Mike Bloomberg Receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Conservation Voters

The only two words the coal industry fears more than clean energy? A Mike Bloomberg. Yes? No? How can you be like Mike? Sorry. Mike's just filled with energy and dry. I think what it means to be like Mike is to care about the person you're having dinner with. I want to jump like Michael Jordan and campaign for clean energy like Michael Bloomberg. How's that for a future? Americans don't need Washington to meet our Paris commitment. And Americans are not going to let Washington stand in the way of fulfilling it. We sometimes get lulled into thinking that our respective federal governments are the panacea and the salvation to everything. It's never true and it certainly is not true today with the chaos out of the White House and the climate denial out of the White House. You know, you're not allowed to use hairspray anymore because it affects the ozone. You know that, right? When Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris agreement, Mike Bloomberg instantaneously stood up. And because he was in a position to make a difference, he chose to do it. We all have responsibility. I'm able to do it. So, yes, I'm going to send him a check for the monies that America had promised to the organization as though they got it from the federal government. In a sense, he filled a gap for the United States of America, not for the administration. And I'm proud of that. If we go into this with a fatalistic attitude that nothing is solvable, we'll have missed the opportunity to take the positive steps forward for the next generation to take it even further. Mike Bloomberg is able to say, OK, we've got a city like New York with built infrastructure that has been there for decades and decades and decades. But we can still take this city and modernize it in a way that advances the climate agenda. To meet our goal of shrinking New York City's carbon footprint by 30 percent by the year 2030, retrofits of our existing buildings are critical. If you can do it in New York, you can do it anywhere. In Charlotte, North Carolina, we're doing things that he had a vision for, and we have the strategy to deliver. Whether you're reducing carbon pollution in New York City or whether you're reducing carbon pollution in California or in Beijing, it all helps reduce carbon pollution that affects the state of Washington. If you look at what Bloomberg Philanthropies has done, you look at what Mike himself has done, he is relentless in his pursuit of bettering the world. And I think that's what sets Mike Bloomberg apart. If we don't act now, when? And if we don't act, who will? Mike, congratulations to you. You did it, and it's working. We are all indebted to what you're doing, but there's one thing I've got to say. You're not done yet. It's part of a great journey. If you would accept it, I would offer you an extra mulligan in any round of golf you play in the state of Washington. Oh, how good is that? Mike, you have the wisdom of a grandfather and the energy of a teenager. Thank you for everything you have done to save our planet.