“Biden can’t be the climate leader he thinks he is if he’s lobbying oil states to produce more fossil fuels,” said Deirdre Shelly, an organizer for the Sunrise Movement, a grassroots climate group that endorsed Biden after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) dropped out of the presidential race. Shelly noted the awkward timing of Biden’s OPEC plea, given that just days ago,
the United Nations’ latest climate assessment warned that the world will surpass a crucial warming threshold up to a decade sooner than previously predicted.
Even environmental groups that credit Biden with pursuing the most aggressive climate policy of any U.S. administration in history say he’s undermining his own achievements in combating fossil fuel use. Those including pausing oil and gas drilling on public lands, jump-starting rules to slash greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, and negotiating historic amounts of spending on charging stations for electric vehicles in the very same infrastructure deal.
“They’ve done some of the right things,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “But the U.N. report couldn’t be more clear — we need to be taking giant leaps on climate change. Every step backwards takes us off the cliff into climate disaster, and increasing oil production guarantees that we will suffer far worse climate disasters than what we’re seeing right now.”
The groups also note that climate activists make up an important part of the base that Democrats will need to turn out for next year’s midterm elections, which are expected to be brutal for Democrats.
Other environmentalists, as well as energy experts, say Biden and his team are being practical about what it will take to transition to cleaner energy. For one thing, losing the House or Senate in 2022 because of consumer anger about gasoline prices would be a huge blow to Biden’s climate agenda.
“The Biden administration is caught between what it needs for elections and its long term policy goals,” Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said in an interview. “To enact the policies [environmentalists] want enacted, he has to keep the House and Senate in 2022.”
The administration says its actions show a commitment to bringing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050, including carbon-free electricity by 2035. At the same time, its call to OPEC was meant to help offset the months of rising gasoline prices that have burdened U.S. consumers.
“We can do two things at once,” a White House spokesperson said in an email, speaking on condition of anonymity so he could speak freely. “Achieve our climate goals while ensuring the energy transition is one that takes into account the interests of the middle class, who experience changes in energy prices very directly, and meet global energy needs as the economy recovers from the pandemic.”
