Steyer Campaign Press Release - Tom Steyer Takes Part in MSNBC Climate Change Town Hall

Today at Georgetown University in D.C., Steyer spoke with MSNBC's Chris Hayes and students from across the country about the climate change crisis

(WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 2019) — Today, presidential candidate for the Democratic nomination Tom Steyer joined MSNBC, New York Magazine, Our Daily Planet, and students across the country at Georgetown University for an hour-long town hall format discussion on the climate change crisis. In the conversation, Steyer affirmed his status as the leading candidate to take on climate change, the only one to commit to declaring a climate emergency on day one of his presidency and using those emergency powers to aggressively address the climate crisis.

Taking questions from students in the audience and via live stream, Steyer discussed how the climate crisis can be solved with both government and private sector actions, his views on government resources and funding for research, how he would work with the states to curb carbon emissions, and how Steyer sees innovations impacting the climate debate:

"[Climate change] is going to be a hurdle for us succeeding as a society across the board, for every single person, and we should make sure that we solve it. It's got to be job one."

"Under my administration it would be very different, because I agree with California. I would push as hard as possible and as fast as possible to get carbon emissions under control. I would expect there would be states resisting that, but actually we can see from the cost of energy and jobs and a health standpoint this is better for the American people."

"There will be innovations in the world that will makes things possible that are not possible today, and we need to make sure these innovations help us solve the climate crisis not hurt us." He added, "Entrepreneurship and technology have been driving this country for hundreds of years, it will continue to do so."

Read Steyer's Justice-Centered Climate Plan, where he lays out his strategy of declaring the climate crisis a national emergency on day one, using the emergency powers of the presidency to lessen the effect of climate, creating millions of new green jobs, and restoring America's global leadership on climate change.