Steyer in Iowa

In 2010, Steyer and his wife pledged to give away half of their fortune to charitable causes. In the following years he founded climate-advocacy group Nextgen Climate, which grew to be a young-voter turnout effort in 2018, and Need to Impeach, a campaign advocating to impeach the president.

Eric Johnson, 39, of Johnson County, turned out to see Steyer because of his interest in candidates’ climate change policies, calling Steyer a “leader” on the climate change front. He asked Steyer if, like other presidential hopefuls, he would include in his plan a carbon tax, the revenue of which could be distributed back to taxpayers.

Steyer said he didn’t oppose a price on carbon, but that he didn’t want to make a similar proposal the epicenter of his plan to combat the effects of climate change. He opted instead to focus on stricter regulations for the fossil fuel industries.

Climate change has also been a major plank in Steyer’s advocacy and run for president. He’s pledged that on “day one” of a Steyer presidency, he would declare a climate emergency.