Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

As part of President Joe Biden's recent "Bidenomics" campaign push, aides from across the administration and close allies have been dispatched to events across the U.S. to try to convince people that the nation's strong economy is the result of the president's programs and policies.

The message sweeps in Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, a law that includes $369 billion in climate investments as a major step in the fight against climate change. But the emphasis has shifted to the number of jobs created by the projects, sidelining what the projects collectively mean for the push to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Take, for instance, a recent stop of the Bidenomics tour, where the president's top climate aide, Ali Zaidi, joined Maryland's Democratic governor, Wes Moore, at a row house near Carver Vocational-Technical High School. Students are renovating the house while learning green building techniques.

Zaidi told NPR that the green jobs programs are making a material difference in the lives of Americans.

"We see it here in Baltimore, where folks are getting enlisted to help retrofit our buildings — and they now have wind in their sails thanks to the president's climate agenda," Zaidi said.

Should Biden talk more about his climate successes?

When he took office, Biden named addressing climate change as one of his top four priorities, and his administration has focused on climate and environmental policies.

When Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law a year ago, he talked at length about how its clean energy investments would help the climate. Now, as his reelection campaign gears up, the bill's economic upsides have taken center stage in his remarks.

"This bill includes the biggest investment ever, not only in America but anywhere in the world, when dealing with climate change," Biden told a crowd of union workers in Philadelphia during the first big rally of his campaign. "And the investment isn't only going to help us save the planet. It's going to create jobs — lots of jobs, tens of thousands of good-paying union jobs."

Politically, a focus on the economy makes sense: Voters 

 as the issue that is most important to them and have expressed concern about Biden's handling of it.

the economic focus has left some voters in the dark about the considerable climate wins that the administration secured with the legislation. The Inflation Reduction Act is 

 to spur a 40% reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from a 2005 baseline by 2030.

Approval of Biden's performance on climate has waned

Since the bill was signed, approval for Biden's handling of climate change and the environment has declined. That's according to 

 by Data for Progress, which does work for Democratic candidates and causes.

The drop was most dramatic among voters under age 30.

Koray Gates, 21, is a student in Colorado Springs, Colo., who says climate change is one of his top issues. He said he is frustrated by some of the decisions made during Biden's time in office.

"[Biden] does things like, you know, allowing drilling in the Arctic again. And so," Gates said, "it kind of undermines my faith a little bit."

In March, Biden approved a large drilling project, known as Willow, on federal land in Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle, provoking intense backlash from environmental groups and young, climate-motivated voters.

"President Biden is by far the best climate president we've had, but he's also broken some key climate promises," said Ed Maibach, who 

 at George Mason University. "Those broken promises have been a profound disappointment to some of his voters, especially young voters."

Meanwhile, most Democratic voters have still not heard much about Biden's signature climate law, according to 

"I don't think the president has spent enough time or effort convincing Americans what a big deal the [Inflation Reduction Act] is," Maibach said. "To quote 

 'What we've got here is a failure to communicate.'"

The White House says these messages take time

When Zaidi, Biden's climate adviser, was asked whether he was concerned about young voters' frustration or the lack of awareness about the Inflation Reduction Act, he said he thought the situation would improve with time.

"I think that young people — thanks to the administration's work, thanks to the president's leadership — are going to be able to get onto a school bus that doesn't pollute. They are going to see the Postal Service fleet — that touches every home and every street in every part of the county — go fully electric," Zaidi told NPR.

"The president could not feel more urgently the need to move forward, and he has done just that," Zaidi said.

Meanwhile, young voters concerned about climate change seem unlikely to shift their support away from Biden and his party, given that Republicans have said they want to scale back Biden's climate initiatives and support increased domestic fossil fuel production.

Gates, the 21-year-old student, said that despite his frustrations with Biden, he can't imagine voting for a Republican challenger in the 2024 election — and doesn't think he or his friends would opt to sit the election out.

"It's really important to vote, even if the person who you're voting for is not perfect," Gates said, "even if not everything is as you would want it." 

Business and Economic News

Politics and Government News

Environmental News

Climate

Homepage

Eric McDaniel

Author

President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act invests $369 billion to address the climate crisis. But as the president focuses on the law's economic benefits, is his climate win getting lost?

Biden frames his clean energy plan as a jobs plan, obscuring his record on climate

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox