Vice President Kamala Harris is tight-lipped about her record on climate change, while major green groups continue to support her regardless — something political and energy experts tell The Daily Caller News Foundation Dynamics are not accidental. [emphasis, links added]
Harris, who called climate change an “existential threat” in 2019, previously investigated Big Oil companies as California's attorney general and co-sponsored the Green New Deal as a senator. But she largely avoided climate change and green energy on the campaign trail, framing the issues in terms of the economy, jobs and investment when she raised them.
Many major ecological activist groups still support her, suggesting Harris is trying to broaden her appeal to more moderate voters to win the election subsequently Governing as a climate hardliner after taking office“, energy experts and political strategists told DCNF.
“The Democratic Party has discovered that The apocalyptic atmosphere is unlikely to bring people along for this particular journey“, Mike McKenna, a Republican strategist with extensive energy industry experience, told DCNF. “So, they clearly made a command decision to just focus on the carrot and ignore anything that looked like a stick. “
Harris and her running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, stopped by to campaign on climate issues, But eco-activist leaders are generally unconcerned about the lack of attention to the issueAccording to the New York Times.
Walz did not address climate change during his speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, mostly sticking to his background as a rural American.
Even as the Harris campaign withdraws its previous support for a fracking ban, Many environmental groups opposed to fracking have supported her candidacy.
The campaign's apparent strategy to focus less on climate change “suggests that Democrats think talking about the environment in this election cycle is a lose-lose proposition”The Washington Post reported Thursday.
“They know what she's going to do. Talking about climate doesn't do any good,” Steve Milloy, senior legal fellow at the Energy and Environmental Law Institute, told DCNF.
“Keep in mind, I believe it's July 2022, A poll conducted by The New York Times showed that only 1% of voters prioritize climate issues. So it's a loser's question…and they can't lose Penn State. So, they don't want to talk about climate, because when you talk about climate, you have to talk about fracking, and Then they're going to have to talk about how she wants to stop fracking, no matter what she says.“
Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who has pursued one of the most aggressive state-level climate agendas in the country during his tenure as governor, recently told The New York Times that he didn’t think Harris needed to be leveraged on the campaign trail Her climate record.
“I'm not worried,” Inslee told the New York Times. “I have every confidence that when she can bring about positive change, she will.”
In addition, the political wings of three green groups — League of Conservation Voters, Climate Power and Environmental Defense Fund — $55 million was spent on ads in swing states to promote Harris, but the first three ads released did not touch on climate change.
The ads return to the theme of green energy and promote Harris' record on the issue, which focuses on protecting ordinary Americans from greedy corporations and promoting “advanced manufacturing and clean energy” as a way to help the middle class. means.
The approach differs from the one Harris used when she first ran for president in the 2020 cycle, where she sought to outflank many Democratic opponents from the left. Support policies such as a carbon tax, changing dietary guidelines to reduce red meat consumption, and banning plastic straws to complement fracking bans.
Ecological activists and climate-conscious voters “absolutely believe she will turn left, left, left” on climate and energy issues. CNN political strategist and broadcast expert Scott Jennings told DCNF. “Of course they know. What they are counting on is her 2020 campaign agenda. I think if she wins she will contribute to them.“
President Joe Biden also reportedly made climate a key aspect of his successful 2020 campaign, pledging that he would end fossil fuels and calling former President Donald Trump a “climate arsonist” for failing to protect Americans Protect yourself from the “devastations of climate change.”
despite this, Even as the administration pursues what it calls “the most ambitious climate agenda in history,” Biden and his top officials still regularly draw the ire of hardline climate activists.
Harris cast the decisive vote in the Senate to secure passage of Biden's signature climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), in 2022.
Although its prices have risen significantly from initial estimates, and some believe the bill has fueled inflation, The IRA unleashed hundreds of billions of dollars in private and public spending on green energy and manufacturing projects.
The Biden-Harris administration touted the investment as evidence that its domestic agenda is working.
“Democratic climate activists are finally realizing that No one believes their rhetoric about a “climate emergency” anymore, or their claims that they have 5, 10 or 20 years left to “save the planet”.
“On the contrary, they are Promote a series of stupid economic propositions “Somehow, hundreds of billions, and now trillions, of dollars have been poured into centrally planned projects by governments,” Marc Morano, publisher of Climate Warehouse, told DCNF.
“This new climate message from Democrats, who don’t mention climate, is part of the legacy of the Inflation Reduction Act, which gave local communities and certain states access to unlimited federal funds through taxpayers to create a ‘green economy.’ ”
Read the break from The Daily Caller
