New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed President Obama’s bid for a second term, saying climate change was the deciding factor. “The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast—in lost lives, lost homes and lost businesses—brought the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief,” Bloomberg wrote in an editorial for Bloomberg View. “Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be—given this week’s devastation—should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action.”
But we can’t do it alone,” he went on. “We need leadership from the White House—and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. His administration also has adopted tighter controls on mercury emissions, which will help to close the dirtiest coal power plants (an effort I have supported through my philanthropy), which are estimated to kill 13,000 Americans a year.”
Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-Independent who is currently serving his third term as mayor of New York City, did not endorse any presidential candidate in the 2008 election, when Barack Obama ran against Sen. John McCain.