Excerpt: Harris once endorsed the Green New Deal, supported a fracking ban and sued oil companies as California’s attorney general. Those positions, if she stuck with them as the nominee, would get a big welcome from climate activists — and by young voters, who rank climate change as among their top concerns.
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Hitting the reset button?
The rhetorical differences between Biden and Harris could offer enough space, climate advocates say, for youth-oriented groups to reset their relationship with the Democratic presidential campaign.
Climate hawks have broadly welcomed Harris’ elevation, Timothy Cama reports, with Evergreen Action; Climate Power; and Gina McCarthy, Biden’s former climate adviser, endorsing her for president. Other green groups praised Biden’s record without explicitly weighing in on his successor.
The Sunrise Movement, the group of young climate activists that has had a hot-and-cold relationship with the Biden team, has reacted to the rise of Harris by touting her past climate positions and vowing to organize against Trump. The group is scheduled to hold a mass call with its members tonight.
The parts of Harris’ energy record that play well with climate voters could prove more tricky in swing states with big fossil fuel sectors, like the fracking hotbed of Pennsylvania, as Heather Richards and Brian Dabbs report.
But the same states have also actively sought a slice of the billions of dollars in new clean energy and infrastructure spending championed by the Biden administration.
The campaign may now see a “stepped-up emphasis on climate policy,” ClearView Energy Partners said in a research note Sunday, “as a way to reinvigorate support from the under-30 voters whose turnout could potentially decide closely contested swing states.”
