Several environmental groups are calling on the moderators of the first presidential debate this year between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to ask both candidates to answer for their records on the environment — and in the latter’s case, to discuss a possible quid pro quo he made with fossil fuel companies.
The first debate is scheduled to air on CNN at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on June 27. It will be hosted by CNN personalities Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
In an open letter addressed to Tapper and Bash, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Climate Power and a number of other groups stated that voters “deserve to hear exactly what Trump promised Big Oil CEOs,” a reference to a meeting Trump held with those executives in April.
During that meeting, Trump responded to complaints about oil and gas regulations under the Biden administration by encouraging the executives to open up their wallets and support his campaign. In exchange for a collective $1 billion donation from the execs, Trump would rescind those regulations, a person familiar with the meeting said the GOP nominee had promised them.
According to the source, who shared details of the meeting with The Washington Post, Trump promised, among other things, to:
- End the current freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports;
- Auction off more offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico
- Reverse recently imposed restrictions on drilling in the Alaskan Arctic
- And end a supposed “mandate” on electric vehicle production, a misrepresentation of an Environmental Protection Agency rule that encourages such a shift but doesn’t require it.
Trump also framed the exchange as a “deal” for the fossil fuel executives, promising them that the amount in taxes and fees they would save if he’s elected again would be well under the $1 billion they could lend him.
The request from climate groups to the CNN moderators not only encouraged them to delve into this meeting, but to hold Biden accountable, too, for his environmental record. While he has implemented a number of new regulations designed to curtail pollution, and signed into law the largest expenditures ever to curtail the climate crisis, not all of the administration’s actions have been positive for the environment, including the fact that oil production has reached an all-time high under his watch, and that Biden has approved nearly twice the amount of oil and gas permits for wells on federal land that Trump did while in office.
“When all eyes are on the party nominees on June 27, we hope you will take the opportunity to help voters learn more about President Trump’s promise to top oil executives and dig into both candidates’ records on climate,” the organizations said to the moderators. “As climate change makes extreme weather disasters more frequent, destructive, and expensive, we are counting on you to ensure the voters know where President Biden and former President Trump stand.”
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