The Climate Movement Rushes to Embrace Kamala Harris

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Aynsley O’Neill and Steve Curwood with Marianne Lavelle, Inside Climate News’ Washington correspondent. 

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has a long environmental history, from her time as a former California attorney general who took on oil companies, her work on the Inflation Reduction Act as Vice President, to her engagement in international climate diplomacy. 

Marianne Lavelle from Inside Climate News joins hosts Aynsley O’Neill and Steve Curwood to walk through Kamala Harris’ environmental record and what it could mean for her campaign.

STEVE CURWOOD: During the recent Democratic National Convention there was scant mention of the climate and environment from the top of the ticket: Most of the messaging was about rallying the troops and getting to the polls, and little said about what the Democrats would do if they do keep the White House.

So Aynsley, let’s take a look now at the environmental plans of the Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris. For help with that, reporter Marianne Lavelle of our media partner Inside Climate News: she’s on the line with us now.

AYNSLEY O’NEILL: Hi Marianne, welcome back to Living on Earth.

MARIANNE LAVELLE: Thank you, great to be here.

CURWOOD: So, this election season, can we say it was shaken up when President Biden dropped out of the race and passed the torch to Kamala Harris. What have you been hearing so far about Kamala’s candidacy from those who care about the climate?

KANIELA ING: We see this as a new opportunity, where if you look at Kamala Harris, she actually endorsed the Green New Deal in 2020, has been a longtime champion for environmental justice, something that’s deeply personal, to me, making sure that Black and brown and low income communities aren’t disproportionately impacted by corporate pollution. And we see the hope of the presidency as something really refreshing. And so we’re jumping in the race, something that folks didn’t necessarily expect from a coalition like ours.

LAVELLE: I also spoke with R.L. Miller from Climate Hawks Vote. Again, that’s an advocacy group which has historically never endorsed a presidential candidate but this year they’re supporting the Harris ticket. This is what she had to say.

R.L. MILLER: And partly because of this extraordinary moment in which we find ourselves, you know, democracy is on the line. And she is trying to do in 100 days what normally is done in two years, and so it’s very much an all hands-on deck moment.

O’NEILL: All hands on deck! It sounds like the Harris campaign is really sparking a new energy in this advocacy world.

CURWOOD: It sure sounds like that. Marianne, let’s talk a bit about policy. The Inflation Reduction Act has been touted as the biggest spending package on climate and energy. How is that being brought forward from the Biden-Harris administration into the Harris campaign?

LAVELLE: You know it’s interesting: A recent poll by the Center for Public Affairs Research says that 71 percent of U.S. adults either believe the IRA has not made much difference on climate change or they just don’t know enough to say. Now it’s not clear whether that’s because the Biden administration has failed to get the word out, or the fact that many of its benefits have yet to be felt. So, now, Harris has the big job of trying to explain the law, and how it is helping us meet climate goals as well as helping the economy.

CURWOOD: That’s no easy feat.

O’NEILL: Yes, and that was a big climate win for the Biden administration, so what examples if any are there of Harris trying to spread the word on the Inflation Reduction Act?

LAVELLE: Well, here’s an example. You know the idea of a “green bank”—it has been talked about since Obama was in office. It’s a financial institution that would lend public money to help cash-strapped businesses and individuals invest in things like solar panels and energy-efficiency. The Green Bank idea was actually brought to life through the Inflation Reduction Act. About $20 billion dollars are being distributed through these community-based lenders. 

Kamala Harris traveled to North Carolina in April to announce the recipients. She got to meet first-hand some of the people who will benefit from the fund, like Levon McBride. He’s a small business owner who lives in a super energy-efficient home financed by the Self-Help Credit Union in an historic African American community called Grier Heights. He told the vice president his energy bills have dropped dramatically, from about $600 a month to $100 a month. I talked to him about the vice president’s visit.

LEVON MCBRIDE: I just felt like she really, really truly cared about long term environmental impacts for not just we adults now, but for our children, as well because we did, you know, mention the legacy we want to leave behind for our kids. We want to leave an earth for them. We want to be able to have clean air and things for them. But also she really cared for normal families, you know just everyday people like myself.

O’NEILL: Okay, so it does sound like she’s getting the word out here at home. But let’s go global— what’s been her role in international climate policy?

LAVELLE: Kamala Harris represented the United States at the recent climate talks in Dubai. She also led the U.S.-Caribbean clean energy engagement effort, and has promoted bilateral cooperation in travels to Asia and Africa. But this kind of diplomacy has not been cast in a good light by former president Trump or the environmental officials who worked under his administration.

I talked with Mandy Gunasekara, the former chief of staff for the Environmental Protection Agency and one of the authors of Project 2025. That’s the Heritage Foundation-sponsored policy roadmap we have all heard about for a second Trump administration. She said that carbon emissions have increased since the start of the international climate negotiations.

MANDY GUNASEKARA: The overarching goal is to reduce global emissions. And since the start of this emissions have only gone up, imagine if we had spent the resources and the international political capital actually sharing innovative ideas, in terms of harnessing energy, and then using it efficiently, what sort of changes we could have ultimately had globally, or we could have helped cultivate globally. But instead, it’s been this bureaucratic U.N. process, where again, you get caught in this do loop of talking about things but not producing a lot of tangible results, or measurable improvements.

LAVELLE: You know she’s right that carbon emissions have continued to increase. But the U.N. Environment Program says it’s important to realize the rate of increase has slowed significantly, and that’s because of policies enacted since 2015’s Paris Climate Agreement.

CURWOOD: And while we’re on the topic, where are we in terms of former President Obama’s original $3 billion pledge to help developing countries respond to climate change?

LAVELLE: The U.S. and other developed nations remain far short of the $100 billion per year they pledged to mobilize by 2020. Now Vice President Harris took up this issue on her trip to Africa last year. She did fundraising herself from private companies and foundations and was able to raise $7 billion for climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation in Africa. She announced this in Zambia at a farm that runs on 100 percent solar energy. The owner, Bruno Mweemba, tries to run his farm as a model for how smallholder farmers in Zambia can operate more sustainably. Here’s what he had to say about Kamala Harris’ visit.

BRUNO MWEEMBA: It was also a huge opportunity for me to really, you know, showcase to her what I would probably call the real world on the ground really looks like, because I know most of our world leaders spend quite a lot of time in a lot of air conditioned boardrooms. And I think it was such a pleasure for me to really pull her into the dirt roads, and then she comes to a real farming enterprise that really interfaces with the realities of some of these global social and economic issues.

LAVELLE: Zambia is one of six countries in southern Africa that have declared national emergencies due to severe drought that has destroyed crops and dried up hydroelectric power. Tens of thousands of children are at risk of malnutrition due to what UNICEF says is a climate-related crisis.

CURWOOD: Well, that’s a big story we’re going to have to follow up on—the development of that down the road.

O’NEILL: Of course. Now, a major sticking point in past elections has been liquified natural gas.

CURWOOD: During her 2020 campaign Kamala said she would ban fracking. So far what has the Harris campaign said in terms of its fracking and LNG plans today?

LAVELLE: Yes, those are key energy issues for this year’s election. On fracking, Harris’ campaign has made clear that she no longer favors a ban. This is a particularly hot issue in Pennsylvania, which is not only a must-win state for Harris, it’s a hotspot for fracking. 

On LNG, though, Harris has not said where she stands on new export terminals, which the gas industry wants very much but are strongly opposed by many frontline communities on the Gulf Coast. Biden announced a temporary pause on new LNG terminals early this year, but the gas industry is challenging this in court and it is a policy Trump has promised to lift. 

The fossil fuel industry liked to argue that Biden was just trying to win over young voters with his LNG pause. Young voters, of course, helped carry Biden to victory in 2020. But the interesting thing is that polls as recently as last spring showed that the LNG decision had not helped Biden with young voters, they were not happy with Biden’s record on climate in general. But polls are now showing those same voters are very enthusiastic about Harris, even though we don’t know yet whether her policies will be different from Biden’s policies.

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