Out of all the candidates who attacked Biden on his past record, only Governor Jay Inslee criticized his current policy platform, specifically calling out his climate plan:
INSLEE: I was challenged by the vice president.
BASH: Thank you, Senator.
INSLEE: May I be heard on this for a moment?
BASH: Go ahead, Governor.
INSLEE: Thank you very much. Look, we have -- these deadlines are set by science. Mr. Vice President, your argument is not with me, it's with science. And unfortunately, your plan is just too late. The science tells us we have to get off coal in 10 years. Your plan does not do that. We have to have off of fossil fuels in our electrical grid in 15. Your plan simply does not do that.
I've heard you say that we need a realistic plan. Here's what I believe...
BIDEN: No, I didn't say that.
INSLEE: Here's what I believe. I believe that survival is realistic, and that's the kind of plan we need. And that's the kind I have.
BIDEN: My plan calls for 500,000 charging stations around the country so by 2030 we're all electric vehicles. My plan calls for making sure that we have $400 billion invested in technologies to learn how to contain what we're doing, creating 10 million new jobs.
We will double offshore wind. We will end any subsidies for coal or any other fossil fuel. But we have to also engage the world while we're doing it. We have to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Biden leads with his half a million charging stations as if this is the premier idea of his plan. Governor Inslee’s Washington State already has 42,000 EV charging stations with a goal of 50,000 by 2020. Jay Inslee is talking about survival; Joe Biden is talking incremental progress.
BASH: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Just to clarify, would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?
BIDEN: No, we would -- we would work it out. We would make sure it's eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, either -- any fossil fuel.
INSLEE: We can't...
BASH: Thank you, sir.
INSLEE: We cannot work it out. We cannot work this out. The time is up. Our house is on fire. We have to stop using coal in 10 years, and we need a president to do it or it won't get done. Get off coal. Save this country and the planet. That's what I'm for.
“Work it out” is code to moderates and the fossil fuel corporations that they possess veto power over any plan to curtail the insanely damaging industry that enriches them. “Work it out” is used in the context of political reality which, in this case, is divorced from scientific reality. Used in a sentence, it looks like this:
The scientists have warned us that we need to end our use of fossil fuels or face complete and catastrophic ecological collapse; however, under our current political and economic reality, we could not WORK IT OUT without harming our current economy which is dependent on fossil fuels.
As Governor Jay Inslee has so bluntly put it:
“...you can negotiate with Republicans on occasion. I got huge things done on a bipartisan basis in my state. You can negotiate with your spouse on occasion. But you cannot negotiate with the laws of physics.”
None of the candidates on stage last Wednesday night challenged Governor Jay Inslee when he stated that he was the only one of the them who has vowed to make the climate crisis his first order of business and primary focus if he is elected. Not one.
And once again, we have a debate with a full ten minutes devoted to the climate emergency, 50 percent of it from Inslee.
Early to bed, early to rise,
work like hell and organize!
Let's go get ‘em!