Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, The Chronicle analyzes each candidate’s positions on priority issues and examines their platforms and political history to keep voters in the Duke and Durham communities informed. are. This week we’re looking at climate and environmental issues.
Climate issues have risen to the forefront of political debate in recent years, especially among young voters.
A survey of nearly 16,000 people aged 16 to 25, published October 17 in The Lancet Planetary Health, found that 85% of respondents were concerned about climate change and its impact on people and the planet. Of these, 57.9% were found to be “very” or “.” I’m very worried.
Approximately 72% of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports “aggressive policies to reduce climate change,” including 85.5% of Democrats surveyed. %, and 62.3% of Republicans.
But the two leading presidential candidates offer vastly different approaches to climate and environmental issues. Here’s what you need to know about their platform and records.
North Carolina’s position
A majority of registered voters in North Carolina support a transition to clean energy, according to a September 2023 poll by the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters.
Approximately 75% of voters surveyed believe increasing the use of clean, renewable energy sources is “important” for North Carolina, compared to 14% who think it is “somewhat important.” 11% think it is “not important.” By political ideology, 94% of “left-wing” respondents and 57% of “right-wing” registered voters said it was “important.”
Approximately 62% of respondents believed it was “important” for the country to “reduce its dependence on fossil fuel energy such as coal, oil, and natural gas,” and considered it “somewhat important.” 14% think it is “somewhat important” and 21% think it is “somewhat important”. That means it’s not important.
But even though North Carolinians think climate action is important, it ranks relatively low on their overall list of priorities as voters. In March’s WRAL poll, which measures voters’ top 10 issues, the environment and abortion came in last.
kamala harris
Harris has similar environmental policies to her predecessor, but earlier in her political career she supported more progressive policies.
As a prosecutor in California in the early 2000s, she created an environmental crimes unit, which was unusual at the time. After being elected attorney general in 2010, she pursued multiple oil companies for environmental protection violations and won multimillion-dollar settlements.
In 2016, Harris joined a coalition of 17 attorneys general working to combat climate change by curbing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. She also defended then-President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan and the Environmental Protection Agency’s new power performance standards aimed at further reducing emissions.
As a senator, she co-sponsored the Green New Deal, which calls for a 10-year plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, power grid upgrades, and hazardous waste cleanup. He also introduced the Climate Justice Act in 2020. The law would create a new federal agency to strengthen government accountability for considering climate issues through new laws and regulations.
While running for president in 2020, Harris expressed support for banning hydraulic fracturing, a controversial natural gas extraction process, and has since stuck to this position. Her platform also prioritized issues of environmental justice, pledging a “clean economy by 2045 at the latest.”
As vice president, Harris contributed to several policies that led to the Biden-Harris administration being hailed by many as having “taken the most climate action measures in history.” Democratic candidates now rely heavily on these achievements in their personal campaign messages.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden joined the Paris Agreement, the international climate agreement that the United States withdrew from while President Trump was in office. He also announced a number of initiatives aimed at advancing climate action across the federal government, including the creation of several new federal offices to oversee climate policy, including the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy and the National Climate Task Force. He also signed an executive order.
In April 2021, Biden announced an ambitious plan to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030. The public’s reaction to Biden’s approach was mixed, but the divisions were largely along partisan lines.
To achieve this goal, governments have made historic investments in developing a “clean economy”.
The Inflation Control Act of 2022 is touted by the government as the “largest climate and energy investment in U.S. history” at $370 billion. The bill, passed with Harris as the tie-breaking vote, would encourage the development of manufacturing and energy infrastructure through a combination of subsidies, loans and tax incentives.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act) also provides for investments in environmental efforts by creating clean energy jobs and providing federal funding for cleanup efforts.
The Biden-Harris administration is also taking steps to expand the nation’s electric vehicle infrastructure, setting a goal of having half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 be net-zero by 2021, with a mix of EV types. did. To support this transition, the government has allocated funding to build a network of 500,000 EV charging stations across the country.
According to a July 2022 Pew Research poll, 55% of Americans opposed phasing out gasoline-powered cars, but 42% said they would consider buying an EV in the future.
But Biden and Harris have faced criticism from both sides over their approach to domestic energy production.
The oil industry has seen record high production and profits over the past four years, a fact Harris has pointed to in recent campaign efforts, likely in an effort to appeal to moderate voters. Natural gas production is also increasing, though some argue that many of the new drilling permits signed by Biden are the result of production delays under Trump-era leases.
The administration suspended new leases for oil and gas drilling in January 2021, but a series of court injunctions and reversals have hampered the policy’s effectiveness. Biden then moved to block additional drilling and mining projects proposed on federal lands.
Left-leaning environmentalists criticized the administration for continuing to invest in fossil fuel energy production, while Republicans argued that new environmental standards would be too stringent, raising prices and costing jobs.
Harris is trying to figure out the line between pursuing ambitious climate action and reassuring voters about the nation’s energy security.
If elected, he promises to strengthen climate resilience and hold polluters accountable, while lowering household energy bills and creating “millions” of new jobs. There is. She pledged “global cooperation” to fight the climate crisis and, above all, protect Americans’ “freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live free from the pollution that causes the climate crisis.” emphasized.
donald trump
Meanwhile, President Trump’s environmental policies have so far included reversing policies enacted by Democratic administrations.
President Trump has questioned the causes of climate change, acknowledging its existence but disputing whether the phenomenon is man-made. This stance differs from his previous comments, including a 2012 Twitter post suggesting the concept of global warming was created by the Chinese government for economic gain.
Despite the shift in rhetoric, Mr. Trump has followed through on many of his campaign promises to cut environmental regulations and limit U.S. efforts to combat climate change.
Immediately upon his election, Trump moved to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement in 2017, but formal withdrawal took effect in November 2020 due to provisions built into the Paris Agreement.
According to a 2021 analysis by The New York Times, the then-president succeeded in rolling back more than 100 environmental regulations, ranging from pollution regulations, emissions reduction targets, and toxics policies. The Trump administration also slashed wildlife protection and conservation laws to make way for oil and gas leasing as part of its strategy to promote U.S. energy independence.
After a four-year hiatus, President Trump is now trying to reverse Biden’s new climate policies, just as he reversed many policies during President Obama’s first administration.
The Republican candidate has promised to “repeat” emissions regulations for fossil fuel plants if he secures a second term. His 2024 platform advocates “unlocking America’s energy” through investments primarily in oil, natural gas and nuclear power. He also vowed to “end the socialist Green New Deal.”
At a dinner with fossil fuel executives and lobbyists at his Mar-a-Lago resort in May, President Trump offered to donate $1 billion to his campaign because of his planned deregulation. .
He has also taken a firm stance on EV investment, vowing to rescind Biden-era mandates and block “imports of Chinese cars.”
Trump’s platform does not include language on environmental protection, but he supports policies that ensure clean air and water, apart from making America’s cities “safe, clean, and beautiful again,” campaign event said. I have argued that.
“I’m an environmental activist,” he told a rally in Wisconsin earlier this month. “…I want clean air, clean water, and jobs.”
Other candidates
Independent candidate Cornel West advocates for environmental justice and recognizing “clean air, clean water, and a thriving environment” as “unalienable rights.” He is pushing to nationalize the fossil fuel industry, shutting down oil and gas projects, paying “climate compensation,” ending water privatization, and predicting human displacement due to climate change.
Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver promises to “transform environmental policy by eliminating bureaucracy and adopting market-driven, science-backed solutions.” He is a strong supporter of nuclear power and energy industry deregulation.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein focuses on environmental issues in her platform, which is based on three pillars: People, Planet and Peace.
She is a strong advocate of the party’s “Real Green New Deal,” which seeks to achieve “100% clean energy, zero greenhouse gas emissions, and economic security for all within 10 years” through expanded federal powers. Be a supporter. Mr. Stein also said he would establish a Climate Mobilization Office to ensure a “just transition” for workers displaced from fossil fuel industries and to make the agricultural sector “democratically owned and served by consumers and working farmers.” It also promises to restructure the company into a “cooperative and public enterprise.”
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Zoe Korenovsky News Editor
Zoe Korenovsky is a junior at Trinity and news editor for Issue 120 of The Chronicle.
