Vice President Joe Biden is reading from a whole different script when it comes to climate change.
At a clean energy summit hosted by the White House Tuesday, Biden made a reference to the front page of the “Washington Pope” in an attempt to make a broad point about religion becoming involved in the climate change debate.
He corrected himself, while giving the newspaper he meant to refer to a quick zinger. “Washington Pope. Post. They sometimes think they’re pope,” Biden said.
He was referring to the front page of Tuesday’s edition of the Washington Post, previewing Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change, which has stoked the rebuke of the GOP in the weeks ahead of it being issued formally on Thursday.
Biden used the article to underscore that “there is a consensus growing” on climate change, where a wider variety of groups, industry and even religious institutions and charities are recognizing the threat it poses.
He also used the story to underscore the growing involvement of philanthropic groups in supporting clean energy companies to make the advancements necessary to transition away from fossil fuels toward solar and wind energy.
The clean energy summit was used to demonstrate this growing support by announcing that private organizations had exceeded the goal laid out by the White House some months ago to invest $2 billion in clean energy. The White House announced that a broad range of philanthropic organizations, investment banks and environmental groups achieved $4 billion in investments.
Biden also used the pope’s document to underscore new rules the Treasury Department will be issuing in the coming months clarifying how foundations are allowed to invest in clean energy companies.
“The Treasury Department is committed to taking two actions relevant to charitable foundations investing in clean energy technologies and other potentially mission-aligned sectors in the coming months,” a White House fact sheet says.
First, the Treasury will publish “new guidance” clarifying that foundations “are permitted to make certain ‘mission-related’ investments in companies that further the foundation’s charitable purposes,” according to the White House.
The second action by Treasury will be to finalize rules to establish “new examples of permissible program-related investments by foundations,” the White House says. This would include examples of “various types of investments in for-profit companies to combat environmental deterioration.”
