Climate change has taken a more prominent role in this year's election, with both presidential candidates weighing in during last week's final debate. For the sake of the environment, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) says the need for the Biden administration to take over the White House is more urgent than ever.
"Trump has basically set himself with the fossil fuel industry and the climate-denial establishment, and Joe Biden is listening to the scientists and talking about infrastructure, innovation and jobs and the kind of leadership that America can provide to get us through this," Whitehouse told Cheddar.
The senator, who is part of the Senate Democrats' Special Committee on the Climate Crisis, said the party is looking to pass a "very big, really meaningful climate bill" if Biden is elected and they win both houses of Congress. However, Whitehouse admits that the former vice president may face an uphill battle against the influence of "dark money" from the fossil fuel industry.
"The real problem is going to be those Republicans in the Senate who will try to use the filibuster and their position, even though they're in the minority, to block this," Whitehouse said. "They have basically become the political wing of the fossil fuel industry."
He worried that the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday might make it even more difficult for a Biden administration to find success with climate change efforts, claiming the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court have gone "out of their way to cover for the fossil fuel industry and do things that were completely unprecedented."
"The most unprecedented thing being to stop President Obama's clean power plan with an interlocutory stay, which the Supreme Court had never issued before," he noted, regarding the earlier Democratic administration.
According to the senator, the United States' position as a world leader has dipped under Trump, and in order to re-establish the nation's eminence, on climate especially, electing Biden will be key.
"You've got a really vital need for America to step up and assume a leadership role. Under President Trump, we've sniveled and shriveled away from this issue, and the world has been very confused by our lack of leadership," Whitehouse claimed.
For the Rhode Island senator, the climate crisis is a particularly important issue as The Ocean State's shores are threatened by rising sea levels.
"As you know, Rhode Island is a coastal state, so when you're talking about 6 feet, 10 feet of sea level rise, that really is a danger for so many Rhode Island communities and for our economy. So we've got to start preparing for what we can't avoid," he said.
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