Joe Biden has put forth the most ambitious climate plan of any presidential candidate in history—promising, among other things, to get the country to 100% clean electricity generation by 2035 and to invest $400 billion in clean energy innovation and technology over 10 years. That said, for climate activists, it’s not quite a dream come true. The plan was knitted together in consultation with representatives from various diverse corners of the economic, political, and climate advocacy worlds. While every part of this coalition is invested in the Democratic candidate’s vision, some want to see the country move more quickly toward renewables, while others think it’s more important to conserve and create jobs, and still others are more concerned with political feasibility than anything else.
Even if the former vice president wins the presidency, the plan will still require a dedicated team to execute. Here’s a guide to the people who’ll be jockeying for influence on climate policy come Jan. 2021, should things go Biden’s way:
The Union Bosses
The candidate’s union ties are well known—and present perhaps the biggest obstacle to those who want to see a quick transition away from fossil fuels. Keeping the unions on his side means continuing to support fracking, at least in the near term, which the more left-leaning candidates in the Democratic primaries vowed to ban.
Lonnie Stephenson, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, endorsed Biden way back in February. Not only does Stephenson sit on Biden’s Climate Engagement Advisory Council, a wing of the campaign designed to energize climate-concerned voters, he’s one of only two people from that group who’ve been named to the team that would manage the transition into the White House if Biden is elected. (The other is Cecilia Martinez, an environmental lawyer and co-founder of the Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy—we’ll get to her in a bit.)
At a recent Biden campaign in Wisconsin, Stephenson infuriated clean energy advocates by describing Biden as being pro- all kinds of energy—or in his words “all of the above”—while another official with the local IBEW praised utilities that have invested in technologies to lessen the impact of coal. So-called “clean coal” is less polluting than regular coal, but contrary to the description still emits carbon and particulate matter into the air, in addition to perpetuating the coal mining industry, which is polluting in its own right.
Besides Stephenson, Biden has aligned himself with Conor Lamb, a U.S. Representative from Western Pennsylvania who is both union- and fracking-friendly. Lamb was a member of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force, assembled after the bruising primary season in an attempt to win over the more liberal wing of party. (More on that in a bit, too.) Although banning fracking had been a centerpiece of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’s platform on climate change, hydraulic fracturing didn’t come up once in the joint recommendation the group produced.
The Obama Holdovers
Aside from his cozy relationship with unions, the climate left is wary of Biden’s record from the last time he was in the White House. While the Obama administration talked a big game on clean energy, despite a few noteworthy successes (e.g. Tesla Inc.), its accomplishments were largely minor, short-lived, or both.