AOC on climate voters: "I'm looking forward to pushing for more"
AOC in 2022. Photo: Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is among the members on Democrats’ left flank fretting that President Biden’s support of some oil and gas development will hurt him with younger voters.
Why it matters: Biden will seek to convince young people he’s a climate champion despite pushing a new pipeline, helping an Alaskan oil project, and taking other actions that strike activists as a little too fossil-friendly.
- The Biden camp and its defenders insist the president’s achievements, including the biggest climate law in history, is a sterling record compared to a GOP that is routinely targeting low-carbon investments.
Driving the news: Ocasio-Cortez, heralded by climate activists for her work on a Green New Deal, chatted with Axios last week about Biden’s energy policy and younger voters. Here’s an abridged version of the conversation:
Are you worried at all about any enthusiasm gap from younger voters who see approvals of new fossil fuel projects?
Absolutely. I think there's a really strong correlation with the decision on the Willow [Alaska oil] project that we're seeing in terms of the enthusiasm, for sure.
What are you doing to make folks more aware at the political establishment level about that potential enthusiasm gap?
Well, I feel like we’ve been pretty vocal about discussing that with the Biden administration, and vocal about that in general. Building a winning coalition, it’s about seeing those constituencies and acting for them.
We would not expect support from seniors if we didn’t fight for Medicare, Social Security and more. Just as we wouldn’t expect support from them without acting for them, I think for young people those issues largely [revolve] around things like climate and student loan forgiveness.
If we cannot act for a constituency, we cannot expect or feel entitled to animating excitement from those constituencies, which is why I think we’ve been working very hard to try and turn that ship around.
I’m very encouraged by the leadership of Michael Regan at the EPA, but I’m looking forward to pushing for more.
What do you think the solution is? What is the ‘more’ that would help alleviate this potential issue?
We do that through policy. We do that through full action. There’s been some encouraging movement at the EPA, but I think we need something much bigger in terms of tangible products that we can show people. And listen, the Inflation Reduction Act was a major piece of climate legislation, but I think we need to translate that into the actual visuals and tangible projects that it’s turning into.
The other side: Another climate champion who is fully confident in Biden’s bona fides is Senate Budget Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse.
- Whitehouse told Axios after he learned a pipeline would be in the recent debt deal: “I think at the end of the day, we’ll be able to show a Biden record of emissions reduction and strong new policies that provide a lot of encouragement to climate voters.”
What they're saying: Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Biden re-election campaign, told Axios in an email that “the extremist MAGA [R]epublicans running for president would set our country’s fight against the climate crisis back decades.”
- “Bottom line: Re-electing President Biden and Vice President Harris means cutting through the division in Washington to advance federal action to fight the climate crisis, create even more clean energy jobs and lead the world toward a more sustainable future.”
Read more: Axios Generate’s Andrew Freedman took a wider look at whether Biden could have problems with climate voters.
