Kamala Harris had a message for voters last night: Fossil fuels aren’t going anywhere. The vice president used part of the presidential debate in Philadelphia to tout both the Biden administration’s climate law and the country’s record oil and gas production. While President Joe Biden has largely avoided that kind of “all of the above” rhetoric, amid criticism from climate groups over some of his fossil fuel policies, Harris wielded it to counter Donald Trump’s accusations that she would ban fracking. And environmentalists are … mostly OK with it, writes Robin Bravender. “The most important thing we need to do for the climate is make sure we defeat Donald Trump, and I think Kamala Harris is running a damn good campaign,” Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, told Robin. The outcome of November’s election could prove critical for determining whether the country curbs its climate pollution enough to help keep warming below unsafe levels. Climate-change-fueled disasters are already wreaking havoc on the nation — from a record hot summer to an estimated $92.9 billion in disaster damage last year — and scientists say the window to act is closing. Trump has pledged to roll back Biden’s climate policies, open millions of acres of pristine land to oil drilling and withdraw the country from the Paris climate agreement as he did in 2017. While Harris advocated for fossil fuel production to reduce reliance on foreign oil, she acknowledged that climate change is “very real” and worked to establish herself as Trump’s energy foil, mocking his climate denial and conspiratorial energy claims. (“He will talk about how windmills cause cancer,” she said). Harris’ policy platform pledges to “unite Americans to tackle the climate crisis” and hold polluters “accountable,” but she has yet to say whether she would pursue any specific climate efforts that differ from Biden’s. Still, some climate groups say the Democratic nominee is risking support from young voters by not staking out a stronger position and plan to tackle climate change. “If you’re going to call it an existential threat, you shouldn’t brag about increasing production of the thing that causes it,” Michael Greenberg, founder of the climate activist group Climate Defiance, told Robin.
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