Bernie Sanders’ departure from the presidential race left hardcore climate change activists in mourning—and wondering where the former vice president stands.

 MARIANNE LAVELLE reports for Inside Climate News

 

Joe Biden has an ambitious plan for climate action and environmental justice, but for some of the nation’s most ardent climate voters, he has yet to fill the void left by Bernie Sanders’ withdrawal from the presidential race.

Case in point: Lori Lawrence, a grassroots environmentalist in Wichita, Kansas. She has helped organize protests against the local climate denial powerhouse, Koch Industries, as well as a push for a city-appointed task force aimed at cutting plastic bag pollution. But from all the discussion in her network of fellow-minded activists and all the news coverage she watches, she said, she has no clue where former Vice President Joe Biden stands on climate.

“All I’ve seen is the debate where he did say he was going to stop fracking, which I thought was kind of odd, since he hasn’t spoken out about that before,” she said in a telephone interview shortly before Sanders’ withdrawal from the race. “How serious is Biden? What kind of plan does he have worked out? I don’t know. It makes me wonder if there is indeed a plan. I assume it’s some little thing on his web site somewhere that’s not at the top of his agenda.”

In fact, the former vice president has offered a detailed roadmap for decarbonizing the economy that is historic by any number of yardsticks—but it lacks the size, scope, and clarity of Sanders’ vision, embodied in the Green New Deal. Biden has called the Green New Deal “a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face,” and his goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is on par with Sanders’ and far beyond President Barack Obama’s pledge (an 80 percent reduction from 2005 levels.) But Biden has not embraced the bolder elements of Sanders’ plan—especially the melding of a national Medicare-for-all system into the climate package.

Biden’s proposed $1.7 trillion climate plan includes 30 times the clean energy commitment in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 platform. But no matter how aggressive his climate goals are, there remains a widespread feeling, even among his supporters, that he has yet to make a convincing case as a champion of climate action to young and progressive voters. In the community of progressive climate activists, the overwhelming response to Sanders’ withdrawal was equal parts grief over the loss of their standard-bearer, and affirmation of their commitment to his ideals—underscoring the challenge for Biden.

“We’re not going to sugarcoat it: Our hearts are heavy,” Aracely Jimenez, a spokeswoman for the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said in a statement. “The ball’s now in Joe Biden’s court. To avoid a repeat of 2016, he needs to show young people that he’s going to stand up for them by embracing policies like an ambitious Green New Deal that led young voters to flock to Bernie. If he doesn’t do this, our work turning out our generation to defeat Trump this fall becomes a lot harder.” 

Sanders’ Climate Pledge was Nearly Ten Times Biden’s

Sanders’ uncompromising platform resonated with “keep-it-in-the-ground” climate activists across the country, who have been at the front line of fighting pipelines, fracking, export terminals and the like. “If we are serious about clean air and drinking water, if we are serious about combating climate change, the only safe and sane way to move forward is to ban fracking nationwide,” Sanders said, when he introduced legislation earlier this year to phase out the practice. He said his $16.3 trillion federal climate commitment over 10 years—nearly 10 times Biden’s pledge—would help create 20 million jobs.

Sanders’ plan earned top grades on the scorecards compiled by progressive climate groups like  Sunrise Movement, 350.org and Greenpeace. All gave mediocre grades to Biden’s plan, which foresees a slower transition from fossil fuels. On fracking, Biden has said he would approve no new permits on federal land or waters. But existing permits should be evaluated on a case by case basis to see “whether or not they…are dangerous, whether or not they have already done the damage,” Biden has said. He has called for “aggressive methane pollution limits” on existing oil and gas operations—a regulatory proposal that the Obama administration launched but failed to complete before Trump took office.

“We do not believe that Biden’s plan at this point really is bold enough to reduce emissions this decade at the rate that we need to,” said Thanu Yakupitiyage, U.S. communications director at 350 Action, which endorsed both Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Biden “needs to do a lot of work to make his climate plan robust,” Yakupitiyage said in an interview before Sanders’ withdrawal from the race.  

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