Harris, Trump present very different visions on climate change and energy

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Earth endured a summer with four of the hottest days ever measured, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have starkly different visions for how to deal with a changing climate while ensuring a reliable energy supply. But neither side has offered much detail on how to accomplish that.

In her speech at the Democratic National Convention, Harris briefly mentioned climate change, outlining the “fundamental freedoms” at stake in the election, including “the freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live free from the pollution that is fueling the climate crisis.”

As vice president, Harris cast the deciding vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation that passed with only Democratic support. As a senator from California, she was an early sponsor of the Green New Deal, a sweeping set of proposals to rapidly transition the U.S. to all-green energy, championed by the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Trump, meanwhile, led chants of “drill, baby, drill” and pledged to dismantle the Biden administration’s “green new scam” in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. He promised to boost production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal and repeal key parts of the 2022 climate bill.

“We have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country,” Trump said at the RNC. “We are a nation that has the opportunity to make an absolute fortune with our energy.”

“Climate Champion” or Unfair Regulations?

Environmental groups that largely support Harris call her a “proven climate champion” who will take on big oil and build on Biden’s legacy on climate, including policies promoting electric vehicles and cutting planet-warming pollution from coal-fired power plants.

“We do not want a climate change denier in the Oval Office again,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action.

Republicans counter that Biden and Harris have spent four years passing “punitive regulations” that target American energy while granting generous tax breaks for electric vehicles and other green priorities that cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

“This onslaught of excessive and outrageous climate regulations will close power plants and raise energy costs for families across the country,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. “Republicans will work to stop them and fight for solutions that protect our air and water and allow our economy to grow.”

Democrats have a clear advantage on the issue. More than half of U.S. adults say they trust Harris “a lot” or “a little” on climate change, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in July. About 7 in 10 say they trust Trump “a little” or “not at all” on climate. Fewer than half say they distrust Harris.

Let’s take a look at both candidates’ positions on key climate and energy issues:

Offshore fracking and drilling

During her brief 2020 presidential campaign, Harris said she opposed offshore drilling for oil and hydraulic fracturing, the process of extracting oil and gas, more commonly known as fracking.

But her campaign has made clear it no longer supports a ban on fracking, a common drilling practice critical to the economy of Pennsylvania, a key swing state and the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer.

“As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking,” Harris told CNN on Thursday in her first major television interview as a Democratic candidate. “We can grow a … thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”

Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington research firm, said Harris’ evolving views show she is “trying to find a balance between climate change voters and industry supporters,” even as her campaign takes an “antagonistic stance” toward the entire oil and gas industry.

Harris and Democrats have cited new regulations — authorized by the climate law — to increase royalties that oil and gas companies pay to drill or extract on public lands. She has also backed efforts to clean up old drilling sites and cap abandoned wells that often spew methane and other pollutants.

Trump, who as president pushed to roll back numerous environmental laws, says his goal is for the United States to have the cheapest energy and electricity in the world. He would increase oil drilling on public lands, offer tax breaks to oil, gas and coal producers and speed approvals for gas pipelines.

Electric vehicles

Trump has frequently criticized Biden’s strict vehicle emissions rules, wrongly calling them an electric vehicle “mandate.” The Environmental Protection Agency’s rules, issued this spring, cover emissions from cars and trucks and encourage — but don’t require — sales of new electric vehicles to meet the new standards.

Trump has said that electric vehicle production would destroy auto jobs. But in recent months he has softened his rhetoric, saying he favors making “a very small fraction” of cars electric.

The change comes after Tesla CEO Elon Musk “very strongly endorsed me,” Trump said at an Atlanta rally in August. Still, industry insiders expect Trump to back away from Biden’s push for electric vehicles and try to repeal tax incentives that Trump says benefit China.

Harris hasn’t announced an EV plan, but as vice president, she has been a vocal supporter of EVs. At a 2022 event in Seattle, she celebrated the awarding of about $1 billion in federal grants to buy about 2,500 “clean” school buses. Harris said as many as 25 million children ride the familiar yellow buses every school day and will have a healthier future with a cleaner fleet.

She added that the grants and other federal climate programs are not only aimed at “saving our children, but also protecting them from catastrophe for our planet.”

Climate law, work

Harris has focused on implementing the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure legislation passed in 2021, as well as the climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides nearly $375 billion in financial incentives for electric vehicles, clean energy projects and manufacturing.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, U.S. manufacturers created more than 250,000 energy jobs last year, with more than half of those jobs in the clean energy sector, according to Energy Department data.

Trump and his vice presidential candidate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, deride climate spending as a “money grab” for environmental groups and say it will move American jobs to China and other countries while increasing energy prices at home.

“Kamala Harris cares more about climate change than inflation,” Vance wrote in an editorial in The Wall Street Journal.

Goodbye Paris?

Trump, who has portrayed climate change as a “hoax,” withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate accord. He has promised to do so again, calling the global carbon-cutting plan unworkable and a gift to China and other big polluters. Trump has vowed to end subsidies for wind farms included in climate law and eliminate regulations imposed and proposed by the Biden administration to make light bulbs, stoves, dishwashers and showerheads more energy efficient.

Harris called the Paris Agreement a key part of fighting climate change and protecting “our children’s future.”

The United States returned to the Paris Agreement shortly after Biden took office in 2021.

LNG supply interruption

After approving numerous projects to export liquefied natural gas, or LNG, the Biden administration in January halted consideration of new natural gas export terminals. The delay allows officials to analyze the economic and climate impacts of natural gas, a fossil fuel that emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

The decision aligned the Democratic president with environmentalists who fear the recent surge in LNG exports is linked to potentially catastrophic planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, even as Biden has pledged to cut climate pollution in half by 2030.

Trump said he would approve the terminals “on my first day back” in office.

Harris has not outlined plans for LNG exports, but analysts expect her to impose strict climate standards on export projects as part of her broader stance against big oil and gas companies.