The Democratic Party’s Platform Is a Relic of Biden’s Candidacy — Leaving a Lot of Room for Reporters to Dig In

How would Kamala Harris differentiate herself from Joe Biden on climate policy?

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This Week: Democratic Party Platform

For a presidential election cycle heavy on vibes and light on climate policy talk, it isn’t all that surprising that both the Republican and Democratic party platforms present journalists with ample opportunities for further reporting — for two very different reasons. Earlier this summer, we wrote about the Republican Party’s platform, which doesn’t mention climate change once. Much has been written about how that document reflects the GOP’s transformation into the party of Trump — down to its ALL CAPS flourishes; its, um, brevity; and the sections apparently dictated by the man himself.?

Last week, the Democrats released their platform, which was drafted before Biden dropped out of the race. It hasn’t been updated to reflect the party’s new candidate, so it reads like a second-term agenda for Biden. The climate, energy, and environmental chapter calls out Trump’s climate denial and ties to Big Oil and summarizes the key achievements of the Biden-Harris administration’s clean energy agenda, pointing to hundreds of thousands of new clean energy jobs and billions invested in clean energy projects.

If Harris is elected, continuing to roll out the Inflation Reduction Act will surely be a priority for her administration, as journalists noted in our recent Talking Shop webinar about her candidacy and climate record. Many reporters and pundits have looked to her history as a prosecutor and a US senator for clues about other priorities.?

Biden has often said that when he thinks about climate, he thinks about jobs — and the IRA’s funding priorities reflect that. When Harris thinks about climate, does she think like a prosecutor and focus on justice? If president, would she bring out the sticks for Big Oil? And expand environmental justice initiatives? Journalists should ask Harris these questions and, as always, compare the two candidates’ records and public statements against what the science says is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.?

Reporting Ideas

• Compare the 2020 and 2024 Democratic party platforms. The Biden-Harris administration achieved a lot of its 2020 climate policy goals, but not everything. To date, some of their top successes include more than 300,000 “good-paying” new jobs, $400 billion in private sector commitments to clean energy projects, and 585 new clean energy manufacturing projects already underway, in 47 states.?
• Talk to climate and environmental justice groups about their wishlists for a Harris administration. One group, Evergreen Action, went so far as to publish its own climate 2025 action plan. How likely is it that a Harris-Walz administration would take up these ideas? What are groups like this doing behind the scenes to influence the Harris campaign?
• Get congressional candidates on the record about fossil fuel subsidies. The Biden-Harris administration has been trying to cut federal fossil fuel subsidies every year since they took office, but was unable to do so. (By some estimates, the US pays as much as $20 billion annually in federal subsidies.) The pledge is back on the 2024 platform.
• Dig into the new initiatives proposed in the 2024 platform, which include an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Climate, called ARPA-C, which would work to develop technological and scientific breakthroughs to combat climate change; the establishment of a new climate-focused national laboratory at a HBCU or minority-serving university; and passing the Disaster Resilience Tax Credit.

Take Inspiration

• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ’s Madeline Heim compares the two party platforms, highlighting the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication ’s poll numbers for Wisconsin voters.
• Heatmap News ’s Jeva Lange talks with nine climate experts about what they would like to see from a Harris-Walz climate agenda. Finishing what Biden started is job one, but their answers revealed several different directions a Harris administration could take.
• 纽约时报 ’s Lisa Friedman talks with climate-focused activists and politicians about why they’re not concerned that Harris doesn’t talk much about the issue.
• POLITICO ’s staff detailed in July how Harris’s policy priorities could differ from Biden’s on climate and other issues.?
• “Democrats want Harris to go big on clean energy pitch,” writes Josh Siegel in Politico Pro. Green-minded Democrats in Congress think that Harris should talk more about the stark differences between her climate agenda and Trump’s Big Oil agenda.

Spotlight Piece

“Climate change has become a ‘deal breaker’ issue for many young Americans,” according to a new poll by a Democratic polling firm. “Forty percent of voters under 35 said they will only vote for a candidate who prioritizes climate action,” reports NBC News ’s Chase Cain .

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