"Sally Jewell, who served as US Interior secretary from 2013 to 2017, said the climate stakes of the election in November “could not be higher” and that she’s “really afraid for the future of our planet” should former President Donald Trump return to the White House.
“To go backwards is not acceptable,” Jewell told attendees at the Bloomberg Green Festival in Seattle on Thursday. “I can’t say enough about the importance of continuing the progress that has been made over the last three years” on climate change, she added, especially the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Jewell, who led the Interior Department under former President Barack Obama, said a second Trump administration would pose more peril than his first did, when some of his attempted regulation changes met with roadblocks in the courts. This time around, there will be “more people in the judiciary that may look unfavorably on the kinds of laws that have given us clean air and clean water,” Jewell said, adding that she worried about climate progress “coming unraveled.”
Asked by Bloomberg Green reporter Zahra Hirji if President Joe Biden was the best person to beat Trump, Jewell said she didn’t know. Polls showing Biden trailing Trump — and not Biden’s age — are what have her most concerned. But the continuation of Biden’s policies is the most critical thing, she emphasized."
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