Joe Biden wins climate change campaigner Al Gore's endorsement on Earth
Day
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[April 23, 2020]
By Amanda Becker and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic
presidential candidate Joe Biden won the support of two of his party's
most prominent climate change campaigners, including former presidential
candidate Al Gore, on Wednesday.
The endorsements of Gore and Washington state Governor Jay Inslee came
as Biden seeks credibility with liberal voters he is courting as he
tries to unify Democrats ahead of the Nov. 3 election against Republican
President Donald Trump.
"I am proud to endorse my friend Joe Biden for President," said Gore on
Twitter.
Gore, who was the U.S. vice president from 1993 to 2001, became known
for his advocacy on climate change after he lost a bitterly contested
close-call election for president against George W. Bush in 2000. He was
expected to join Biden at an Earth Day campaign event to be held online
on Wednesday.
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Inslee, meanwhile, had centered his one-time 2020 presidential bid on
taking aggressive action to combat climate change.
During his year-long presidential campaign Biden has been regularly
confronted on the campaign trail by activists who thought his climate
policies were too centrist. Biden sometimes told those people to vote
for someone else.
The former vice president does not support a ban on fracking, which
contributes to climate change but is a source of jobs for members of
Democratic-aligned labor unions. And his goal to significantly curb
carbon emissions by 2050 is viewed by some activists as a too-distant
goal.
Inslee said that Biden had supported the creation of clean energy jobs
during the economic recovery from the 2008-2009 financial crisis as part
of the Obama administration.
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![](../images/042320pics/news_v39.jpg)
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee and other regional leaders
attend a news conference to announce measures to combat the spread
of novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, in Seattle, Washington,
U.S., March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Karen Ducey
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
"As a result of this, you have helped create 3.3 million jobs in
clean energy - jobs that didn't exist before," Inslee said as he
announced his endorsement during an episode of Biden's podcast.
Biden said as the country contends with the novel coronavirus
outbreak and resulting economic downturn, jobs in clean energy could
again drive economic recovery.
Green jobs "can be the very thing that helps us get through this
existential threat to our economy," Biden said on the podcast.
Biden has called for spending $1.3 trillion over a decade on
electric-car charging stations, high-speed railroads, clean-energy
research and other infrastructure that could limit the effects of
climate change.
Democrats are eager to project unity heading into the race against
Trump. Last week, Biden received a string of high-profile
endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Senator
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former President Barack Obama.
(Reporting by Amanda Becker in Washington and Trevor Hunnicutt in
New York; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Jonathan Oatis and Richard
Chang)
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