Parsing the Climate Message

August 20, 2020

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by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico's Morning Energy) Night 3 of the Democratic National Convention featured a lengthy 11-minute take on Joe Biden's climate and clean energy strategy that hammered home some of his big themes rather than the wonky details (which you can read here). The segment was heavy on optimism and rallying the can-do American spirit, while largely eschewing the scary climate warnings — and steering clear of controversial calls about how to tackle fossil fuels.

Standing in front of a massive field of solar panels, New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — who was among those considered for the VP slot and could likely be tapped for a Biden administration — touted her state's action to step in to fill the void left by the Trump administration's moves to gut Obama's climate regulations and policies. And she delivered the sharpest attacks against President Donald Trump: "We know time is running out to save our planet. We have the chance this November to end two existential crises: the Trump presidency and the environmental annihilation he represents."

But the message was mostly about opportunity and hope, with remarks from youth climate activist Alexandria Villaseñor and IBEW journeyman Rob Bair of Harrisburg, Pa. Biden's hoping for a big turnout from young voters like Villaseñor who are motivated by climate change — and who flocked to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the primary — but the Pennsylvania union members like Bair may be the group that Biden and Trump are vying the hardest to win over. Pennsylvania's economy has been transformed by fracking, and the state will be crucial in the election, so Biden is hoping to draw back voters there who shifted to Trump four years ago.

The climate segment also leaned into environmental justice, calling on the Sierra Club's Justin Onwenu from Detroit to highlight that message. Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) have both put fixing the environmental problems that plague low-income and minority communities at the center of their plans, pushing for stricter enforcement of laws and calling for a jobs and infrastructure program that will benefit workers while bringing about transition to a clean economy.

And there were calls to develop more sustainable agricultural practices, pleas from children to protect the planet for their future, and a warning from a climate change researcher about the chilling effect that the Trump administration has had on the science, even down to removing mentions that humans caused climate change from reports. And there was Joel Clement, a former senior government official turned whistleblower, who said he exited the administration after he saw it was "handing the keys of public lands over to private interests." That's a particularly notable criticism coming after Trump signed a major conservation bill into law earlier this month — which owed its success more to some lucky electoral politics this year than Trump's love of the wilderness.

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ABOUT THAT DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM: Last night's DNC remarks come one day after environmental activists expressed concern about the Democratic Party's policy platform, which now omits a previous call to end tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuel companies. The sponsor of the amendment to the platform said that the Democratic National Committee stripped the text without his permission and that the DNC's explanation for its removal was "100 percent false," POLITICO's Zack Colman reports.

John Laesch, a member of the DNC platform committee, told POLITICO that he gave "no consent" to scrap the language that had already been approved, contradicting the DNC's statement to POLITICO on Tuesday that it had received permission from him, as well as the campaigns of Biden and Sanders. "I definitively did not agree to drop my amendment and there was no misunderstanding," said Laesch, a carpenter who is running for mayor of Aurora, Ill. The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BIDEN'S FRACKING FIGHT: The Biden campaign is trying to set the record straight in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, as evidenced this week by a letter sent by deputy general counsel for the Biden campaign, M. Patrick Moore Jr. In the letter, Moore urged Pennsylvania TV stations to stop airing ads from America First Action, the Pro-Trump super PAC, which the campaign says spread "inaccurate information to Pennsylvanians concerning Vice President Biden's position on fracking," according to a copy obtained by ME. The campaign previously sent a letter on a different ad in the state.

The most recent ad claims Biden would "eliminate fracking," killing "up to 600,000 jobs" — a figure the letter notes was fact-checked by the Philadelphia Inquirer and does not match the number of people currently employed in the industry in the state. Biden, the letter states, supports banning only new oil and gas permits on federal land.

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PRESSING MNUCHIN ON CLIMATE RISKS: Dozens of Democrats are asking Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to do more to address risks from climate change to the financial sector. "If the financial system is not prepared to withstand these risks safely, a climate shock could seriously disrupt the financial system and trigger a financial crisis," reads the letter, led by Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). "We can act now to address the economic impact of climate change using the projections made by climate scientists and climate economists." READ MORE

Democratic National Convention Night 3: All In For Climate Action (Our Daily Planet; includes VIDEO-- the climate programming from the convention here, starts at the 17:13 minute mark)

Democrats Turn to Rural Issues: Rural, Midwest Democrats Promote Infrastructure and Divergent Strategy From Trump Years (DTN Progressive Farmer)

DNC Night 4: Joe Biden’s Acceptance Speech Is Infused With the Climate Crisis and Possibilities (Our Daily Planet)

With the Biden-Harris Ticket, Environmental Justice Is a Focus: Climate change leaders said the choice of Harris signaled that Democrats will try to ensure that communities burdened by pollution would benefit from a transition to clean energy. (New York Times)

OFF AND RUNNING: (Politico's Morning Energy)

SIERRA CLUB CALLS ON DEMOCRATS TO REINSTATE PLATFORM LANGUAGE: (Politico's Morning Energy)

America’s New Climate Economy: A Comprehensive Guide to the Economic Benefits of Climate Policy in the United States (World Resources Institute) PDF

Excerpt from DTN Progressive Farmer: Democratic leaders put a heavy emphasis on rural broadband and health care while criticizing the Trump administration and President Trump directly on trade, biofuels, climate change and the pandemic response.

A western Pennsylvania soybean and hay farmer who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Monday. "The last year has been the biggest challenge, financially, that I can remember," said Rick Telesz of Volant, Pennsylvania.

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Trump "was a hell of a salesman," he said. "But all you've had to do was watch television every day and ask yourself, 'Why did I vote for this guy?'"

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Farmers outside of the convention also have been championing the Democratic ticket in different ways. Justin Jordan farms corn, soybeans and hay in south-central Iowa. He partners with a livestock farmer in the area, providing hay and pasture for the operation. Jordan also focuses on climate issues and sees more volatile weather patterns as a big concern for farmers in the future. Last year, Jordan hosted Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris on his farm during different events.

"What attracted me to Harris -- and I was actually a Harris supporter from the get-go -- is her energy," Jordan told DTN. "We have some really major, big problems in this country and we need someone who has got the drive and energy to tackle these issues."

Jordan said he was thrilled when Biden picked Harris as his running mate, and he quickly wrote an op-ed in the Des Moines Register. He noted Biden's "Build Back Better Plan" would invest in farmers, ranchers and rural America to address climate change. "I'm confident that their leadership will create new opportunities for my farm to be more sustainable and successful," Jordan wrote.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/…

Regarding Trump, Jordan said he feels as if programs in the Trump administration such as Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments have turned farmers into "pawns" for the re-election campaign.

"Let's face it, the next president is going to write the next farm bill and farmers need to ask who do we want to write the next farm bill?" Jordan said. "I don't really see a lot of good, long-term concrete ag policies coming out of the Trump administration."

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(Former Agriculture Secretary Tom) Vilsack talked about a bio-economy and agriculture that creates a market to pay farmers for conservation practices. Vilsack laid out what he sees are steps to rebuild the rural economy.

"Let's pay farmers to sequester carbon," Vilsack said. "Let's pay farmers to capture methane and turn it into energy. Let's pay farmers to use their agricultural waste and truck it down the road to a bio-manufacturing facility that creates jobs in rural America, and converts that agricultural waste into a variety of products and new chemicals and the new materials and new fabrics and fibers and energy and fuel."

Vilsack added, "Let's make sure we've got an administration that understands the significance of renewable fuel and energy and invests in it."

In separate, "virtual rooms" on Tuesday afternoon, groups such as the National Corn Growers Association held different discussions on agriculture. NCGA leaders talked about the Soil Health Partnership and the value of stewardship practices such as carbon sequestration. Iowa farmer Mark Recker highlighted the importance of ethanol, not just to the Iowa economy, but also as a fuel strategy to help address climate change because ethanol has a lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels.

"We, as farmers, know ethanol can play a big part in that because it has a low carbon footprint and it's getting lower every year," Recker said.

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Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said farmers in her western Illinois congressional district are continuing to struggle and "Donald Trump has betrayed congressional districts like mine in downstate Illinois."

Bustos added to the biofuel theme. "He's turned his back on biofuels by handing out these small refinery waivers like he's handing out candy on Halloween, and in pursuit of a trade policy that no one can really comprehend."

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Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, in a recorded video, also challenged Trump on small-refinery waivers and trade. "Sometimes I feel like every single day I'm just working against Donald Trump and all of those waivers he gives to big oil companies, and then he goes back to Iowa and says, 'Oh yeah, I'm gonna fix it.' Yeah, right."

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Tuesday, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, asked Trump at an event related to the derecho storm to address the EPA and the small refinery exemptions. In an exchange, Trump said he would talk to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler about it. "We'll speak to them. I'll speak to them myself," Trump said. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: Biden stuck to his message that addressing climate change would help drive the economy by creating new industries and jobs. "It's not only a crisis, it's an enormous opportunity, an opportunity for America to lead the world in clean energy, and create millions of new, good-paying jobs in the process," Biden said. "And we can pay for these investments by ending unnecessary loopholes and the president's $1.3 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthiest 1 percent and the biggest, most profitable corporations."

The lead-up to Biden's address also put a focus on union workers who called for a "comprehensive" energy policy for renewables and discussed the dual threats posed to front-line workers from Covid-19 and hurricane season. California Gov. Gavin Newsom was featured on a video address, where he addressed President Donald Trump's threat Thursday to withhold federal money and the wildfires currently unfolding in his state. "This is an extraordinary moment in our history," Newsom said. "Mother Nature has now joined this conversation around climate change." READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: SIERRA CLUB CALLS ON DEMOCRATS TO REINSTATE PLATFORM LANGUAGE: The Sierra Club is calling for the Democratic National Committee to reinstate language to the party platform calling for an end to tax breaks and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. The language had been included in a previous "manager's mark" but was ultimately removed from the platform sent to delegates this week, prompting outcry from environmental activists. The DNC said the amendment had been included in error, but the author of the amendment told POLITICO's Zack Colman the text was stripped without his permission and called the DNC's explanation "100 percent false."

"Instead of reassuring the American people that the Democratic Party is committed to putting public health over corporate polluters, the DNC has quietly endorsed Trump's recklessness," Sierra Club President Ramón Cruz and Vice President Ross Macfarlane wrote in a letter to DNC Chair Tom Perez on Thursday. They add that it is "past time to end fossil fuel subsidies." The Sierra Club board of directors recently endorsed Biden, whose campaign has doubled down on ending fossil fuel subsidies. READ MORE