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Science Oct 01, 2020
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Olivier Douliery/Pool vi AP Originally published by E&E News Between cross-talk and insults, climate change got more attention last night than in any other U.S. presidential debate in history. Voters might not have noticed. The bare-knuckle bar fight of a presidential debate was nearing the end when it turned to fuel economy standards and the Clean Power Plan. The candidates presented starkly different climate agendas. But their policies were buried under a night’s worth of inflammatory statements—from President Donald Trump denouncing the election’s legitimacy and telling white supremacists to “standby,” to Democratic nominee Joe Biden snapping, “Will you shut up, man.” Neither side emerged from the debate with climate on their lips. “Let’s try to be serious,” debate moderator Chris Wallace said at one point as he tried to reassert control, later pausing the event to tell Trump: “I think the country would be better served if we allow both people to speak with fewer interruptions.” Yet their answers were still revealing. Trump said nothing about boosting fossil fuel production, the lodestar of his administration’s energy agenda. Instead, he said supportive things about electric vehicles and planting trees, mischaracterizing his record on the former and getting his numbers wrong […]
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