Skip to content Skip to footer

Climate Groups Praise Walz’s Callout of Trump’s Big Oil Loyalties in VP Debate

The Minnesota governor did face criticism, though, for expressing support for an “all-of-the-above” energy policy.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the vice presidential debate with Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance, hosted by CBS News at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, on October 1, 2024.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz used the climate portion of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate with Republican Sen. JD Vance to lambast GOP nominee Donald Trump’s pledge to give the oil and gas industry free rein in exchange for a billion dollars in campaign donations — an offer that’s the subject of an ongoing Senate investigation.

Donald Trump called it a hoax and then joked that these things would make more beachfront property to be able to invest in,” Walz, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris running mate, said of the climate emergency. “To call it a hoax and to take the oil company executives to Mar-a-Lago, say, ‘Give me money for my campaign and I’ll let you do whatever you want’ — we can be smarter about that.”

Walz’s remarks came in response to a question from CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell, who asked what the youth-led Sunrise Movement called perhaps “the best climate questions ever in a presidential or vice presidential debate.”

Connecting the climate crisis to Hurricane Helene, which left a trail of destruction across six states and killed more than 160 people, O’Donnell noted that “scientists say climate change makes these hurricanes larger, stronger, and more deadly because of the historic rainfall.”

“Senator Vance, according to CBS News polling, seven in ten Americans and more than 60% of Republicans under the age of 45 favor the U.S. taking steps to try and reduce climate change,” O’Donnell said. “Senator, what responsibility would the Trump administration have to try and reduce the impact of climate change?”

In response, Vance called Hurricane Helene an “unspeakable human tragedy” but went on to suggest he doubts “this idea that carbon emissions drives [sic] all the climate change.”

The youth-led Sunrise Movement, whose activists protested outside CBS News headquarters in New York City earlier this week to demand a climate question at the vice presidential debate, called Vance’s answer “utter nonsense” that made “clear that a Trump-Vance administration would do nothing to stop the climate crisis and prevent more disasters like Helene because they don’t want to upset their fossil fuel billionaire donors.”

“Tim Walz delivered a winning message calling out Trump’s allegiance to Big Oil. This is the kind of message Harris and Walz need to repeat going into November to turn out young voters,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, Sunrise’s communications director. “Especially after Hurricane Helene, the climate crisis will be on young voters’ minds as we head to the polls in the coming weeks. The Harris-Walz campaign has an opportunity to definitively show that they are the only ones with a real plan to tackle the climate crisis, and win this election.”

Walz did face criticism, though, from Oil Change U.S., which rebuked the Minnesota governor’s expressed support for an “all-of-the-above” energy policy. Walz touted the fact that the U.S. is currently “producing more natural gas and more oil at any time than we ever have” while “also producing more clean energy.”

“Disasters like Helene are driven and turbo-charged by fossil fuels,” said Oil Change U.S. campaign manager Collin Rees. “We can’t solar-panel our way out of this crisis while continuing to drill and frack. Today’s catastrophes demand bold, uncompromising leadership. Tim Walz and Kamala Harris must step up to halt fossil fuel expansion, champion clean energy, and advance a just phaseout of oil, gas, and coal to protect our communities from escalating climate impacts.”

Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, likely the only one before the November 5 election, touched a wide range of subjects, from abortion rights to Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel to the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Vance downplayed the attack on the U.S. Capitol and Trump’s central role in it, saying the former president “peacefully gave over power.” Vance also declined to say whether Trump lost the 2020 election, declaring that he is “focused on the future.”

“JD Vance dodged the easiest question of the night,” said Sean Eldridge, founder and president of Stand Up America. “His refusal to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election should be disqualifying. Vance has previously said he would not have certified the valid results of the 2020 election if he was vice president. It is clear that he cannot be trusted to stand up to Trump, uphold his oath of office, and defend our freedom to vote.”

Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn

Dear Truthout Community,

If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.

We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.

Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.

There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.

After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?

It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.

We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.

We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.

Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.

We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.

With love, rage, and solidarity,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy