President Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday to mock a Democratic presidential rival, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who supports radical action on climate change and launched her 2020 campaign during a major snowstorm.
The “again” to which the president referred seemed to be the frequency of climate change events and conferences coinciding with cold weather — a phenomenon referred to as the “Al Gore effect.”
Klobuchar, speaking in Minneapolis during a “high-impact” snowstorm, spoke about fighting climate change in her launch speech, as quoted by the New York Times:
“For too long, leaders in Washington have sat on the sidelines while others try to figure out what to do about our changing economy and its impact on our lives, what to do about the disruptive nature of new technologies, income inequality, the political and geographic divides, the changing climate, the tumult in our world,” she said.
“Let’s stop seeing those obstacles as obstacles on our path,” she continued. “Let’s see those obstacles as our path.”
Klobuchar’s campaign website also cites climate change as one of her motivations for seeking the White House.
She is one of the eleven co-sponsors of the “Green New Deal,” a plan released by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) last week that proposes to move the U.S. entirely to solar and wind power within ten years.
Minnesota is heavily dependent on coal, natural gas, and nuclear power for energy. It ranks eighth in the U.S. in wind energy production, but that only provides for a small fraction of the state’s needs. The state has also enjoyed major economic benefits from the oil boom in nearby North Dakota.
Minneapolis reached a high of 19º F on Sunday, with 6 to 12 inches of snow accumulation expected.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.