Biden Slams Republican Leaders During OC Visit

As Republican presidential candidates assemble in Simi Valley for their second debate, Vice President Joe Biden -- who has been weighing a possible bid for the Democratic presidential nomination -- returned to Southern California today to speak at a pair of conferences.

Biden made a late-morning appearance at the Anaheim Convention Center to speak at the Solar Power International Conference, where he touted the Obama Administration’s support of alternative energy sources.

According to organizers, the conference is the largest solar power trade show in North America, featuring more than 600 exhibitors and 15,000 attendees. Biden is the first sitting vice president to address a solar-power conference in North America, organizers said.

During his speech, Biden took a shot at Republicans in advance of tonight’s GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

“At the Reagan Library you’re going to hear people -- I suspect -- if not there, I know my colleagues in the Republican House and caucus and some ... Republicans in the Senate, deny climate change,” Biden said. “I think if you push them, they would probably deny gravity as well.”

At 4:45 p.m., Biden will speak during a closing session of the U.S.- China Climate Leaders Summit at the J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. The two-day summit, which began Tuesday, was organized for officials from both countries to discuss efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and fight global climate change.

The two-day summit comes one week ahead of a planned meeting between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, D.C., and ahead of the United Nations climate conference being held in December in Paris.

Xi and Obama in November announced an agreement under which the United States would work to cut emissions to 26 to 28 percent under 2005 levels by 2025, while China would cap emissions levels by 2030. Mayors of several U.S. and Chinese cities signed agreements at the Los Angeles conference on Tuesday promising to take steps to help their countries reach those national goals.

In addition to emission-reductions, the agreements also included promises by the Chinese and U.S. cities to regularly report greenhouse gas emissions, develop climate action plans and work bilaterally on “sharing best practices and lessons learned, as well as innovating, demonstrating and deploying low carbon technologies.”

Biden is scheduled to remain in Los Angeles overnight, departing Thursday morning for Detroit to discuss that city’s economic revitalization efforts.

Biden was in the Los Angeles area in late July to speak at a North Hollywood business in support of a minimum wage hike and attend a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in Beverly Hills.

The vice president has increasingly found himself in the campaign spotlight, with questions continuing to arise about his possible entry into the presidential race. Biden has acknowledged the calls for him to enter the fray, but has said he isn’t yet ready to make a decision.

Biden, 72, told late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert last week that presidential candidates need to be prepared to devote their full lives and energies to such a campaign, and he wasn’t sure he was prepared for such an effort.

“I don’t think any man or woman should run for president unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president, and number two, they can look at the folks out there and say, ‘I promise you that you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy and my passion to do this,” Biden said. “And I’d be lying if I said that I knew I was there.”

City News Service; Photo: Wikimedia Commons