NEW YORK — President Joe Biden offered a forceful defense of his climate and energy legacy on Tuesday — sounding a message that has largely vanished from the race for the White House.
Biden, speaking at a climate event hours after addressing the United Nations General Assembly, presented a glowing appraisal of his environmental record to a roomful of mostly supportive business leaders, saying he created a “new formula” that strengthens the economy while expanding clean energy.
“Kamala and I have pursued an ambitious climate policy focused on growth,” Biden said to about 200 people at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in the Plaza Hotel. “We were told it couldn’t get done. But we did it.”
Biden’s appearance, on the sidelines of Climate Week, was perhaps his last major opportunity to sum up his ambitious, expansive energy agenda in public before the voters render a verdict on it in November, in essence serving as a swan song on an issue that has shaped his presidency.
