BUFFALO, N.Y. — When a racially motivated shooting inside a Buffalo supermarket shocked the nation, it was Vice President Kamala Harris who decided to attend the funeral of one of the ten victims.
When the Biden administration was touting the Inflation Reduction Act and climate change, the vice president came to the University at Buffalo to promote the legislation in September 2022.
While addressing an audience of students, she said "Your generation has experienced every one of the 10 hottest summers on record. You have seen your communities decimated by wildfires. Flooded by hurricanes. And choked by drought. Here in Buffalo, you have watched as toxic algae has spread through Lake Erie. Your generation knows the threat of the climate crisis. Because you have lived it. And for your entire lives thus far, you have seen our nation fail to act with the urgency this crisis demands."
The climate crisis is what she said many young leaders want addressed.
"More than 60% of all electricity generated in our nation comes from fossil fuels, for example. Coal, petroleum. Natural gas. We know that is not sustainable and so our administration has invested billions of dollars to boost clean energy production. That means building thousands of new wind turbines and massive solar farms." She added that the transportation sector is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
"Every year, gas-powered cars and trucks and buses contribute millions of tons of carbon dioxide. And toxic air pollution. But there is a solution to this problem. Electric vehicles," said the vice president.
After her speech, she did take time out to meet with families of the mass shooting.
In May 2022, she spoke out against hate at the funeral service of Ruth Whitfield. Whitfield was the oldest victim of the Tops supermarket mass shooting.
"To not only lose someone that you love but through an act of extreme violence and hate. And I do believe that our nation right now is experiencing an epidemic of hate," she said before a packed crowd inside Mount Olive Baptist Church.
"What happened here in Buffalo, in Texas, in Atlanta, in Orlando; what happened at the synagogues? And so this is a moment that requires all good people, all God-loving people to stand up and say we will not stand for this, enough is enough."