Harris's environmental agenda differentiates her from Biden and attracts criticism from the GOP
Despite experiencing some reluctance from environmental groups in her home state, the vice president has fully committed to the cause since her tenure as San Francisco district attorney.
TroibNews 
Vice President Kamala Harris has dedicated over a decade to advocating for Black, Hispanic, and impoverished communities affected by pollution—a cause that is part of a burgeoning segment of the environmental movement which has not fully aligned with President Joe Biden.
Her supporters are optimistic that Harris' longstanding commitment to these issues can galvanize grassroots enthusiasm among Democrats and independents who might have otherwise abstained from voting. However, her efforts have earned her considerable backlash from Republicans, including distorted accusations regarding her support for racial measures that they claim would disadvantage white Americans.
This narrative might gain traction in an election where the GOP has struggled to establish a consistent yet tactful strategy against the first Black, South Asian, and female vice president. The intersection of environmental policy and social equity may also highlight how a Harris administration could diverge from Biden’s approach—an area where she has demonstrated a more extensive history than her superior.
Biden has considered how race, poverty, and a lack of political representation have left certain communities disproportionately vulnerable to pollution, a strategy known as environmental justice. This perspective has influenced many of his policies, culminating in the establishment of a White House office specifically focused on environmental justice last year.
Nonetheless, some activists have voiced concerns that the administration is not adequately staffing these initiatives and is approving fossil fuel projects that jeopardize rural and Indigenous communities. In contrast, Harris, despite some hesitance from environmental groups in her home state due to her prosecutorial past, has actively supported the movement since her tenure as San Francisco's district attorney from 2004 to 2011.
“The environmental justice community will be solidly behind Kamala,” said Beverly Wright, founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, emphasizing that those in the movement know and trust Harris.
“I hear comments like, ‘She has to prove herself,’” Wright remarked. “What? Are you kidding?”
A poll released in June from a healthcare trade association associated with environmental justice indicates that the issue resonates with a majority of people across ideological lines, generations, and income levels. Yet, some Republican lawmakers have criticized Harris' comments about equity.
Following Hurricane Ian's devastation in Florida in 2022, Republican Senator Rick Scott condemned Harris for her remarks about “giving resources based on equity.”
Harris, addressing the federal response to disasters like Ian during a Washington forum, stated, “It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions.”
She also explained, “We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity; understanding that not everyone starts out at the same place.”
A few days later on CBS's Face the Nation, Scott reformulated her comments, saying, “If you have a different skin color, you’re going to get relief faster.”
When host Margaret Brennan pointed out that Harris had not said that, Scott countered, “That’s exactly what she meant.”
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, from a part of Georgia affected by Ian, also chided Harris on Twitter, now known as X, stating, “@KamalaHarris hurricanes do not target people based on the color of their skin. Hurricanes do not discriminate... Is your husband’s life worth less because he’s white?”
Concerns about white Floridians being overlooked may be misplaced: analysis from POLITICO’s E&E News reveals that out of the $1.1 billion in disaster aid distributed by FEMA post-Ian, $750 million was allocated to ZIP codes with at least 70 percent white, non-Hispanic populations. In contrast, Florida's overall population is 52 percent white.
Attacks on Harris concerning the connection between climate change and equity are unsurprising, according to Chauncia Willis, executive director of the Georgia-based Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management, which seeks to enhance disaster recovery for marginalized communities.
“She was born a target for Republicans,” Willis remarked. “Everything that she embodies is the antithesis of what the Rick Scotts of the world would like to see.”
Scott's communications director, McKinley Lewis, stated in an email: “Senator Scott thinks FEMA should respond to help everyone who needs help in disasters. He is proud to ensure that the federal government shows up in emergencies. You should ask VP Harris why she thinks FEMA should re-evaluate how they respond to Americans in need.”
Greene's office did not provide comment when requested.
In her role as vice president, Harris has been instrumental in advancing many of the Biden administration’s key environmental justice initiatives. She played a pivotal role in convincing Congress to allocate $15 billion for replacing lead drinking water pipes as part of Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, addressing a significant health crisis impacting millions.
Some of the administration's climate policies aimed at supporting low-income and pollution-impacted communities are derived from legislation like the Climate Equity Act of 2020, which Harris introduced while she was a senator from California, and a spending proposal she presented during her 2019 presidential campaign, as noted by EPA Administrator Michael Regan at a White House event last week.
“I have fought my entire career to address these inequities and advance environmental justice, including here in the White House,” Harris told reporters during a call promoting the administration’s agenda in December. While announcing her White House candidacy on July 22, she highlighted her experience as district attorney, where she spearheaded one of the country’s first environmental justice units.
Moreover, Harris embodies the demographic makeup of grassroots environmental justice organizations, which are predominantly led by women of color, said Robert Bullard, a Texas Southern University professor often regarded as the "godfather" of the movement. He described her as the "logical choice" for the top of the Democratic ticket for numerous reasons.
"When you talk about the on-the-ground in the Black community, it's Black women. And Black women are the strongest base of the Democratic Party," Bullard asserted, noting that he is also a member of Biden's environmental justice council. "It's a no-brainer."
Harris has faced similar criticism previously. Just two days before the 2020 election, she posted a brief animated video on Twitter, titled, “There’s a big difference between equality and equity.”
In the video, a female narrator delineates the two concepts, concluding with, “Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place.”
A scholar from the libertarian Cato Institute, referencing 20th-century academic Friedrich Hayek, contended in a blog post that Harris was attempting to “equalize opportunity,” labeling the initiative as “totalitarian.”
“Sounds just like Karl Marx,” then-Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) tweeted in response to Harris’ message.
Tom Pyle, president of the pro-fossil fuel American Energy Alliance and a critic of the Biden administration's agenda, expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of Harris' environmental credentials with the electorate.
“Outside of Democratic circles, she’s going to be having to introduce herself or reintroduce herself to the public — and I don’t think you lead with environmental justice in the economy that we have,” he remarked.
Environmental justice has commonly been an overlooked yet significantly diverse aspect of the green movement, closely tied to the immediate concerns of communities facing pollution rather than solely focusing on national parks or endangered species—issues often prioritized by leading environmental organizations.
The grassroots groups within this movement include activists from low-income, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous backgrounds whose communities suffer from the impacts of industrial emissions, pipeline spills, and waste disposal sites in their neighborhoods.
Harris frequently cites her commitment to environmental justice as a natural extension of her parents' civil rights activism.
Upon establishing the environmental justice unit in her office, she argued, “crimes against the environment are crimes against communities, people who are often poor and disenfranchised.” The California environmental group EnviroVoters recognized her record in this field when endorsing her for the presidency.
Since entering the Senate in 2017, Harris has sponsored environmental justice legislation, including measures ensuring that communities historically affected by pollution benefit from federal investments and regulations. A provision in Biden’s infrastructure law allocating $5 billion for purchasing low-emission school buses features language directly lifted from Harris’ Clean School Bus Act of 2019.
She also advocated for federal assistance for Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s devastation in 2017.
Toward the end of the Trump administration, she backed the Environmental Justice for All Act, which aimed to require permitting decisions to account for cumulative impacts like climate change and would have imposed a fee on fossil fuel companies to fund workforce transitions. Additionally, she was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a comprehensive but non-binding resolution supported by certain Democrats advocating for reduced fossil fuel consumption and increased clean energy adoption.
While Biden entered the 2020 race aiming to recognize and address the needs of communities disproportionately affected by pollution, Harris brought hands-on experience and a history of collaboration with environmental justice activists, as noted by David Kieve, executive director of Environmental Defense Fund Action.
“She started when she was on the ticket from a place of much deeper understanding, both innately and organically, and from her work in the Senate and as California attorney general,” Kieve remarked, having managed environmental justice outreach for Biden’s 2020 campaign and within the White House.
Harris joined the White House shortly after the intense national discourse surrounding the lead contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, where cost-cutting decisions by a Republican-appointed emergency manager had exposed much of the predominantly Black and low-income population to hazardous levels of lead.
Biden vowed during his first State of the Union to replace every lead drinking water pipe in the country, and Harris took the initiative to work with legislators to secure $15 billion in funding for this effort, as relayed by the two former administration figures.
In the fall of 2021, she unveiled the administration’s strategy to utilize regulatory measures to mandate the removal of all lead pipes and subsequently toured several of the nation's most affected cities, such as Milwaukee and Newark. When faced with resistance to this ambitious—and costly—initiative, she intervened behind the scenes to ensure its implementation, according to one of the former Biden administration officials.
Ike Irby, a senior adviser to Harris on environmental issues since her Senate tenure, stated that Harris is “really being intentional about finding ways that we can make sure that the communities that have been dumped on and have not had a voice in how the federal government engages on different issues were brought into the process.”
Her focus on lead contamination may provide a political edge in critical battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, where significant numbers of lead pipes exist. She has framed her messaging on the issue not only around public health but also the job opportunities that arise from pipe replacements.
Activists have expressed appreciation for Harris' outreach to struggling communities and are pleased with the substantial funding allocated to environmental justice in the Inflation Reduction Act and other Biden-era legislation, as well as the regulatory efforts such as the EPA’s crackdown on harmful chemicals. However, tensions have arisen between activist groups and the administration.
The Justice40 initiative aims for 40 percent of the benefits from federal spending on clean energy and related initiatives to reach marginalized communities, but some members of the White House's environmental justice advisory council have criticized the administration for its vague definitions of benefits and are advocating for clearer commitments on spending levels.
Activist organizations have also expressed frustration when the White House opted not to directly include race as a criterion for resource allocation. While the administration cited concerns about potential legal challenges, advocates argue that race is fundamental to any environmental justice framework.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have sought to cut funding for Biden’s environmental justice endeavors.
“Part of the challenge of the next few years is going to be defending the progress that we made and ensuring that we are able to continue on that progress,” Irby concluded.
James del Carmen contributed to this report for TROIB News
Her supporters are optimistic that Harris' longstanding commitment to these issues can galvanize grassroots enthusiasm among Democrats and independents who might have otherwise abstained from voting. However, her efforts have earned her considerable backlash from Republicans, including distorted accusations regarding her support for racial measures that they claim would disadvantage white Americans.
This narrative might gain traction in an election where the GOP has struggled to establish a consistent yet tactful strategy against the first Black, South Asian, and female vice president. The intersection of environmental policy and social equity may also highlight how a Harris administration could diverge from Biden’s approach—an area where she has demonstrated a more extensive history than her superior.
Biden has considered how race, poverty, and a lack of political representation have left certain communities disproportionately vulnerable to pollution, a strategy known as environmental justice. This perspective has influenced many of his policies, culminating in the establishment of a White House office specifically focused on environmental justice last year.
Nonetheless, some activists have voiced concerns that the administration is not adequately staffing these initiatives and is approving fossil fuel projects that jeopardize rural and Indigenous communities. In contrast, Harris, despite some hesitance from environmental groups in her home state due to her prosecutorial past, has actively supported the movement since her tenure as San Francisco's district attorney from 2004 to 2011.
“The environmental justice community will be solidly behind Kamala,” said Beverly Wright, founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, emphasizing that those in the movement know and trust Harris.
“I hear comments like, ‘She has to prove herself,’” Wright remarked. “What? Are you kidding?”
A poll released in June from a healthcare trade association associated with environmental justice indicates that the issue resonates with a majority of people across ideological lines, generations, and income levels. Yet, some Republican lawmakers have criticized Harris' comments about equity.
Following Hurricane Ian's devastation in Florida in 2022, Republican Senator Rick Scott condemned Harris for her remarks about “giving resources based on equity.”
Harris, addressing the federal response to disasters like Ian during a Washington forum, stated, “It is our lowest income communities and our communities of color that are most impacted by these extreme conditions.”
She also explained, “We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity; understanding that not everyone starts out at the same place.”
A few days later on CBS's Face the Nation, Scott reformulated her comments, saying, “If you have a different skin color, you’re going to get relief faster.”
When host Margaret Brennan pointed out that Harris had not said that, Scott countered, “That’s exactly what she meant.”
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, from a part of Georgia affected by Ian, also chided Harris on Twitter, now known as X, stating, “@KamalaHarris hurricanes do not target people based on the color of their skin. Hurricanes do not discriminate... Is your husband’s life worth less because he’s white?”
Concerns about white Floridians being overlooked may be misplaced: analysis from POLITICO’s E&E News reveals that out of the $1.1 billion in disaster aid distributed by FEMA post-Ian, $750 million was allocated to ZIP codes with at least 70 percent white, non-Hispanic populations. In contrast, Florida's overall population is 52 percent white.
Attacks on Harris concerning the connection between climate change and equity are unsurprising, according to Chauncia Willis, executive director of the Georgia-based Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management, which seeks to enhance disaster recovery for marginalized communities.
“She was born a target for Republicans,” Willis remarked. “Everything that she embodies is the antithesis of what the Rick Scotts of the world would like to see.”
Scott's communications director, McKinley Lewis, stated in an email: “Senator Scott thinks FEMA should respond to help everyone who needs help in disasters. He is proud to ensure that the federal government shows up in emergencies. You should ask VP Harris why she thinks FEMA should re-evaluate how they respond to Americans in need.”
Greene's office did not provide comment when requested.
In her role as vice president, Harris has been instrumental in advancing many of the Biden administration’s key environmental justice initiatives. She played a pivotal role in convincing Congress to allocate $15 billion for replacing lead drinking water pipes as part of Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, addressing a significant health crisis impacting millions.
Some of the administration's climate policies aimed at supporting low-income and pollution-impacted communities are derived from legislation like the Climate Equity Act of 2020, which Harris introduced while she was a senator from California, and a spending proposal she presented during her 2019 presidential campaign, as noted by EPA Administrator Michael Regan at a White House event last week.
“I have fought my entire career to address these inequities and advance environmental justice, including here in the White House,” Harris told reporters during a call promoting the administration’s agenda in December. While announcing her White House candidacy on July 22, she highlighted her experience as district attorney, where she spearheaded one of the country’s first environmental justice units.
Moreover, Harris embodies the demographic makeup of grassroots environmental justice organizations, which are predominantly led by women of color, said Robert Bullard, a Texas Southern University professor often regarded as the "godfather" of the movement. He described her as the "logical choice" for the top of the Democratic ticket for numerous reasons.
"When you talk about the on-the-ground in the Black community, it's Black women. And Black women are the strongest base of the Democratic Party," Bullard asserted, noting that he is also a member of Biden's environmental justice council. "It's a no-brainer."
Harris has faced similar criticism previously. Just two days before the 2020 election, she posted a brief animated video on Twitter, titled, “There’s a big difference between equality and equity.”
In the video, a female narrator delineates the two concepts, concluding with, “Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place.”
A scholar from the libertarian Cato Institute, referencing 20th-century academic Friedrich Hayek, contended in a blog post that Harris was attempting to “equalize opportunity,” labeling the initiative as “totalitarian.”
“Sounds just like Karl Marx,” then-Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) tweeted in response to Harris’ message.
Tom Pyle, president of the pro-fossil fuel American Energy Alliance and a critic of the Biden administration's agenda, expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of Harris' environmental credentials with the electorate.
“Outside of Democratic circles, she’s going to be having to introduce herself or reintroduce herself to the public — and I don’t think you lead with environmental justice in the economy that we have,” he remarked.
Environmental justice has commonly been an overlooked yet significantly diverse aspect of the green movement, closely tied to the immediate concerns of communities facing pollution rather than solely focusing on national parks or endangered species—issues often prioritized by leading environmental organizations.
The grassroots groups within this movement include activists from low-income, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous backgrounds whose communities suffer from the impacts of industrial emissions, pipeline spills, and waste disposal sites in their neighborhoods.
Harris frequently cites her commitment to environmental justice as a natural extension of her parents' civil rights activism.
Upon establishing the environmental justice unit in her office, she argued, “crimes against the environment are crimes against communities, people who are often poor and disenfranchised.” The California environmental group EnviroVoters recognized her record in this field when endorsing her for the presidency.
Since entering the Senate in 2017, Harris has sponsored environmental justice legislation, including measures ensuring that communities historically affected by pollution benefit from federal investments and regulations. A provision in Biden’s infrastructure law allocating $5 billion for purchasing low-emission school buses features language directly lifted from Harris’ Clean School Bus Act of 2019.
She also advocated for federal assistance for Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s devastation in 2017.
Toward the end of the Trump administration, she backed the Environmental Justice for All Act, which aimed to require permitting decisions to account for cumulative impacts like climate change and would have imposed a fee on fossil fuel companies to fund workforce transitions. Additionally, she was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a comprehensive but non-binding resolution supported by certain Democrats advocating for reduced fossil fuel consumption and increased clean energy adoption.
While Biden entered the 2020 race aiming to recognize and address the needs of communities disproportionately affected by pollution, Harris brought hands-on experience and a history of collaboration with environmental justice activists, as noted by David Kieve, executive director of Environmental Defense Fund Action.
“She started when she was on the ticket from a place of much deeper understanding, both innately and organically, and from her work in the Senate and as California attorney general,” Kieve remarked, having managed environmental justice outreach for Biden’s 2020 campaign and within the White House.
Harris joined the White House shortly after the intense national discourse surrounding the lead contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, where cost-cutting decisions by a Republican-appointed emergency manager had exposed much of the predominantly Black and low-income population to hazardous levels of lead.
Biden vowed during his first State of the Union to replace every lead drinking water pipe in the country, and Harris took the initiative to work with legislators to secure $15 billion in funding for this effort, as relayed by the two former administration figures.
In the fall of 2021, she unveiled the administration’s strategy to utilize regulatory measures to mandate the removal of all lead pipes and subsequently toured several of the nation's most affected cities, such as Milwaukee and Newark. When faced with resistance to this ambitious—and costly—initiative, she intervened behind the scenes to ensure its implementation, according to one of the former Biden administration officials.
Ike Irby, a senior adviser to Harris on environmental issues since her Senate tenure, stated that Harris is “really being intentional about finding ways that we can make sure that the communities that have been dumped on and have not had a voice in how the federal government engages on different issues were brought into the process.”
Her focus on lead contamination may provide a political edge in critical battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, where significant numbers of lead pipes exist. She has framed her messaging on the issue not only around public health but also the job opportunities that arise from pipe replacements.
Activists have expressed appreciation for Harris' outreach to struggling communities and are pleased with the substantial funding allocated to environmental justice in the Inflation Reduction Act and other Biden-era legislation, as well as the regulatory efforts such as the EPA’s crackdown on harmful chemicals. However, tensions have arisen between activist groups and the administration.
The Justice40 initiative aims for 40 percent of the benefits from federal spending on clean energy and related initiatives to reach marginalized communities, but some members of the White House's environmental justice advisory council have criticized the administration for its vague definitions of benefits and are advocating for clearer commitments on spending levels.
Activist organizations have also expressed frustration when the White House opted not to directly include race as a criterion for resource allocation. While the administration cited concerns about potential legal challenges, advocates argue that race is fundamental to any environmental justice framework.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have sought to cut funding for Biden’s environmental justice endeavors.
“Part of the challenge of the next few years is going to be defending the progress that we made and ensuring that we are able to continue on that progress,” Irby concluded.
James del Carmen contributed to this report for TROIB News
