Energy & Environment

Green groups launch the ‘Beat Trump Presidential Climate Unity Fund’

by Rebecca Beitsch 04/30/19 09:49 AM ET

Environmental groups are teaming together to create a “Beat Trump Presidential Climate Unity Fund,” kicking off a fundraising effort to boost the eventual Democratic nominee by targeting green-minded voters.

Calling President Trump “the most anti-environmental president ever,” the fund, announced Tuesday, will hold on to as much as $5,600 per voter until a Democratic nominee is selected.

The political wings of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the Natural Resources Defense Council and NextGen America started the fund with the hope of raising $1 million for the future nominee.

{mosads}“While Democratic presidential candidates will have spent the primary season demonstrating a real commitment to climate action to the voters, Trump will have spent this time building his coffers from his polluting corporate donors,” Gene Karpinski, President of LCV Victory Fund. “We want to help the eventual Democratic nominee hit the ground running, empowered by voters across the country to fight for our environment in the general election.”

Voters will also be able to make direct donations to what the groups have determined are “leading pro-environment 2020 presidential candidates.”

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, are all on the list and the groups say more could be added in the future.

Inslee has pitched himself as the climate change candidate, while Booker and O’Rourke each recently rolled out climate-related plans of their own.

Candidate and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is not part of the platform, included environmental policies as part of her public lands policy package.

To quality, candidates must commit to achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2050, recommit the U.S. to the Paris Climate Accord, and reject contributions from fossil fuels and coal companies.

They also must explain what personally motivates them to make the climate crisis a top priority as president, with many of the prompts closely tracking the messages candidates have pushed on the campaign trail.

Inslee has branded himself the climate change candidate but focused on his role as a grandparent in motivating his work.

“This is the most important work that we can do for our three grandchildren and for grandchildren across the country–to devote ourselves to ensuring their lives and futures are not degraded by a world racked by unabated climate change,” he wrote in a two-page essay.

Sanders focused on the role played by lobbyists in avoiding action.

“We are long overdue for taking this threat seriously, due in large part to the hundreds of millions of dollars and armies of lobbyists deployed by multinational fossil fuel corporations to protect their profits,” he said.

Buttigieg highlighted his youth as an asset for tackling the problem.

“My generation will be on the business end of climate change, and in fact we are already seeing its enormous impacts right now in our communities,” he said.