President Joe Biden promised to make all electricity zero-emissions by the year 2020, an obvious rhetorical stumble as he spoke about the storm damage in New York.
“We are determined that we were going to deal with climate change,” Biden said. “Have zero net emissions by 2050. By 2020, make sure all our electricity is zero emissions.”
Biden’s actual plan, released in April, calls for reaching a zero net emissions economy by 2050, and a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.
The president said his commitment to zero emissions was critical to reducing global warming and hurricanes like Ida that wreaked havoc in New York and New Jersey with severe flooding.
Over 50 people died from the record rainfall from the remaining storm system of Ida and subsequent flooding.
Biden repeatedly called for more action against climate change, as he stood with Sens. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
“Folks, the evidence is clear. Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, to our economy, and the threat is here,” Biden continued. “It’s not going to get any better. The question, can it get worse?”
Biden promised to “build back better” communities in the city of New York that were destroyed by flooding, but warned that it would not be enough.
“The nation and the world are in peril, and that is not hyperbole, that is an actual fact,” he said.
