Where they stand: Trump and Harris on energy and climate
Plus, my takeaways from the Harris rally in D.C.
It’s Wednesday, October 30, 2024. Election Day is six days away.
Welcome to Part 3 of my series delving into the two candidates’ policy platforms. This morning, we’re tackling energy and climate policy, with help from Joseph Majkut, the director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Where they stand.
If re-elected, former President Donald Trump has promised to halve energy costs within his first year in office. “Your heating and air conditioning, electricity, gasoline — all can be cut down in half,” he said in August.
How? “I will declare a national emergency to allow us to dramatically increase energy production, generation and supply,” Trump continued. “Starting on Day 1, I will approve new drilling, new pipelines, new refiners, new power plants, new reactors, and we will slash the red tape.”
“Broadly, it’s a deregulatory agenda,” Joseph Majkut told me, aimed at rolling back President Joe Biden’s clean energy rules and speeding up the approval of drilling leases and permits. Experts are skeptical that a 50% reduction in costs will be possible, but Majkut said that steps like those can at least contribute to ramping up production and driving prices down. “Having the administration be very permissive about leasing on federal lands, building linear infrastructure, building export terminals for energy: those all make a substantial difference,” he said.
Although Trump has called himself an “environmentalist” and bragged about having the “cleanest air” and “cleanest water” during his presidency, he has dismissed the effects of climate change throughout his career. His campaign has said that Trump would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord in a second term, just as he did in his first.
Vice President Kamala Harris has said relatively little about climate and energy policy since launching her campaign. Like Biden, she is likely to pursue an “all of the above” energy approach, allowing fossil fuel production to continue while investing in clean energy. Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and would presumably continue funding its clean energy projects (Trump has said he would rescind any unspent IRA funds and criticized the law, but not specified any of its provisions he might try to repeal.)
She would also likely continue Biden’s regulatory agenda, although she has largely dodged questions about whether she would extend specific regulations. To name one example, while Trump has repeatedly promised to undo Biden’s pause on approving new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, Harris has not commented one way or another.
Much to the chagrin of climate activists, Harris has not rolled out many new climate proposals to build on Biden’s. The energy section on her campaign website pledges to “tackle the climate crisis” while also “ensuring America’s energy security,” but offers few specifics. Asked last month if she still stands by her 2019 plan to require automakers to produce only electric vehicles by 2035, Harris’ campaign declined to comment. Her 2019 proposal to ban fracking has also been dispensed with.
However, Harris’ economic agenda does say that her administration would be “laser-focused” on pursuing permitting reform, likely to help accelerate both fossil fuel and clean energy projects. The agenda also proposes an “America Forward tax credit” for manufacturing projects, especially those harnessing clean energy.
Where they overlap.
One thing that Majkut said Trump and Harris have in common: “They both have policy agendas which are going to require a lot more electricity.”
For Trump, that’s due to his commitment to reduce energy prices; for Harris, it’s because of her commitment to address climate change, including by increasing electrification. And for both of them, increased electricity production will be required to achieve their promises of harnessing artificial intelligence and revitalizing American manufacturing.
Trump has nodded at this issue before — telling Elon Musk in August that AI will require “tremendous amounts of electricity, like almost double what we produce now for the whole country” — and said his emergency declaration will allow for the U.S. to “blast through every bureaucratic hurdle” to approve new electric plants. Meanwhile, Harris’ economic policy blueprint promises to “unlock upgrades, efficiencies, and faster construction of a lower-cost and more resilient electrical grid,” which would likely be part of her permitting reform agenda.
What neither of them are talking about.
Majkut also identified an issue that either candidate will have to grapple with — but that neither one has given much attention to: how the U.S.-China relationship will shape our energy future.
“Whether that’s electric vehicles, wind, solar, or battery power, [either candidate will have to decide] the extent to which we want to rely on Chinese supply chains to meet our own energy needs,” he explained. “How do we balance our physical and cybersecurity, economic security, and geopolitical strengths in a world where the markets are building a lot of new technologies?”
As of 2023, China accounted for 82% of the world’s manufacturing capacity for solar panels, 65% of manufacturing capacity for wind turbines, and 82% of manufacturing capacity for batteries — meaning the U.S. will have to choose between relying on an adversary or slowing its clean energy transition by going it alone.
More news to know
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris debuted her closing arguments Tuesday before a crowd of more than 75,000 people at the Ellipse, right behind the White House. I was in the press section; here are my takeaways:
It was striking the degree to which Trump dominated Harris’ final message. Towards the middle of the address, Harris talked more about herself — acknowledging at one point that “many of you are still getting to know who I am” — but the beginning of the speech revolved entirely around her opponent. Standing in the very spot that Trump spoke on January 6th, Harris referred to him as “unstable” and “obsessed with revenge,” and suggested that he was a “petty tyrant” and “wannabe dictator.”
The speech was clearly aimed at a more moderate TV audience, not the liberal Washingtonians in attendance. A pledge to “quickly remove those who arrive here unlawfully” received much less applause than the promise of an “earned path to citizenship for hard working immigrants” that came right after it, for example. When a Pennsylvania farmer, introducing Harris, revealed that he had voted for Trump twice, the crowd seemed split on whether to boo or to cheer.
The visuals were striking as well. Harris spoke in front of nine American flags — not to mention the White House — and attendees waved smaller flags as she spoke, another attempt by Democrats to reclaim patriotic imagery in this campaign. (Another interesting visual: a video played by the campaign before the rally showed Liz Cheney and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez side by side, endorsing Harris in unison.)
Having covered Harris speeches earlier in the campaign, it does feel like she has pivoted somewhat. As she focused more on a negative case against Trump than a positive case for herself, her tone was much more sober than the joyful persona she attempted to evoke just after announcing. There were times it felt like the audience was more energized than the candidate.
Finally, it was hard not to notice that — even at a rally literally in his backyard — Joe Biden was not welcomed onstage for the rally. Harris name-checked the president only once during her address — in order to promise that her “presidency will be different” than his.
Biden was inside the White House during Harris’ speech. Why wouldn’t Harris have wanted him to step outside and speak at the rally? That question was answered in short order, when Biden seemed to commit yet another gaffe on a video call Tuesday with Latino supporters: “Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,”” Biden said, appearing to add: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
The White House has claimed that Biden said “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s,” referring to the comments made by the comedian at Trump’s rally. Watch for yourself:
MORE HEADLINES
The U.S. economy grew at a solid 2.8% rate last quarter.
Ethics experts are raising concerns about Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest if he returns to office, as well as similar conflicts stemming from Tony West’s role as Kamala Harris’ brother-in-law, close adviser, and Uber executive.
Kamala Harris now has the support of two former Republican First Daughters: Susan Ford (daughter of Gerald) and Barbara Bush (daughter of George W.)
WSJ: “The U.S. is running low on some types of air-defense missiles, raising questions about the Pentagon’s readiness to respond to the continuing wars in the Middle East and Europe and a potential conflict in the Pacific.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the ballot in Wisconsin and Michigan after the Supreme Court refused to grant his request to be taken off.
The day ahead
Vice President Kamala Harris will hold rallies in Madison, Wisconsin; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Raleigh, North Carolina. She will be joined by Mumford & Sons at the Madison rally, along with other musical acts.
Gov. Tim Walz will hold events in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Asheville, North Carolina
Former President Donald Trump will hold rallies in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Sen. JD Vance will hold a town hall in Bedford, Pennsylvania, with Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman.
President Joe Biden will hold a meeting on his administration’s efforts to support Hispanic-Serving Institutions, meet with the president of Cyprus, and host local students for trick-or-treating.
The House and Senate are on recess.
Harris’ tone was more somber because this is serious business. I really think you have a double standard when you cover things that she does and he does. I am having a hard time reading you right now.
Like the “being there” insights