Can a billionaire be trusted to dismantle the system that made them wealthy? California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer understand why you might say no—but he argues he's the guy to break the mold.In our interview, we discuss whether billionaires should exist at all, Steyer’s past investments in fossil fuels, the carbon footprint of billionaire investment portfolios, his proposal to break up California’s electric utility monopolies and lower electricity prices, the dark money campaigns already targeting him, and how he’d use the California governorship to push climate action nationwide. We also talk about our shared trip to the Athabasca tar sands in 2014.
HEATED's previous coverage of billionaires:
* Bill Gates is no friend to the climate. November 2019
* Why I’m skeptical of Jeff Bezos’s $10 billion climate pledge. February 2020
* Bezos breaks his climate pledge. September 2020
* The stealth climate villains of 2020 (all billionaires). December 2020
* Climate billionaires are our modern-day Columbuses. October 2021, repub October 2023
* The climate case against Elon Musk. November 2022
* Elon Musk’s climate censorship. April 2023
* Surprise! Billionaires aren’t solving climate change. November 2023
* Nobel Prize-winning economist calls for climate tax on billionaires. April 2024
* Behind the billionaire climate tax. April 2024
* Elon Musk’s PAC is powered by coal. November 2024
* You already know Elon Musk. You need to know Harold Hamm. February 2025
* The Senate is about to destroy clean energy to give tax cuts to billionaires. June 2025
