2020 ELECTION
President Joe Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s victory marks a new day in the fight for bold, just and equitable climate policy in the United States. It means that the US will now have a leadership that believes in science, knows that climate change is real, and is committed to supporting united and multilateral action.
Biden made climate change a cornerstone of his platform early in his campaign for the presidency, pledging to spend $2tn on clean energy, re-join the Paris Agreement (which he accomplished on February 19, 2021) and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. His plan was described as the most ambitious of any mainstream US presidential candidate.
As a result of the 2020 election, Democrats now control the White House and the Congress, although in the Senate it will take Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie vote, making legislation challenging. The president will, nonetheless, will have a wide array of tools — from expanding renewables on federal lands to pushing the financial industry on climate change — that could put the U.S. on a trajectory to decarbonizing its electricity sector by 2035.
For more on what he has already accomplished and what he plans to accomplish, go to Biden’s Climate Plan and to the LAWS AND LITIGATION section where you will find extensive information on what is happening within the federal government, from the Executive branch to the Legislative and Judicial branches.
By Rebecca Beitsch
01/11/21
A new line of succession established at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leaves an official who was slotted into a newly created high-ranking role just a month ago in charge on Inauguration Day.
By Peter Sinclair
12/16/20
President-elect Joe Biden will reportedly nominate Oakland resident Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor who teaches at UC Berkeley, to lead the Department of Energy, signaling a shift in the agency’s focus toward championing renewable…
By Michael R. Bloomberg
12/14/20
President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to rejoin the Paris climate agreement sends an important signal to the world about U.S. leadership. But the action will merely take us back to four years ago. To push us…
By Kate Zerrenner
12/02/20
During the George W. Bush presidential administration, I worked for the Government Accountability Office. One project on which I worked was a look at the economic costs and benefits of the U.S. not taking action…
By Janet McCabe
11/13/20
The Trump administration has waged what I and many other legal experts view as an all-out assault on the nation’s environmental laws for the past four years. Decisions at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and other agencies…
By Jeff Tollefson
11/06/20
The new president has the opportunity to reverse four years of anti-science policies — but he has a hard road ahead as he inherits a nation divided.
By Emily Holden
11/04/20
Trump administration set US withdrawal in motion a year ago but it didn’t take effect until 4 November
By Victoria Knight, KHN
11/04/20
Some research shows increasing political divides this year as a pandemic thrusts science into the election spotlight.
By Annabelle Williams
11/02/20
How the Sunrise Movement is mobilizing the youth vote—with a mix of reluctance and enthusiasm—for Biden
By Farhad Manjoo
10/28/20
And yet I keep getting discouraged by how far there is to go. Voters, the candidates and especially the political media have not given it enough attention this year, considering the stakes at hand. Worse,…
By Matthew Bandyk
10/26/20
Ever since the 2009 Waxman-Markey bill — an attempt to create a national cap-and-trade emissions plan — passed in the House but hit a wall in the Senate, the prospects of both houses of Congress…
KEY RESOURCES
These organizations are dedicated to bringing climate change into public policy, are watching how government does and doesn’t support measures supporting climate change, and are often with a particular emphasis on carbon taxes (or fees and dividends).
10/20/20
These maps show variations in the climate and clean energy views of Democrats (left map) and Republicans (right map) in the U.S. as a whole (national level) and for all 50 states and 435 congressional…
10/08/20
Each 2020 candidate — whether for the Presidency, the Senate or the House, whether incumbent or challenger, gets a climate score from zero to 100 for the voter to take into the voting booth. Use…
08/22/20
The Interior Department has now blessed oil and gas drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge comes as no surprise. It was a foregone conclusion once Lisa Murkowski, in 2017, persuaded…
07/03/20
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated in stark life-and-death terms how essential it is for government decisionmakers to heed and prioritize science. The United States quickly surpassed other nations in COVID-19 infections, and has suffered catastrophic…
02/13/20
Iowa lawmakers are considering a bill that would require owners of large rental buildings to disclose typical utility costs to apartment-seekers.
12/31/19
No new permits for fossil fuel infrastructure. Renewable energy NOW.
06/05/19
Here’s where 2020 candidates stand on issues related to climate change, based on candidate statements, voting records and answers to a questionnaire we sent every campaign.
06/05/19
Greenpeace asked the 2020 candidates how they’ll act on the climate crisis if they become president. Here’s what they said… or didn’t say. And, test your knowledge with a short candidate quiz.
06/05/19
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) works to turn environmental values into national, state and local priorities. LCV, in collaboration with our state LCV partners, advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials…
06/05/19
The Environmental Voter Project aims to significantly increase voter demand for progressive environmental policy by identifying inactive environmentalists and then turning them into consistent activists and voters.
By Emily Holden, Alex Healey, Katie Lamborn and Nikhita Chulani 10/26/20
As part of our climate countdown series, the Guardian’s Emily Holden looks at how the US is far off the path of what is necessary to avoid catastrophic global heating – and examines why the…
by Oliver Milman 10/26/20
The two US presidential contenders offer starkly different approaches as the world tries to avoid catastrophic global heating
By Dana Drugman 10/24/20
More Americans than ever before — 54 percent, recent polling data shows — are alarmed or concerned about climate change, which scientists warn is a planetary emergency unfolding in the form of searing heat, prolonged…
10/20/20
Over the next six months, we will be charged with responding to the COVID-19 crisis, building the movement for a Green New Deal, and protecting our democracy as our nation grapples with how to recover…
10/20/20
In this special episode, we talk to Florida Democrat Kathy Castor, who chairs the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis in the House of Representatives.
10/20/20
Election Day is just two weeks from now. Many CCL volunteers are voting early and sharing snapshots of themselves with the hashtag #ClimateVoter. We’ve loved seeing you participate in democracy in this way!
By John Schwartz and Hiroko Tabuchi 10/15/20
Judge Amy Coney Barrett refused to answer numerous questions, but it was her avoidance of acknowledging climate change that particularly resonated.
By Brad Plumer 10/14/20
The climate crisis has risen as a major concern among voters. The two candidates have profoundly different approaches on energy, public lands and environmental priorities.
By Chris D’Angelo 10/07/20
As President Donald Trump digs in on denial, the Democratic nominee has made combating the crisis a key part of his campaign.
By Josh Siegel 10/06/20
oe Biden has persuaded some leaders of fossil fuel-heavy building trade unions in Pennsylvania that his climate policies won’t harm them, a key development in a swing state expected to be decided by small margins.
By Peter Sinclair 10/06/20
Past Democratic presidential nominees have certainly acknowledged the threat of climate change in their campaigns, though the issue has never been one to run on in and of itself. In 2008, then-Senator Obama committed to…
By Timothy Cama 10/06/20
The American Petroleum Institute is putting at least $1 million into a series of video advertisements meant to push the oil industry's campaign priorities in the final month before Election Day.
10/01/20
Climate change has been a topic of presidential (and vice presidential) debate for decades yet, it seems the same basic points are being litigated in 2020.
By Paige Blankenbuehler 10/01/20
In Grand Junction, Colorado, the presidential election is a choice between two distinct energy futures.
By Maxine Joselow 09/30/20
President Trump misrepresented his rollback of clean car standards and his record on electric vehicle subsidies at the first presidential debate last night, in a remarkably substantive exchange on climate and transportation policy.
09/29/20
Environmental groups are ramping up the pressure for climate questions during tonight's debate between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
By Cornelia F. Mutel 09/26/20
n mid-September, I drove west on Interstate Highway 80 toward a bright orangey-red sunset. How beautiful, I thought, also noting the faraway woodlands fading into gray. Until I realized what I was really seeing: smoke…
By Robert Walton 09/22/20
The Trump Administration on Friday announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorized $9.6 billion to rebuild Puerto Rico's power infrastructure — three years after the island's electric grid was destroyed by Hurricane Maria.
By Dino Grandoni 09/21/20
A more conservative Supreme Court gives the Trump administration a greater chance of making its rollbacks of environmental rules last long after the president leaves office.
By Peter Baker and Patricia Mazzei 09/18/20
Three years later, after repeated Twitter outbursts, angry recriminations, blocked aid and a paper towel-throwing visit that went over badly, Mr. Trump sought on Friday to present himself as a friend of Puerto Rico, announcing…
By Tanya Snyder 09/17/20
Some states that may be competitive in November's election — including Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas — raked in millions in infrastructure grants awarded Wednesday by the Department of Transportation, while blue states like New York…
By Tim Walker 09/15/20
For only the second time in recorded history, five tropical cyclones are spinning across the Atlantic at the same time, including Hurricane Sally, which is due to make landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday. Hurricane Paulette…
By Dino Grandoni 09/15/20
President Trump is trying to rebrand himself as an environmentalist. But he is undermining that message with a fresh denial of global warming.
By Peter Beinart 09/15/20
Unlike Trump, Biden hasn’t been slow to address the wildfires because he doubts climate change. As he mentioned in his speech, he’s laid out a more ambitious agenda to tackle it than any other presidential…
By Emily Holden and Daniel Strauss 09/14/20
The climate crisis and record wildfires in the western US forced their way into the presidential campaign on Monday, with Joe Biden calling Donald Trump a “climate arsonist” and Trump falsely claiming that the planet…
By Georgina Gustin 09/10/20
Erratic, destructive weather, the GOP senator says, has nothing to do with human-driven warming. Her opponent, Theresa Greenfield, says the science can’t be denied.
By Ben Lefebvre 09/08/20
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday a decade-long ban on oil drilling off the coast of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — a decision that surprised energy industry executives by reversing the administration’s earlier pledges…
By David Abel and Victoria McGrane 09/04/20
A few days after Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III invited Senator Edward J. Markey to a Capitol Hill restaurant and broke the news that he intended to mount a primary challenge for his Senate seat,…
By Zoya Teirstein 09/03/20
Over the past several months, Joe Biden has assumed the herculean task of bringing the progressive left under his banner while maintaining the support of the more moderate liberals who form his base. As a…
By Chris D’Angelo 09/02/20
In 2016, debate moderators did not ask a single question about the climate crisis. Dozens of lawmakers want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
08/26/20
The number of Americans who feel passionately about climate change is rising sharply, and the issue appears likely to play a more important role in this year’s election than ever before, a new survey shows.
By Kevin Robillard 08/19/20
Alexandria Villaseñor, one of the founders of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike, will speak.
By Dino Grandoni 08/19/20
Democratic politicians and activists on Tuesday heaped praise on former vice president Joe Biden’s plan to tackle rising global temperatures at the convention— and criticized President Trump for denying the problem while in office.
08/13/20
“We'll protect a woman's right to make her own decisions about her own body, root out systemic racism in our justice system, and pass a new Voting Rights Act, a John Lewis Voting Rights Act,…
By Alister Doyle and Chloé Farand 08/12/20
If they defeat Trump, Biden and Harris will have to prove they can cut emissions at home to rebuild US global leadership on climate change. The post Kamala Harris might help ‘night and day’ shift…
By William House 08/09/20
I experienced a time-warp today and traveled into the past. It was a world where children and teachers attended schools without fear of death. A world where 160,000 Americans hadn’t perished from an uncontained virus,…
By Zack Hale 08/06/20
As the EPA enters the final stretch of the first Trump administration, the president's signature energy- and climate-related rules are still being litigated before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,…
By Lauren Aratani 08/03/20
For young climate activists in the US, staying home because of the pandemic does not mean staying silent, with plans gathering pace across the country to make their voices heard in November’s elections.
By Brady Dennis and Dino Grandoni 07/31/20
During a virtual fundraiser late last week focused on climate action, former vice president Joe Biden made a direct appeal to voters young enough to be his grandchildren.
By John Muyskens and Juliet Eilperin 07/30/20
During a virtual fundraiser late last week focused on climate action, former vice president Joe Biden made a direct appeal to voters young enough to be his grandchildren.
By Michael Mann 07/29/20
ndividual efforts are important, but we need collective action and systemic change. And we can only get that at the ballot
By Clifford Krauss and Ivan Penn 07/28/20
Some energy executives are pleased that the former vice president is not calling for a fracking ban and said they could work with him.
By Bill McKibben 07/27/20
The upcoming election looks to be an apocalyptic turning point for our democracy—and our planet. In Turnout! Mobilizing Voters in an Emergency, political visionaries and movement leaders such as Bill McKibben define the urgency of…
By Oliver Milman 07/27/20
“I found it sickening, it was mendacious from start to finish,” said Stern. “I was furious … because here we have this really important thing and here’s this joker who doesn’t understand anything he’s talking…
By Oliver Milman 07/25/20
Enormous overhaul will have to defeat opposition from fossil-fuel lobbyists and residents unhappy with nearby turbines Joe Biden’s $2tn plan to eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from the US electricity grid within 15 years has…
By Dino Grandoni 07/16/20
The oil and gas sector is not thrilled with several parts of Joe Biden’s new climate plan. Petroleum industry representatives are arguing the former vice president’s plan to mandate a transition from gas-fired power to…
By Joe Biden 07/15/20
At this moment of profound crisis, we have the opportunity to build a more resilient, sustainable economy – one that will put the United States on an irreversible path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by…
07/15/20
The current COVID-19 pandemic reminds us how profoundly the energy and environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of color – allowing systemic shocks, persistent stressors, and pandemics to disproportionately impact communities of…
By Dino Grandoni 07/15/20
Joe Biden has won over some left-leaning parts of the Democratic coalition skeptical of his bid for president with a new climate plan. As Matt Viser and I report, the former vice president and presumptive…
By Emma Penrod 07/15/20
Sweeping investments would spur millions of jobs and the construction of energy-efficient public housing, installation of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, and would end carbon-based electrical generation by 2035, Biden said.
