"Despite facing some hesitancy among green groups in her home state, the vice president has embraced the cause since her time as San Francisco district attorney."
"Vice President Kamala Harris has spent more than a decade advocating for Black, Hispanic and impoverished communities struggling with pollution — an insurgent segment of the environmental movement that never entirely warmed up to President Joe Biden.
Now her allies hope her long-running work on the issue can mobilize a pocket of grassroots enthusiasm among Democrats and independents that might’ve otherwise sat out the election. But it has also drawn years of blowback from Republicans, including misleading claims that she has supported racial preferences that would harm white Americans.
That theme could assume a larger role in an election where the GOP has struggled to find a consistent, but non-offensive, line of attack against the nation’s first Black, South Asian and female vice president. The intersection of green policy and social justice also offers clues to how a Harris administration may differ from Biden’s — and is one arena where she has a longer track record than her boss.
Biden has weighed how race, poverty and a lack of political power have left some communities disproportionately exposed to pollution, an approach referred to as environmental justice. That history has guided many of his policies, and last year, he created a White House office devoted to the issue."
Thomas Frank, Zack Colman, Annie Snider and Alex Guillén report for Politico August 11, 2024.
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