Vice President Kamala Harris Is A Climate Champion

July 23, 2024

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INVESTING IN CLEAN ENERGY JOBS: Harris is a champion for investments in clean energy jobs, innovation and energy efficiency. As vice president, Harris cast the deciding vote to advance the Democrats’ clean energy plan which has delivered more than 300,000 clean energy jobs in communities across the country to date.
PROTECTING CLEAN AIR AND WATER: Harris has been a tireless advocate for clean air and water for all. As California Attorney General, Harris defended critical laws protecting clean air and clean water, including the Clean Power Plan, and in the Senate, she authored legislation protecting clean water and replacing lead pipes that were passed into law as part of the Democrats’ clean energy plan.
HOLDING POLLUTERS ACCOUNTABLE: Harris has proven she will take on Big Oil and Gas. As California Attorney General, won more than $50 million in settlements from Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66, and filed criminal charges against a company responsible for an oil spill in the state.
TAKING CLIMATE ACTION: Harris recognizes the threat of climate change as “existential,” and in the Senate, she co-sponsored legislation declaring a climate emergency. As Vice President, she has met with over 100 global leaders on climate change, solidifying the country as a global climate leader.
CHAMPIONING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Harris is a champion of environmental justice. Harris helped implement the administration’s historic Justice40 Initiative, and as a Senator, Harris sponsored multiple bills to address the disproportionate effects of climate change and pollution on low-income communities and communities of color. As district attorney, Harris established one of the first environmental justice units in the country.

Harris’ Record Of Taking On Big Oil

As attorney general, Harris secured $50 million in settlements from lawsuits against Big Oil giants Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Phillips 66.
As attorney general, Harris directed her office to investigate possible criminal violations after an oil pipeline spill released up to 143,000 gallons of crude oil in 2015, damaging Santa Barbara’s coastline.
In 2016, as attorney general, Harris sued Southern California Gas Co. over a methane leak from its Aliso Canyon natural gas facility. The leak caused a public health and statewide environmental emergency, sickening residents of Porter Ranch.
As attorney general, Harris secured a $44.4 million settlement from those responsible for a 2007 vessel crash and subsequent oil spill in the San Francisco Bay, which released 53,000 gallons of oil into the Bay.
As attorney general, Harris sued Pacific Gas and Electric Company following the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion in 2010 which killed 8 and injured dozens more. Thanks to Harris’ office, in 2017 PG&E was found guilty of violating the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act and obstructing justice during the investigation.
During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris pledged to use her experience as a prosecutor to “hold big oil accountable for its role in the climate crisis.”
During a 2019 town hall, Harris announced she was in favor of banning fracking, pointing to its impact on communities’ health and safety.
Harris supported ending subsidies for Big Oil, with her 2020 presidential campaign calling for “leveraging both executive authority and Congress to end federal subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.”
Harris called for closing the Halliburton Loophole, which exempted the fossil fuel industry from disclosing dangerous chemicals used in fracking.
Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign called for holding polluters accountable and advocated for a carbon tax.
As a U.S. Senator, Harris co-sponsored the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Unlimited Liability Act, which holds Big Oil accountable for damages associated with oil discharges from offshore facilities.
In 2018, Harris co-sponsored legislation to eliminate the cap on expenditures from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for cleanup of oil spills and expenditures from the trust fund for natural resource damage assessments and claims.
In 2019, Harris’ presidential campaign announced a plan to expand efforts to take on corporate polluters and to guarantee that plaintiffs can bring civil suits against them if they’ve been harmed by pollution.
As California Attorney General, Harris led an investigation into Exxon Mobil’s history of misleading Americans on the climate crisis.
- Harris also signaled support for a fraud investigation into Exxon.

Harris Supported Transitioning Away From Fossil Fuels And Protecting Our Waters From Offshore Drilling

During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris advocated for ending investments in fossil fuels, and advocated for shifting away from them. Her campaign also pledged that a Harris administration would work to end support for international oil and gas projects.
- Specifically, her 2020 presidential campaign site said her administration would direct the U.S. Export-Import Bank and OPIC to end their investments in projects that develop and extract fossil fuel resources.
During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris opposed new fossil fuel infrastructure projects.
In 2017, Harris signed a letter opposing the expansion of offshore drilling off the California coast. She said the expansion would “line the pockets of oil companies.”
One of Harris’ last actions as California Attorney General before she entered the Senate was to sue the Interior Department over permitting for hydraulic fracking off the Pacific Coast.
- Harris argued the federal government’s “inadequate environmental assessment would open the door to practices like fracking that may pose a threat to the health and well-being of California communities,” and called for taking “every possible step to protect our precious coastline and ocean.”

Harris Was A Fierce Advocate Of The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law And The Inflation Reduction Act’s Climate And Clean Energy Investments

Harris played a key role in the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act – casting the deciding vote to advance the landmark bill in the Senate.
In the Senate, Harris authored legislation on a range of water issues, including clean water, lead pipeline replacement, and drought resilience, that were eventually passed into law as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
As vice president, Harris visited drought-stricken Lake Mead to highlight the importance and urge the passage of the Biden-Harris administration’s infrastructure and climate change plans, including drought resilience funding.
In the Senate, Harris also introduced the Clean School Bus Act of 2019, which was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s passage.
As vice president, Harris traveled all across America touting the Inflation Reduction Act’s creation of a new clean energy economy and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s investments in clean water.
Harris announced the first “green bank” funding awards under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a flagship program under the Inflation Reduction Act. The bulk of the funding, Harris said, would “go to communities that have historically been left out and left behind.”
According to E&E News, “Harris is one of the most vocal advocates for Biden’s landmark climate law, The Inflation Reduction Act.”

Harris Recognized The Urgency Of The Climate Crisis And Supported Policies To Address Its Worst Impacts

According to E&E News, Harris “has spent her time at the White House becoming a voice for climate policy… Harris has turned climate into a core area of focus, alongside abortion rights, gun control and civil rights issues.”
Harris called climate change an “existential threat to us as a community” and a matter of public health and economic justice.
Harris believed global warming was an issue of national security.
As vice president, Harris championed the administration’s goal of halving climate pollution by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
In a speech highlighting the need for action on climate change and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Harris said, “It is clear the clock is not just ticking, it is banging.”
- Harris said in the same speech that parts of America were “choked by drought, washed out by floods and decimated by hurricanes” because of climate change.
In 2019, Harris cosponsored the Women and Climate Change Act of 2019. The bill would address climate change and its effect on women and girls and establish the Federal Interagency Working Group on Women and Climate Change in the State Department.
In 2017, Harris cosponsored the Pollution Transparency Act, which established the Interagency Working Group on the Costs of Greenhouse Gases to evaluate every five years the method of calculating costs of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
- In 2019, Harris cosponsored the Carbon Pollution Transparency Act, which required the heads of federal agencies to consider and document the cost of pollutants when making decisions, and created the Costs of Greenhouse Gases to evaluate every five years the method of calculating costs of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
In 2019, Harris cosponsored a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that there is a climate emergency which demands a massive-scale mobilization to halt, reverse, and address its consequences and causes.

Harris Fought Back Against The Trump Administration’s Attacks On Climate Science And Our Environment

As a U.S. Senator, Harris co-sponsored legislation that would prohibit funds from being used toward any effort intended to challenge the scientific consensus on climate change.
Harris also co-sponsored a resolution to express the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and that the National Science Foundation should engage in the communication of sound climate change science to the public.
In 2018, Harris tweeted, “Scott Pruitt should immediately resign or be fired.”
- Harris also cosponsored a resolution expressing no confidence in Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and calling for the immediate resignation of the Administrator.

Harris Used Her Office Of The Vice Presidency To Engage Global Leaders On Climate

According to ClimateWire, Harris “frequently turns foreign policy into climate policy and has used overseas trips to create a leadership role on climate” around the globe.
Harris met with more than 100 world leaders on climate issues since she took office as vice president.
ClimateWire described Harris’ role in the Biden-Harris administration as “the international climate diplomat rallying countries to save the planet and brokering new bilateral climate agreements, investments and strategies.”
As vice president, Harris led the administration’s plan to advance global water security. The Action Plan on Global Water Security, which Harris announced in 2022, is an intergovernmental effort to increase international access to clean, safe drinking water, as well as sanitation and hygiene services.
On a three-nation trip to Africa – visiting with the leaders of Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia – Harris made climate change policy a top priority. As Harris traveled through the continent, she garnered over $7 billion in financial commitments from the U.S. and global private sector for climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation.
- During Harris’ trip to Africa, she positioned the U.S. as a strong competitor to China.
Harris attended the World Climate Summit, where she advocated for increased international action on climate change.
Harris consistently spoke about food insecurity worsening due to climate change in her international travel as vice president.

Harris Advocated For Environmental Justice Policies And Holding Polluters Accountable

As vice president, Harris helped implement and advocate for the administration’s Justice 40 Initiative, including supporting a $600 million grant funding environmental justice projects across the country.
As attorney general, Harris stood alongside environmental justice communities, including the residents of Mira Loma Village in Riverside County.
- In 2011, Riverside County officials approved the construction of a one-million-square-foot warehouse, which the community staunchly opposed as it threatened to further pollute their air.
  - The project would have brought an estimated 1,500 additional daily diesel truck trips to the area where particulate pollutant levels were among the worst in the nation.
- Harris filed a lawsuit against the project, alleging that officials neglected to study the environmental impact of the new warehouse space on Mira Loma residents.
- In 2013, Harris reached a settlement that required the city and developers to mitigate the effects on the community by rerouting traffic, mandating routine air quality monitoring, planting trees and bushes to buffer air pollution in highly trafficked areas, and installing air filtration systems in residents’ homes.
- Harris said the settlement was a “model for local governments, developers, and communities to work together.”
- The Los Angeles Times described Harris’ action as underlining “an aggressive stance on environmental justice issues by the state’s highest law enforcement official.”
As attorney general, Harris reached a settlement with cargo terminals at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles over diesel emissions from exhaust that required the terminals to complete projects to reduce their diesel emissions and better notify the public of emissions.
In her 2020 presidential campaign platform, Harris called for ensuring Indigenous communities were able to participate and were a central voice in conversations around climate change.
In 2020, then-Senator Harris introduced the Climate Equity Act in tandem with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. The bill would have created an Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability in OMB and require the consideration of the impact of any environmental legislation or regulation on low-income communities.
As a U.S. Senator, Harris sponsored the Environmental Justice For All Act, which sought to establish environmental justice policies addressing disproportionate health and environmental effects on low-income communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color.
In 2017 and 2019, Harris cosponsored the Protect Children, Farmers, and Farmworkers from Nerve Agent Pesticides Act. The legislation would have prohibited the registration, sale, and use of pesticides containing chlorpyrifos. It specifically bans the sale of any food containing the substance.
- The bill would also prohibit the EPA from registering any pesticide containing the substance as an active ingredient and ban exporting pesticides containing chlorpyrifos to foreign countries.
As district attorney of San Francisco, Harris created an environmental justice unit addressing environmental crimes that affected the city’s poorest residents and prosecuted companies for violating hazardous waste laws.

Harris Championed Clean Air

Harris supported policies to reduce vehicle emissions by 2030 and sought to expand the California Community Air Protection Program to reduce pollution exposure and improve health outcomes in vulnerable communities.
As attorney general, Harris defended the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan and filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court supporting the EPA’s authority to limit emissions from power plants.
As attorney general, Harris secured an $86 million settlement with Volkswagen over the company’s use of “defeat devices” to evade emissions testing.
- Harris directed $10 million of the settlement toward local agencies to develop detection technology for “defeat devices,” assess on-road emissions, and mitigate environmental and health impacts of vehicle emissions.
Harris opposed the Trump administration’s rollback of clean car standards, calling it “an attack on the state,” and supported reinstating federal clean car rules to reduce emissions.

In the Senate, Harris cosponsored several bills aimed at reducing vehicle emissions:
- Harris cosponsored the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act of 2019, which required the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a zero-emission passenger vehicle standard by 2040, and approved a zero-emission vehicle credit program.
- Harris cosponsored the GAS MONEY Saved Act, which prevented the Environmental Protection Agency from reducing the stringency of vehicle emissions standards.
- In the Senate, Harris sponsored a resolution expressing support for the One National Program, which established that the federal government has the power to set fuel economy standards, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the health of communities.
Harris advocated for increased resources for low-income communities and communities of color who are disproportionately affected by pollution and the resulting negative health outcomes.
As a U.S. Senator, Harris sponsored the Air and Health Quality Empowerment Zone Designation Act of 2018 to address air quality standards in regions that exceed national pollutant standards, and provide grants to upgrade polluting vehicles.
In the Senate, Harris cosponsored the Smoke Planning and Research Act of 2019, which required the EPA to research and mitigate the impacts of smoke emissions from wildfires and established a grant program to support community wildfire mitigation efforts.

Harris Championed Clean Water

Harris called herself a “water policy geek” and often recounts her own personal experience with drought and water issues growing up in California, including in her book ‘The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.’
In the Senate, Harris authored legislation on a range of water issues, including clean water, lead pipeline replacement, and drought resilience, that were eventually passed into law as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
In the Senate, Harris sponsored the Water Justice Act, which aimed to ensure water supplies were “safe, affordable, and sustainable,” and invest in communities and schools to remove water contaminants.
Harris championed the Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan’s investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to replace all lead pipes in the next decade, and remediate lead paint, which can cause severe health issues, including brain and kidney damage, and impact childhood development even with low-level exposure.
- Harris has played a key role in the administration’s push to replace lead service pipes across the country, and said water policy was the climate policy she is most passionate about, saying access to clean water “should be a right.”
While serving in the Senate, Harris sponsored the Water Affordability Act, which amended the Clean Water Act to require the EPA to establish a grant program to improve sanitation and drinking water access to low-income and environmentally at-risk households.
As a Senator, Harris cosponsored several bills to address PFAS contamination, which has been linked to developmental issues in children, immune system issues, and an increased risk of some cancers.
- Harris cosponsored the PFAS Testing and Treatment Act of 2020, which expanded the allowed use of grants for water systems to address PFAS contamination.
- Harris cosponsored the Clean Water Standards for PFAS Act of 2019, which directed the EPA to review sources of PFAS contamination, and establish limits and standards for PFAS, as well as water quality criteria.
- Harris cosponsored the PFAS Action Act of 2019 which required the EPA to designate PFAS as hazardous substances.
Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign called to “immediately address” the nation’s water crisis, and highlighted the struggles families are facing with water affordability and the need to upgrade our water infrastructure.

Harris Championed Investments In Clean Energy And Energy Efficiency

As a U.S. Senator, Harris co-sponsored the National Climate Bank Act, which aimed to invest billions of dollars into climate and clean energy projects across the country, creating millions of jobs in the green energy industry.
As a U.S. Senator, Harris co-sponsored the Community Energy Savings Program Act, which proposed low-interest financing for consumers to upgrade their homes to be more energy-efficient, reducing energy costs for consumers, and reducing carbon pollution.
Harris supported Sen. Jeff Merkley’s Good Jobs For 21st Century Act, which aimed to ensure good-paying union jobs, and worker protections for clean energy jobs.

Harris Supported Expanding Electric Vehicle Manufacturing And EV Tax Credits

Harris said electric vehicles are “the future” and announced $100 million in funding for auto-parts manufacturers to expand their facilities to boost production of electric vehicle supplies.
Harris touted the electric vehicle investments within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support building a national network of EV charging stations.
In her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris called for expanding the electric vehicle tax credit to ensure low and middle-income families benefited from a transition to electric vehicles.
In the Senate, Harris introduced the Clean School Bus Act of 2019, which would establish the Clean School Bus Grant Program to award grants for replacing existing school bus fleets with electric busses. The legislation eventually became law under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Harris Advocated For Improved Infrastructure Resiliency To Combat The Effects Of Extreme Weather

Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign supported mandating federally funded infrastructure projects that integrate climate hazards in project design, which she said will improve community resilience.

As a U.S. Senator, Harris cosponsored the Living Shorelines Act with Sen. Chris Murphy. The bill would create a new grant for shoreline protection projects as sea levels rise. According to Harris, investing in living shorelines can reduce the risk of floods and storms.
In the Senate, Harris sponsored legislation that required climate impacts to be considered when planning the cleanup of Superfund sites to ensure health hazards were minimized.