Where Harris and Her Potential Running Mates Stand on Climate Change

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(Bloomberg) — Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race — after weeks of pressure following a disastrous debate in June and polls showing his odds against Republican rival Donald Trump deteriorating — upends the contest just weeks before Democrats gather in Chicago to confirm their nominee. Biden, 81, is the first sitting U.S. president in decades not to seek reelection.

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He has been a unique leader on climate, most notably by signing the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the largest investment in reducing emissions and promoting clean energy in the nation’s history. Biden has pledged that the United States will cut its emissions in half by 2030. He has rejoined the Paris Agreement after Trump withdrew the United States from it and created a special presidential envoy for climate, among other measures. That’s a stark contrast to Trump, 78, who has called for the destruction of the Irish Republican Army and has been a frequent critic of electric vehicles and wind power.

Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket, and has said she intends to win the nomination. Several Democrats have been quick to endorse her, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Congressional Black Caucus.

But there are still many unknowns. Challengers could emerge, leading to a contested or compromised convention. Here’s a climate bio of Harris and her potential running mates if she wins the nomination. (Other candidates being discussed on the new list include Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.)

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Kamala Harris

As vice president, Harris has often served as a spokesperson for her president’s climate priorities at home and abroad. She was one of several administration officials who fanned out across the country last year to promote the first anniversary of the founding of the Irish Republican Army. Harris, 59, filled in for Biden at last year’s COP28 climate summit, where he announced the United States would contribute $3 billion to a climate aid fund for developing countries.

In 2019, when Harris (then a U.S. senator from California) launched her presidential campaign, her climate agenda was more ambitious than Biden’s. She supported a carbon tax and proposed $10 trillion in private and public climate spending. She also said she would work to ban fracking. That drew Republican attacks when Biden became the Democratic nominee and chose her as his running mate.

In the Senate, she sponsored climate equity bills and supported the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s efforts to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline. However, she chose to leave the Environment and Public Works Committee—which her predecessor, Barbara Boxer, chaired—in favor of a seat on the judiciary.

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Harris has a track record of fighting oil and gas companies and prioritizing environmental justice in particular. In 2016, as California’s attorney general, she sued Southern California Gas Co. over a methane leak near Los Angeles that forced the evacuation of 4,000 households. She also sued BP Plc the same year for violating storage laws at about 780 gas stations. Both the company and BP eventually agreed to pay millions of dollars to settle the lawsuits.

Gretchen Whitmer

Whitmer reportedly does not plan to challenge Harris for the nomination.

Whitmer, 52, won a second term as Michigan governor in 2022. In her first term, she signed an executive order to make the state’s economy carbon neutral by mid-century, with an intermediate goal of cutting climate emissions to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025.

Last year, a legislative package she signed moved the state’s climate priorities forward. Under clean energy standards, Michigan must produce all of its energy from clean sources by 2040.

“Once I sign these bills, Michigan will become a national leader in clean energy,” Whitmer, a former state legislator, said at the signing ceremony. “Together, we are protecting our air, water and land while focusing on confronting climate change head-on.”

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Her administration has moved to shut down the Straits of Mackinac oil pipeline, which she and other opponents say threatens the health of the Great Lakes, but a plan to replace the pipeline has continued to advance through permits.

Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro endorsed Harris on Sunday.

He took legal action on climate while state attorney general, including joining a 2018 lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of failing to control methane emissions from oil and gas operations. His office also brought criminal cases against several companies for environmental crimes.

Shapiro, who is running for governor in 2022, said he supports “responsible fracking” while declining to say whether he would keep Pennsylvania in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state collaborative to reduce carbon emissions.

Last March, Shapiro announced a plan to combat climate change, calling for legislation that would create a standalone carbon pricing program to replace RGGI — which is currently the subject of a legal challenge that has reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court — and require utilities to buy half of their electricity by 2035 from mostly carbon-free sources.

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But some activists have criticized Shapiro’s environmental record as governor, including a deal with natural gas company CNX Resources Corp. The governor’s website touts mitigation steps CNX has approved, such as expanding setbacks for wells near schools and hospitals.

Pete Buttigieg

Buttigieg endorsed Harris on Sunday.

As Biden’s U.S. transportation secretary, Buttigieg, 42, played a key role in implementing the bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021. He has also been a frequent messenger for the administration’s broader climate agenda, daring to discuss enemies in venues many Democrats avoid, like Fox News.

Buttigieg has emphasized transportation’s role in contributing to climate change, and the sector’s potential as a solution to the problem. He recently spoke about the link between a warming climate and increased air turbulence.

He was criticized for waiting nearly three weeks to visit East Palestine, Ohio, following the toxic train derailment there, a decision he said he made incorrectly.

Before joining the Biden administration, Buttigieg was mayor of South Bend, Indiana. In his 2019 presidential campaign, he proposed investing $2 trillion in the federal government to make the country net zero emissions by 2050.

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