A group of powerful green activist organizations are falling in line behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House, and in some cases are calling for even more stringent policies should she win in November.
The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Action Fund, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund, Clean Energy for America Action have all endorsed Harris in recent days following President Joe Biden’s decision to quit the 2024 presidential race, commending her climate credentials or calling on her to go beyond Biden’s climate agenda. Climate Defiance, which once targeted Harris with one of its signature disruptive protests, has stated that “Harris must beat Trump” and called on the vice president to make radical climate policies a part of her campaign as Election Day draws closer on the calendar.
Each of the groups commended Harris for her work on Biden’s climate agenda and called on her to continue or even escalate green policymaking as president should she beat former President Donald Trump in November. Biden’s $1 trillion-plus climate and green energy agenda stands as the most ambitious in American history to date.
Climate Defiance did not specifically endorse Harris beyond expressing its view that she must prevail over Trump, but the organization urged Harris to adopt a suite of radical environmental and energy policies to demonstrate that she is a candidate who will “usher in an era of equity and sustainability” as president. The disruptive protest group, funded indirectly by wealthy American elites and formerly vocal about its desire to see Biden drop out of the race, called on Harris to campaign on positions like fully halting all new oil and gas projects, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, ending all onshore and offshore leasing in federally-controlled areas and an arms embargo on Israel to stop the supposed “genocide and ecocide against the Palestinian people.”
“Whether holding polluters accountable as San Francisco District Attorney and California Attorney General, leading the charge on electric school buses in the U.S. Senate, or casting the deciding vote on the biggest investment ever in climate, clean energy and environmental justice and leading on climate on the world stage as Vice President, Kamala Harris has long been a climate champion,” LCV Action Fund Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld said of the Harris endorsement. “LCV Action Fund is proud to support her historic candidacy and to continue working together to protect our climate, defend our democracy, and much more over the next four years.”
If elected president, Harris will “advance the climate progress we’ve made at home and internationally” and “raise climate ambition” in the U.S., according to Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the NRDC Action Fund.
Harris backed the Green New Deal while she was serving in the U.S. Senate and endorsed a ban on fracking while campaigning for the presidency in the 2020 election cycle, though Biden rejected both policies in his term in office, according to E&E News. When the vice president was serving as California’s attorney general, she filed climate nuisance lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, according to Bloomberg News.
“There is no doubt that she will work to continue the Biden-Harris administration’s legacy of acting ambitiously to advance our progress toward a just, thriving clean energy economy,” Ben Jealous, the Sierra Club’s executive director, said of his organization’s Harris endorsement. Clean Energy for America Action, meanwhile, is “confident [Harris] will carry on the impressive legacy of the Biden-Harris Administration as president.”
Some of Harris’ other positions on energy and climate related matters — including endorsing a ban on plastic straws and supporting changes to dietary guidelines to get people to eat less red meat — have attracted renewed scrutiny now that she appears likely to be atop the Democratic ticket in November.
The Harris campaign, Sierra Club, NRDS, NRDC Action, LCV, LCV Action and Clean Energy for America did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Featured Image Credit: Edward Kimmel from Takoma Park, MD
