Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has a long history as a climate-minded politician. As California’s attorney general, she prosecuted polluters, and as a U.S. senator she cosponsored the Green New Deal, a resolution that called on the nation to pivot away from fossil fuels but that never passed the Congress. During her time as vice president, she helped broker the largest climate deal in U.S. history, the $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Now, the choice of running mate could help bolster her climate and energy agenda, or moderate her stance for voters in swing states. A rally is scheduled for Tuesday in Philadelphia and Ms. Harris is expected to appear with her chosen running mate.
So, where do some of the top contenders stand on climate policies?
Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania
Last week, Gov. Josh Shapiro secured the second largest federal grant in Pennsylvania history, almost $400 million, to create 6,000 jobs and cut industrial pollution in President Biden’s home state. The funds highlight Governor Shapiro’s approach to addressing climate change in the region: use the crisis as an opportunity to employ workers, revitalize the economy and lower electric bills through the state’s version of a cap-and-trade policy.
As a candidate, he set goals to generate 30 percent of the state’s energy from renewables by 2030, a nearly 10-fold increase, and to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2050.
But Pennsylvania is also the land of natural gas, and the governor has waffled when it comes to fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a drilling technique that injects water and chemicals underground at high pressure to extract oil or gas that is otherwise difficult to access. Environmentalists say it pollutes the air and groundwater.
In 2020, as the state’s attorney general, Governor Shapiro concluded a two-year investigation into the dangers of fracking. But he’s also angered environmentalists as governor by partnering with a natural gas company on a new program that requires drilling companies to disclose the chemicals they use, but allows those companies to continue fracking.
Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky
Gov. Andy Beshear, a two-time Democratic governor in a red state, gained national recognition for his responses to extreme weather disasters like the 2021 tornadoes and 2022 floods. While Kentucky’s state climatologist said the floods were “consistent with our expectations” under climate change, Governor Beshear told the media, “I wish I could tell you why we keep getting hit here in Kentucky. I wish I could tell you why areas where people may not have much continue to get hit and lose everything. I can’t give you the why, but I know what we do in response to it. And the answer is everything we can.”
The governor has acknowledged that climate change is real but he doesn’t discuss the climate crisis while tangling with a legislature run by a Republican supermajority. Last year, Kentucky was one of five states that rejected federal funding to create a climate action plan. Instead, Kentucky E3, a 2021 plan, promotes the use of fossil fuels alongside wind, solar and other renewables.
While Kentucky depends deeply on fossil fuels — it’s the nation’s fifth largest coal producer — the governor has also welcomed clean energy projects. The state now has the second fastest growth in clean energy jobs and Governor Beshear called Kentucky the nation’s “E.V. Battery Production Capital.”
Mark Kelly, U.S. Senator from Arizona
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly has been outspoken about the effects of extreme heat on Arizona, where a record 645 people suffered heat-related deaths in 2023. A former astronaut, Senator Kelly compared the planet’s atmosphere to a thin contact lens when he told CNN last year, “We have got to do a better job taking care of it.”
Senator Kelly and his fellow Arizonan, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an Independent, cosponsored bipartisan legislation that enabled farmers to get financial incentives if they use agricultural techniques that store carbon. In 2022, he worked to include $4 billion for drought mitigation in the final version of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. And he serves on key energy and environment committees that focus on water resources for the West and on access to clean drinking water.
Pete Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind. and a 2020 presidential candidate, has spent the last three years overseeing a lot of spending from the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The law includes funding to reduce environmental pollution, provide clean drinking water, and increase access to electric vehicles, including the creation of 500,000 E.V. charging stations by 2030.
Secretary Buttigieg often highlights how climate change is affecting transportation, noting that heat waves have melted the cables on transit systems while extreme weather has increased turbulence that can disrupt air travel. “The effects of climate change are already upon us in terms of our transportation,” he said in an appearance on Face the Nation in May.
“Our climate is evolving,” he said. “Our policies and our technology and our infrastructure have to evolve accordingly, too.”
Transportation accounts for the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States economy. But it also can be made part of the solution, Secretary Buttigieg said at a 2022 forum organized by the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. “And we are, by mode-shifting trips to less climate- or carbon-intensive ways to get around, like giving people better options for public transit, reducing the emissions impact of the trips we do take, like making sure everybody can afford and use E.V. s, and so on.”
Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota
Gov. Tim Walz has increased his commitment to tackling climate change over his two terms in office. “Climate change impacts lives and livelihoods in every corner of our state,” Governor Walz said in 2023. “Minnesota will continue to lead the way on combating climate change and we’ll create clean energy jobs in the process.”
In 2019, he signed an executive order that established a climate change subcabinet within his administration that is advised by a citizen board. In 2022, he unveiled a plan to fight climate change that included increasing electric vehicles to 20 percent by providing purchasing incentives for consumers and dealers and expanding the state’s charging network, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by the end of the decade.
In 2023, he announced a goal to move his state to 100 percent clean energy by 2040. This summer, his state earned $200 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to cut pollution throughout Minnesota’s food systems.
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