Elizabeth Warren: I Fight Climate Change by ‘Mostly’ Flying Commercial

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she has been “mostly” flying commercial in an effort to combat climate change but said her campaign is trying to look at “other ways” to reduce its carbon footprint.

In an appearance on New Hampshire Public Radio Wednesday morning, Warren discussed some of the ways her campaign is hoping to reduce its carbon footprint. She admitted she still embraces air travel but claimed she “mostly” flies commercial.

“What specific steps have you taken in your campaign to ensure that your campaign’s environmental impact is limited as possible?” a listener asked.

Host Laura Knoy pointed out that Tom Steyer (D) recently told NHPR that he is only flying commercial, adding, “there’s a huge carbon footprint of a private jet, so that’s the sacrifice he said he was willing to make. How about you?”

“So I’ve mostly been flying commercial,” Warren said, explaining that her campaign has been trying to look at “other ways” to reduce its carbon footprint.

“It’s everything from the kind of car we drive and down to, do we purchase offsets? Can we make that work s a way to try to reduce the footprint,” she said, failing to elaborate if her campaign’s proposals have come to fruition.

“One of the things that has been so interesting to me in the whole area of climate has been the good ideas that have come from lots of different campaigns. One I just want to get a pitch in here for is when Gov. Inslee was running,” she said:

He talked about the importance of regulating three industries– that by 2028 no new buildings, no new houses that have any carbon footprints– zero carbon footprint on new buildings. By 2030, all newly built cars and trucks– zero carbon footprint. And by 2035, all electric production– zero carbon footprint.

“We do those three things, we cut carbon emission in our country by 70 percent. Think about that, three things, 70 percent reduction,” she said.

Warren’s admission, that she “mostly” flies commercial, follows reports of several climate-concerned 2020 candidates spending tens of thousands of dollars on private air travel throughout the course of their campaigns.

As Breitbart News reported:

Joe Biden (D) has been under fire in recent days after it was reported that his campaign dropped short of $1 million –  $924,000  – on private jet usage in the third quarter (July 1 – September 30) alone. The expenses were attributed to the EJCR, LLC Dba Advanced Aviation Team, recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show.

While Biden leads the pack, he is not alone in his exorbitant private air travel expenditures. Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) reportedly spent just short of $500,000 – $479,000 –  on private air travel. That is a $179,000 increase from his private air travel expenses in the previous quarter, according to the Hill.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) also put her climate change-related concerns aside, spending $253,000– $236,000 more than the $17,000 she spent in the previous three months.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) – who once described climate change as the “greatest threat to our national security” – spent $360,000 on private air travel in the third quarter. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) – who described climate change as an “existential crisis that threatens all of us” – also utilized private air travel, spending $132,000 in the third quarter. However, a campaign aide told the Hill that Warren makes an effort to offset her carbon output and gave $10,150 to Native Energy in the third quarter.

The outline of the Green New Deal, which Warren emphatically supports, actively objects to air travel but notes that it would be virtually impossible to eliminate completely.

It stated:

We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast, but we think we can ramp up renewable manufacturing and power production, retrofit every building in America, build the smart grid, overhaul transportation and agriculture, plant lots of trees and restore our ecosystem to get to net-zero.