气候变化——多年来的热门话题——在2020年总统大选之前有了新的意义选举随着西部野火的肆虐，热带风暴袭击了墨西哥湾沿岸，年复一年的气温创下纪录。
两位总统唐纳德·特朗普和民主党候选人乔·拜登在涉及到以下问题时，他们基本上遵循各自的政党路线环境艾尔政策。
在他的总统任期内，特朗普撤销了许多美国的缓解承诺气候变化，最显著的是退出巴黎协定，取消清洁水保护和寻求快速跟踪几十个主要能源和基础设施项目的环境审查，如钻井、燃料管道和风力发电场。
拜登反驳了特朗普政府的政策，承诺通过一项拟议的法案保护环境5万亿美元的计划。
以下是每位候选人在这些问题上的立场:
水污染
环境保护局(EPA)局长安德鲁·惠勒(Andrew Wheeler月份表示，特朗普政府认为全球饮用水质量是一场比气候变化更大的危机。惠勒在世界水日于华盛顿发表的讲话中说，安全饮用水、海洋中的塑料污染和其他垃圾、西部各州的干旱和水基础设施是“目前影响世界的最大和最紧迫的环境和公共健康问题”。
然而，在一月份特朗普取消了奥巴马时代的净水保护旨在保护河流、溪流、湿地和其他水体免受工业设施和农业的污染和径流。此举最终确定了特朗普对农民和其他声称法规过于繁琐的人的签名竞选承诺。
根据环境保护局的新规定，联邦政府不再保护仅在一年中的某些时间或大雨后流动的溪流，或者与较大水体无关的湿地。联邦政府对通航水域的保护仍然存在，如主要河流和湖泊以及直接流入其中的任何支流和湿地。
拜登的竞选网站称，拜登承诺确保所有社区都有安全的饮用水，并通过采取行动打击化石燃料公司和其他“以人为本”的污染者，防止脆弱社区(如密歇根州弗林特)的水污染。这些公司故意破坏环境或隐瞒潜在环境和健康风险的信息。
此外，在参议院任职期间，拜登共同发起了1988年禁止海洋倾倒法案，禁止倾倒污水、污泥和工业废料。
前副总统乔·拜登(左)和唐纳德·特朗普(右)。
气候变化对自然灾害的影响
本月早些时候，特朗普在西海岸肆虐的毁灭性野火中访问加州时，对气候变化应负责任表示怀疑。
“天气会开始变冷，”特朗普告诉加州自然资源部长韦德·克劳福德。“你只是——你只是看着。”
克劳福德在回答“我希望科学与你一致”时显得很震惊，特朗普反驳道，“我认为科学实际上不知道。”特朗普对科学家和科学的反复攻击招致轻蔑和惊慌来自社区。
2018年，特朗普说他没有“相信”一份主要的联邦报告的发现--来自300名专家，包括来自13个联邦机构的专家--认为气候变化会损害经济。
拜登抨击特朗普因为他在特拉华州威尔明顿的一次演讲中对加州火灾的评论，集中在他对抗气候变化的计划以及这种影响如何恶化世界各地的极端天气事件。
“如果你给一个气候纵火犯在白宫的四年多时间里，如果我们有更多的美国在燃烧，为什么会有人感到惊讶?如果你让一个否认气候的人在白宫多呆四年，当更多的美国人在水下时，为什么会有人感到惊讶?”拜登说。
拜登支持绿色新政民主党人提出了一项全面的提议，针对最近气候变化报告的惊人发现，提出了戏剧性的解决方案，例如将碳排放一直降至净零。
根据拜登的竞选网站，拜登应对气候紧急情况的计划将致力于100%的清洁能源经济，并在2050年前实现净零排放。
2020年9月14日，加州州长加文·纽瑟姆(左)在加州麦克莱伦公园的萨克拉门托麦克莱伦机场举行的简报会上谈论西部野火，唐纳德·特朗普总统在一旁倾听。
演练
特朗普的政策主要倾向于扩大油气钻探。
他的政府在2018年寻求开放联邦控制下90%的沿海地区进行近海钻探，但该计划在2019年被搁置在做出法律决定后称前总统奥巴马颁布的禁止在某些地区进行近海钻探的禁令无法解除。
8月，内政部长大卫·伯恩哈特宣布，政府将允许在美国西海岸150多万英亩的土地上进行石油和天然气钻探北极国家野生动物保护区。尽管该计划包括保护该地区野生动物的限制，但在此之前，人们担心钻探会破坏该地区的原始荒野和土著部落，因此引发了数十年的争议。
然而，据报道，本月早些时候，特朗普扩大了对大西洋沿岸钻探地点的禁令，这可能会吸引沿海各州的选民，如至关重要的佛罗里达州美联社。
拜登在他的竞选网站上承诺寻求全球暂停近海钻井，并提醒选民，在奥巴马-拜登政府时期，大西洋和北冰洋的大部分地区禁止钻井。
民主党候选人支持禁止新的石油和天然气许可在联邦土地上。根据他的竞选活动，禁令将包括水力压裂。
反常
特朗普在2016年选举期间的竞选承诺之一是撤销奥巴马政府实施的环境法规。
环保局在特朗普手下度过了第一年执行行政命令，废除法规，重新审查里程碑式的环境政策。它还开始了废除清洁能源计划的进程，该计划将对发电厂的温室气体排放施加限制。
政府还降低了燃料经济性目标，剥夺了加州制定自己排放标准的能力，并改变了甲烷排放和燃烧规则，根据布鲁金斯学会的说法。
特朗普“仍然致力于”扩大美国的能源生产白宫宣布去年。
拜登提出了一个雄心勃勃的解决方案清洁能源的生产，这将在未来10年内涉及1.7万亿美元的清洁能源投资，并推动国家迅速减少对化石燃料的依赖。
该计划还将包括在司法部内设立一个环境和气候司法司，并改革环境保护局外部民权合规办公室，作为改革政府当前环境司法政策的一部分，为受气候变化影响最大的人伸张正义。
2020年9月14日，民主党总统候选人、前副总统乔·拜登在德尔威尔明顿谈到影响西部各州的气候变化和野火。在讲话中，拜登称特朗普总统为“气候纵火犯”
与其他国家合作减少排放
特朗普在2017年首次宣布他将将美国从巴黎协定中剔除该协议由联合国气候变化框架公约于2015年12月制定，目标是确保全球气温上升不超过工业化前水平2摄氏度(3.6华氏度)，联合国称之为1850年至1900年期间。
特朗普批评了该协议，称它给美国带来了不公平的负担，而且对减缓其他国家的排放几乎没有帮助。
撤军将于11月4日生效——总统选举后的第二天。
根据能源信息管理局的预测，特朗普有望成为美国化石燃料排放量下降最快的人之一，到2020年下降10%。环境影响评估称，这一下降是由新冠肺炎大流行造成的，是自2008年经济衰退以来的最大降幅，2008年的降幅为7.3%。
拜登的竞选网站说，候选人将“团结世界其他国家应对气候变化的威胁”，并让美国重新承诺遵守《巴黎协定》。
该网站称:“他将领导一项努力，让每个主要国家提升其国内气候目标的雄心。”。“他将确保这些承诺是透明和可执行的，并利用美国的经济杠杆和榜样力量阻止各国作弊。”
Trump vs. Biden on the issues: Climate change and the environment
Climate change -- a hot-button topic for years -- has taken on renewed significance ahead of the 2020 presidentialelection, with wildfires decimating the West, tropical storms pounding the Gulf Coast and year after year of record temperatures.
Both PresidentDonald Trumpand Democratic candidateJoe Bidenlargely toe their respective party lines when it comes to issues pertaining toenvironmental policy.
Throughout his presidency, Trump reversed many American commitments to mitigatingclimate change, most notably pulling out of the Paris Agreement, removing clean water protections andseeking to fast trackenvironmental reviews of dozens of major energy and infrastructure projects, such as drilling, fuel pipelines and wind farms.
Biden has countered the Trump administration's policies by promising to protect the environment with a proposed a$5 trillion plan.
Here is where each candidate stands on the issues:
Water pollution
The Trump administration considers drinking water quality around the world a bigger crisis than climate change, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chief Andrew Wheeler said in April. Safe drinking water, plastic pollution and other litter in the oceans, drought in western states and water infrastructure are "the largest and most immediate environmental and public health issues affecting the world right now," Wheeler said in remarks in Washington on World Water Day.
However, in JanuaryTrump removed Obama-era clean water protectionsintended to protect rivers, streams, wetlands and other bodies of water from pollution and runoff from industrial facilities and agriculture. The move finalized Trump's signature campaign promises to farmers and others who claimed the regulations were too burdensome.
Under the EPA's new rules, the federal government no longer protects streams that only flow during some parts of the year or after heavy rain, or wetlands that are not connected to larger bodies of water. Federal protections for navigable waters such as major rivers and lakes and any tributaries and wetlands that flow directly into them remained.
Biden has pledged to ensure all communities have safe drinking water and to prevent pollution of water in vulnerable communities -- such as Flint, Michigan -- by taking action against fossil fuel companies "and other polluters" that "put profit over people" by knowingly harming the environment or conceal information regarding potential environmental and health risks, according to his campaign website.
In addition, during his time in the Senate, Biden co-sponsored theOcean-Dumping Ban Act of 1988, which prohibited dumping sewage, sludge and industrial waste.
Climate change's effect on natural disasters
While visiting California amid devastating wildfires raging up and down the West Coast earlier this month, Trump expressed skepticism that climate change was to blame.
"It'll start getting cooler," Trump told California's Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot. "You just -- you just watch."
Crowfoot appeared stunned when he replied, "I wish science agreed with you," to which Trump retorted, "I don't think science knows actually." Trump's repeated attacks on scientists and sciencehave drawn scorn and alarmfrom the community.
In 2018, Trump said hedidn't "believe"a major federal report's findings -- from 300 experts, including from 13 federal agencies -- that climate change would hurt the economy.
Biden blasted Trumpfor his comments about the California fires during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, centered around his plans to combat climate change and how the effect is worsening extreme weather events around the world.
"If you give aclimate arsonistfour more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is underwater?" Biden said.
Biden is supporting theGreen New Deal, a sweeping proposal by Democrats that suggests dramatic solutions in response to alarming findings of recent climate change reports, solutions such as bringing carbon emissions all the way down to net-zero.
Biden's plan to address the climate emergency would aspire to a 100% clean energy economy and reaching net-zero emissions no later than 2050, according to his campaign website.
President Donald Trump listens as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, left, speaks about the western wildfires during a briefing at Sacramento McClellan Airport, in McClellan Park, Calif., Sept. 14, 2020.
Drilling
Trump's policies have largely gravitated toward an expansion of oil and gas drilling.
His administration sought in 2018 to open 90% of coastal areas under federal control for offshore drilling, but that plan was put on hold in 2019after a legal decisionstating that a ban of offshore drilling in some areas, which was put in place by former President Obama, could not be lifted.
In August, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced that the administration would allow oil and gas drilling on more than 1.5 million acres on the coast of theArctic National Wildlife Refuge. While the plan included restrictions to protect wildlife in the area, it came after decades of controversy over concern that the drilling would disrupt the pristine wilderness and native tribes in the area.
However, earlier this month Trump expanded a ban on drilling sites off the Atlantic Ocean, likely to appeal to voters in coastal states, such as all-important Florida, according toThe Associated Press.
Biden has promised on his campaign website to pursue a global moratorium on offshore drilling and reminded voters that under the Obama-Biden administration large parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans were banned for drilling.
The Democratic nomineesupports banning new oil and gas permitson federal land. The ban would include fracking, according to his campaign.
Deregulation
One of Trump's campaign promises during the 2016 election was to roll back environmental regulations put in place by the Obama administration.
The EPAspent its first year under Trumpcarrying out executive orders to repeal regulations and reexamining landmark environmental policies. It also began a process to repeal the Clean Power Plan, which would impose restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The administration also lowered fuel economy goals, took away California's ability to set its own emissions standards and changed methane venting and flaring rules,according to the Brookings Institution.
Trump "remains committed" to expanding energy production in the U.S., theWhite House announcedlast year.
Biden has proposed anambitious solutionfor the production of clean energy, which would involve a $1.7 trillion investment in clean energy over the next 10 years and move the nation rapidly toward a quick reduction of its reliance on fossil fuels.
The plan would also include establishing an Environmental and Climate Justice Division within the Department of Justice and overhauling the EPA External Civil Rights Compliance Office, as part of a path to overhaul the government’s current environmental justice policy, to bring justice to those most impacted by climate change.
Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about climate change and wildfires affecting western states, Sept. 14, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. During the remarks, Biden called President Trump a "climate arsonist."
Working with other countries to cut down on emissions
Trump first announced in 2017 that he wouldremove the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the accord created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2015 with a goal to ensure that global temperatures do not increase more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, which the U.N. refers to as the period between 1850 and 1900.
Trump criticized the agreement, stating it imposed an unfair burden on the U.S. and that is has done little to slow down emissions from other countries.
The withdrawal will take effect on Nov. 4 -- one day after the presidential election.
Trump is on track to preside over one of America's sharpest drops in fossil fuel emissions -- 10% for 2020, according to a projection by the Energy Information Administration. That decrease, which the EIA says is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, represents the largest drop since the 2008 recession, which saw a 7.3% decline.
Biden's campaign website says the candidate will "rally the rest of the world to meet the threat of climate change" and recommit the U.S. to the Paris Agreement.
"He will lead an effort to get every major country to ramp up the ambition of their domestic climate targets," the website states. "He will make sure those commitments are transparent and enforceable, and stop countries from cheating by using America’s economic leverage and power of example."
