In an exclusive 2019 chat with Climate Desk, Harris laid out her plans.
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MSNBC, Zuma |
Kamala Harris
represents a series of historic firsts—she will be the first woman vice
president, the first Black vice president, and the first Asian American vice
president.
She’ll also be the first-ever vice president who has
devised a comprehensive plan to address climate change—and as the tie-breaking
vote in the evenly split Senate, she’ll have plenty of opportunity to fight
for the environment.
Harris’ home state of California has been hammered by longer wildfire seasons,
blackouts from extreme heat, and drought.
Harris doesn’t shy away
from connecting these events to manmade climate change. When I sat down with
her in Dubuque, Iowa, a year before she joined the presidential ticket, she
was still in the midst of her own presidential campaign.
“For me
this issue of the climate crisis relates to every aspect of what we do,” she
said.
In 2019, Mother Jones' @rebleber sat down with @KamalaHarris when she was on the presidential campaign trail to talk about tackling the climate crisis. "We need to do a lot," Harris said. "And we can. It's achievable." https://t.co/2Ejcg213S4 pic.twitter.com/trA1O80vvU
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 19, 2021
Her remarks to me in October 2019 captured some of the themes that are starting to define the Biden administration’s all-hands-on-deck approach to the climate crisis: It’s not something the Environmental Protection Agency can address alone. “Every branch has a role in this responsibility.”
The Biden administration will need an all-hands-on-deck approach to the climate crisis.
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 19, 2021
“For me this issue of the climate crisis relates to every aspect of what we do,” Kamala Harris told us in 2019. “Every branch has a role.” https://t.co/2Ejcg213S4 pic.twitter.com/4ol5ORseub
Harris’ climate plan didn’t get much attention during her presidential run,
but it was impressive: Her vision of the Green New Deal included a
staggering economic investment in clean energy and infrastructure.
She spoke about the importance of including low-income
and communities of color in the fight against pollution and climate
change; her
Climate Equity Act, introduced first in 2019 with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in
2019, requires that any environmental legislation receive an equity score to
assess its impact on frontline communities.
As the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, Kamala Harris can use her vice presidency to hold polluters accountable.
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 19, 2021
In 2019 she pledged: “Let’s get them not only in the pocket book, but let’s make sure there are serious penalties for their behaviors.” https://t.co/2Ejcg213S4 pic.twitter.com/t99kvgpaHZ
Another theme from my interview with Harris was her insistence that the
Department of Justice should investigate and rein in manipulative
oil and gas industry practices.
Her actual record on that is more
mixed: As California attorney general, Harris
led
an investigation into whether ExxonMobil misled consumers about climate
change, but she did not go as far as to issue subpoenas.
And
although she has at times embellished her history of
suing and winning against Big Oil,
she has spoken forcefully about holding polluters accountable.
“Let’s get them not only in the pocket book, but let’s make sure
there are serious penalties for their behaviors,” she said.
That
means taking aim at the “whole apparatus built around them” that’s built to
protect the dominance of fossil fuels. And, she emphasized, that may not just
mean the major oil companies, but other players, like gas-reliant utilities.
“I think everyone who is part of misinforming the public,
misleading the public and false advertising should be held accountable,” she
said.
Fighting climate change could define Kamala Harris’ vice presidency.
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 19, 2021
In 2019 @rebleber sat down with Harris when she was on the presidential campaign trail to talk about tackling the climate crisis. Here are some highlights. https://t.co/6mB13TPcZY pic.twitter.com/90Myarl9sc
Links
- Here’s the Team Tasked With Carrying Out Biden’s Incredibly Ambitious Climate Plans
- (US) Meet Biden’s Climate Crisis Army
- (US) Biden Plans To Fight Climate Change In A Way No U.S. President Has Done Before
- (USA) Joe Biden Takes Climate Change Seriously
- (USA) Biden Calls Climate Change ‘Existential Threat of Our Time’
- US To Hold World Climate Summit Early Next Year And Seek To Rejoin Paris Accord
- (USA) With John Kerry Pick, Biden Selects A ‘Climate Envoy’ With Stature
- Biden Needs to Hit the Ground Running on Climate—or Else
- Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement Is the Easy Part
- 22 Disasters, 262 Dead, $95B in Damages: 2020 Set Records for US Climate Mayhem
- Batteries Power Your Car. Now How About Your City?
- Global Temperatures Could Stabilize, Scientists Say, If We Do the Following
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