late in part to tackle global warming.
In 2013, he founded NextGen America, an environmental advocacy nonprofit organization that boosted turnout for Democrats in key districts in the House last year. The group also funded ballot initiatives at the state level in November’s elections for clean electricity mandates.
Before that, however, he founded a hedge fund, Farallon Capital Management, that invested in fossil fuel projects. Steyer sold the fund in 2012 after running it for 26 years. He left the firm in part because of its holdings in fossil fuels, investments that he has since said he regretted.
