A bipartisan bill to update energy permitting could put a capstone on the Biden administration’s sweeping climate achievements — and put Vice President Kamala Harris in a tough spot with environmental activists.
The bill that cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last month would help unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act. But it would also benefit fossil fuels and reverse the administration’s pause on natural gas export licenses — compromises that run counter to climate policies at the center of Harris’ presidential campaign.
“Kamala definitely needs to start getting involved,” said RL Miller, the California-based president of Climate Hawks Vote, an advocacy group that has endorsed Harris for president, breaking from its usual rule of not endorsing presidential candidates. “What Democrats should do is refuse to take [the permitting bill] up and wait until January to start passing more serious clean energy-only bills.”
Miller sees a connection between the permitting bill and Harris’ work as an environmental justice advocate since her time as California’s attorney general, where she took legal action to alleviate the pollution that has caused disproportionate harm to low-income areas and communities of color.
