If she wins the White House, Kamala Harris would have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build on the country’s climate agenda. The steps she could take in her first days and weeks run the gamut: from the unglamorous marching orders that organize federal bureaucrats under a new administration to launching contentious policy proposals such as declaring a climate emergency. As Emma Dumain and I write today, Harris has so far resisted outlining her exact priorities for her administration. President Joe Biden came into office with detailed climate plans crafted alongside activists, and Harris has her own extensive record on environmental policy that includes her call during last year’s U.N. climate summit for “transformative change” to address the crisis. But the details of a potential Harris administration agenda is still up in the air — and that means they’re up for debate. The most important thing Harris must do on climate, California Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman said, is “win the damn election.” But here are a few things lawmakers and experts told us they would look for on Day One of a Harris administration, starting with the most likely options. Implementation, implementation, implementation: Harris would inherit the hundreds of billions of dollars in climate programs that still need to be implemented, and she often notes she cast the deciding vote for Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Climate hawks are watching for how she approaches that task. Would she try to push funding out the door more quickly, for example? And how would she continue the rebuilding of agencies that shrank during the Trump administration? “That’s not, like, a departure from where we are now. But that’s the point,” Democratic New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich said. “We have the best tool to address climate that we’ve ever had. First we have to protect that, then we can build on top of that.” Injecting climate into new policy areas: Biden’s climate largely agenda focused on electricity and transportation, building momentum for Harris to push into new realms. Affordable, safe housing, for instance, has emerged as a major theme of the Harris campaign. Progressives see that as an opening to build new, energy-efficient housing powered by electric appliances. The falling cost of clean energy “means that we’re now in a place where [Harris] can go after the harder sectors,” Evergreen Action’s Craig Segall said. “She has a remarkably better landscape than Biden did on his first day.” Put Big Oil on notice: Biden’s Federal Trade Commission has probed oil companies over allegations of driving up prices. The companies strongly deny any wrongdoing, and the feds have taken only limited actions. But Harris’ record as a prosecutor has advocates hoping that her administration could land bigger hits. As California attorney general, Harris launched an investigation into whether Exxon Mobil misled the public about climate change. Climate emergency: Declaring a federal emergency over climate change has been an idea floating around progressive circles since at least 2019, when then-President Donald Trump invoked emergency powers to access funds Congress refused to give him to build a wall on the Mexican border. Some climate hawks think that could unlock more options for Harris, such as the power to restrict oil and gas exports. But others doubt it would change much, and even advocates of the idea say it’s a stretch to imagine it happening under Harris. “I have continuously preached the need for a climate emergency; I tried to get Biden to do it on Day One, I‘d love for Kamala to do it on Day One,” Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said. “But I don’t think that’s what she’s focused on right now.”
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