Environmentalists are 'euphoric' about Kamala Harris' candidacy

The emergence of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential front-runner has generated a renewed sense of optimism among environmentalists, who say she offers a strong record on climate and clean energy policies and would continue to advance that work in the White House.

“I'm ecstatic, I couldn't be more excited,” Leah Stokes, an associate professor of climate and energy policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said Monday.

“Kamala Harris is a champion for climate and environmental justice, and has been for more than two decades,” Stokes said. “We have a real opportunity to not only win the White House and have a president who cares about climate again, but to secure strong majorities in the House and Senate and have the opportunity to pass more climate legislation, which is what we need to do if we want to be on track to meet the goals that scientists say are necessary.”

Harris, a Californian who has previously described climate change as an “existential threat” that must be treated with a sense of urgency, has prioritized investments in clean energy jobs, air and water protection, fossil fuel accountability, climate action and environmental justice, Stokes and others said in the wake of Sunday’s announcement that President Biden was dropping out of the race.

“We have supported her at every step of her political career, and for good reason, because she has led on climate justice and climate action in every role,” said Mary Creasman, executive director of the nonprofit group California Environmental Voters.

Vice President Kamala Harris visits the Panuka Farm, which uses climate-smart techniques, outside Lusaka, Zambia, in 2023.

(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)

Harris's environmental platform stands in stark contrast to that of Republican candidate Donald Trump, whose previous climate record includes rolling back more than 100 climate regulations and appointing climate change deniers to senior positions at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior.

Blueprint 2025, touted as a road map for a Republican administration, outlines plans to expand oil and gas drilling, dismantle the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its offices, including the National Weather Service, and other measures that would address the Biden administration’s “radical climate policy” and “unprovoked war on fossil fuels,” according to the document.

Environmental experts and advocates say Harris offers a promising antidote to those plans. The vice president played a key role in securing passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, often regarded as the largest investment in climate action in U.S. history, and Harris’s presidency is likely to allow the effort to continue.

“We have a climate champion in the White House in President Biden, and we’re going to have one in Vice President Kamala Harris,” said Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power, a strategic communications organization.

The group highlighted a long list of environmental achievements spanning Harris' career as vice president, U.S. senator and California attorney general.

As vice president, Harris has met with more than 100 world leaders on climate issues and championed the goal of halving climate pollution by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. She led the administration’s Action Plan on Global Water Security, which seeks to increase international access to clean, safe drinking water, and cast the deciding vote to push the landmark Inflation Reduction Act through the Senate.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the COP28 UN Climate Summit in Dubai in 2023.

(Kamran Jebreili/Associated Press)

What's more, Harris helped implement the administration's Justice40 initiative, which aims to channel 40% of the benefits of certain federal investments in climate, energy and housing to communities that have been marginalized, underserved and burdened by pollution.

“She has a long history as a climate advocate,” said Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the Sierra Club in Washington.

In addition to supporting Biden's policies, Harris has carved out her own profile by taking positions such as vocal support for ending fracking that have been more aggressive than Biden's, Pierce said.

“There is still a lot of work to be done and I think Kamala Harris is giving people new energy so that with a Democratic trilogy, we can get things done on climate,” Pierce said.

Harris also served on climate policy in the U.S. Senate, where she represented California from 2017 to 2021, and as California's attorney general from 2011 to 2017.

In the Senate, Harris authored and sponsored legislation on a wide range of climate issues, including the Clean School Buses Act of 2019, which established a grant program to replace diesel school buses with electric ones, and the Water Justice Act of 2019 to help ensure the safety and sustainability of the nation's water supply.

Other legislative efforts included actions around lead pipe replacement, PFA pollution, sea level rise, zero-emission vehicles, wildfire smoke research, and air quality standards.

Harris has said the president should hold fossil fuel companies accountable for misleading the public about climate change. In a 2019 interview with Mother Jones, she said, “Let’s not just put money in their wallets, but let’s make sure there are severe, serious penalties for their behavior.”

In fact, during her tenure as attorney general, she secured $50 million in settlements in lawsuits against Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and other oil companies, and led an investigation into Exxon Mobile’s history of misleading Americans about the climate crisis. In 2017, she signed a letter opposing the expansion of offshore drilling along the California coast, claiming that the expansion would “line the pockets of oil companies.”

In fact, many of her efforts have been shaped by her experiences as a Californian, experts say. As attorney general, Harris joined a lawsuit against Southern California Gas Co. over the 2015 Aliso Canyon methane leak and sued Pacific Gas & Electric over the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion.

UCSB's Stokes noted that Harris is likely well aware of other instances of climate devastation in California, including the deadly Camp Fire in Paradise, the Montecito mudslide, severe droughts that affected farmers and water supplies, and dangerous flooding caused by extreme rainfall.

“These are huge impacts and California is really on the front lines of the climate crisis,” Stokes said. “I’m sure she’s seen that and it’s made her want to take action so that we don’t continue down this dangerous path of burning fossil fuels.”

Vice President Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two in Chicago in 2022.

(Matt Marton/Associated Press)

The prospect of a Harris administration that will put a greater emphasis on holding fossil fuel companies accountable is “pretty exciting,” said the Sierra Club’s Pierce.

“President Biden was the strongest president on climate and environmental action, and we need four more years. And I have every confidence that a Harris administration will continue that progress,” Pierce said. “We can’t afford to go backwards. We have to defend our progress. We can’t let fossil fuel interests rule the roost again.”

If there are some differences with Biden, Harris has focused “more on climate and environmental justice” and “protecting Californians from corporate polluters,” said Creasman of California Environmental Voters.

But a second Trump term, along with the policy goals outlined in the Project 2025 document, would likely erode all the progress made so far, including the nation's bedrock laws protecting clean air and clean water, investments in clean energy and the ability of California and other states to protect the environment through regulation, he said.

“The funding needed to transition our economy and our infrastructure, to make communities resilient now and in the future, is at risk,” Creasman said. “The tremendous progress that President Biden and Vice President Harris have made over the last four years — all of that is at risk.”

Among the actions called for by Project 2025 are ending the 30×30 plan to conserve 30% of America’s land and water by 2030; reducing the EPA’s reach; and expanding oil and gas lease sales. Climate Power’s Lodes said Harris has a history of holding oil companies accountable while Trump “is busy making multi-billion-dollar deals with Big Oil CEOs.”

“The Biden-Harris administration has taken more action on climate than any other administration in history; she will continue its bold legacy as the next president of the United States,” Lodes said.

Other experts took to social media to similarly defend Harris as a climate leader after Sunday's announcement.

Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media and co-founder of the advocacy group 350.org, expressed hope that if Harris wins the presidency, she will prioritize holding the fossil fuel industry accountable.

“The fossil fuel industry has made huge profits for decades by lying about the climate,” Henn said in a post on X. “We need a president who will make them pay.”

Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate activist and former presidential candidate, said the contrast in the presidential race could not be clearer and that the country “cannot lose the momentum” gained during the Biden-Harris administration.

In a post on X, Steyer praised Harris as the candidate who would lead the “climate innovation economy” and fight for a “cleaner, healthier planet.”

Mustafa Santiago Ali, executive vice president of the National Wildlife Federation, used X to share a poem he wrote titled “Kamala Harris: A Dream Realized,” in which he remembered Black activists, artists and leaders from Rosa Parks to Shirley Chisholm and declared that Harris will “write a new page for us” as the country’s first Black female president.

Reached by phone Monday, Ali said Harris “has always been focused on helping our most vulnerable communities move from surviving to thriving.”

“It will continue to play a transformative role in helping us address the impacts that are occurring due to environmental injustices that also lead to the climate crisis,” he said.