The nation’s four largest environmental groups said they are backing President Biden’s re-election bid, despite anger from activists over his approval of a number of fossil fuel projects, including a massive oil drilling plan in Alaska and a West Virginia pipeline. through Virginia.
The League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and NextGen America said they are putting aside their concerns about the projects — and the planet-warming emissions they will release.
The endorsements are among the first from major environmental groups in the presidential race. It’s also the first time these four groups have supported together.
In running for president more than 16 months before the election, some advocates said they hoped to remind Democratic voters that Mr. Biden had enacted the largest climate legislation in U.S. history and poured at least $370 billion into clean energy and electric vehicles. His administration also proposed strict pollution regulations from carstrucks and power plants which are designed to reduce national emissions to their lowest level in decades.
“This is an administration that has done more to advance climate solutions than any other,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters.
The joint endorsement was announced Wednesday night at the League’s annual dinner in Washington, where Mr. Biden delivered remarks about his environmental record. He is expected to get further support from the AFL-CIO at a labor rally in Philadelphia on Saturday.
“Obviously we don’t agree with every decision they’ve made, but on balance this administration has done far more than any other in history,” Ms. Sittenfeld said. She said the groups intend to recruit members to raise money for Mr. Biden’s campaign, participate in phone banks and attend rallies, particularly in battleground states.
Mr. Biden campaigned in 2020 on the most ambitious climate agenda of any candidate, promising to roughly halve America’s emissions during the decade. Young voters, who polls show are particularly worried about global warming, turned out in force during this election. Half of eligible voters aged 18 to 29 to cast votes in this electionaccording to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, one of the highest turnout rates since the voting age was lowered to 18.
The landmark climate law Mr. Biden signed into law last year is expected to cut America’s warming carbon dioxide emissions by up to one billion tons in 2030. proposed regulations could remove up to 15 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2055.
But Mr. Biden also promised “no more drilling on federal lands, period. Dot, dot, dot.”
Despite this promise, he agreed to approve a drilling project known as Willow on pristine federal land in Alaska and ordered the sale of offshore drilling leases as part of a deal to pass the climate bill. During negotiations with Republicans on the debt ceiling last month, Mr. Biden agreed to expedite the $6.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline to carry natural gas about 300 miles from West Virginia’s Marcellus shale fields through Virginia to the North Carolina line. Environmental activists have been fighting this project for almost a decade.
For many young climate activists, this was the last straw.
“You can’t honor the president and call him a climate champion when he’s actively endorsing new fossil fuel projects,” said Michael Greenberg, president of Climate Defiance, a nonprofit group that has disrupted events with Biden administration officials and other Democrats.
Members of Climate Defiance intended to protest Wednesday night before the Conservation League voters’ dinner, Mr. Greenberg said.
At a protest against the Mountain Valley Pipeline outside the White House last week, Alice Hu, 25, said Mr. Biden’s climate legacy had been undermined by his endorsement of oil and gas development. As smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires billowed in the air, Ms. Hu said the president must take on the fossil fuel industry to win her vote.
“If he wants to count on progressive votes, if he wants to count on youth votes, he has to stop being a climate villain,” she said.
Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, president of NextGen America, which focuses on youth voter turnout, said her group hopes to counter that opposition by endorsing Mr. Biden now. She noted that since Mr. Biden was elected in 2020, 17 million people have reached voting age.
“We know we need to spend time and money telling young people why their voice still matters, which is why we’re doing this support so early,” she said.
The 2024 Republican front-runner, former President Donald J. Trump, has attacked Mr. Biden’s climate policies, mocked climate science and championed fossil fuel production, which is primarily responsible for warming the planet.
Geoff Garin, a Democratic strategist and pollster, said young, climate-minded voters would be critical to Mr. Biden’s re-election. But he also argued that while young people want to see the president do more to address climate change, there is little evidence that those upset about Willow or the Mountain Valley Pipeline will have much of an impact.
Still, Mr. Garin said the Biden campaign needs to do better at communicating its climate achievements. “For Biden, what he has to do with young voters is a lack of appreciation for what he’s done rather than hostility to any particular decision or policy,” he said.