Marc Morano
White House climate office on fire as actions stall – ‘The fall of Biden’s legislative agenda’
The office led by the head of domestic climate policy Gina McCarthy has made progress on many fronts, nine Democrats inside and outside the administration told POLITICO – alleging that it regularly sets the balances against each other. political considerations and relations with Congress before wiping the nation off fossil fuels. Democrats say the office’s micromanagement of other government agencies has undermined the Interior Department’s efforts to rein in oil and gas leases on federal lands, suspending delayed implementation of federal ethanol policies and slowed White House efforts to tackle pollution in minority and low-income communities. , including current or former Biden congressional and administration officials. … “There is a general feeling that some of this has been slow or unsuccessful,” said a Democrat in Congress whose office serves on committees that oversee climate policy. rules and executive actions taken by the government.
White House climate office catches fire as actions stall
BY ZACK COLMAN | 03/06/2022 05:01 AM EDT
The collapse of President Joe Biden’s legislative program is drawing new scrutiny to the White House’s effort to deal with global warming – and Democrats’ complaints that the Office His own Climate Policy is getting in the way.
The office led by the head of domestic climate policy Gina McCarthy has made progress on many fronts, nine Democrats inside and outside the administration told POLITICO – alleging that it regularly places considerations politics and relations with Congress before the nation stopped using fossil fuels.
Democrats say the office’s micromanagement of other government agencies has undermined the Interior Department’s efforts to rein in oil and gas leases on federal lands, suspending delayed implementation of federal ethanol policies and slowed White House efforts to tackle pollution in minority and low-income communities. , including current or former Biden congressional and administration officials. They are allowed to remain anonymous to discuss politically sensitive issues.
In some cases, they said, McCarthy’s office appeared to be avoiding court battles or potentially disrupting negotiations with lawmakers like Senator Joe Manchin (DW.Va). .). And that prevents regulators like the Environmental Protection Agency from doing their job, critics say.
“Instead of letting them do the work of writing rules, proposing and publishing them, [the climate office] at their discretion will pull everything back and question and delay,” an administration official said.
The criticism comes at a delicate time for Biden, who took office calling climate change one of the “four crises” facing the United States, and who promised to get everyone involved in raising the issue. feed the grid with renewable energy and produce millions of electric vehicles while cleaning up heavily polluted areas. Now, soaring gas prices and Russia’s war in Ukraine have forced the White House to work to boost fossil fuel supplies at home and in Europe. Meanwhile, recent news reports indicate that McCarthy may be about to step down.
The White House countered that it has made significant climate achievements, many of which are reflected in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package Biden signed last year. The act – drafted with the help of the office – approved tens of billions of dollars to deploy technology to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gases from industry, install electric vehicle charging stations and harden the grid. electricity to combat the effects of climate change.
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But detractors say Biden’s agenda has been marred by Democratic obstructionism in Congress, where Manchin’s opposition has ruined efforts to pass more than $500 billion in spending on climate last year. They say the climate office’s modest and seemingly lackluster achievements are failing to fill the void – thereby risking denting progressive voters’ enthusiasm for the US presidency. Biden.
“Some of these things have been slow or unsuccessful,” said a Democrat in Congress whose office serves on committees that oversee climate policy.
Biden founded the Office of Climate Policy last year to work on his goal of bringing the country to net zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To top it all, he recruited McCarthy, a veteran administrator who led the creation of key climate rules. as Obama’s EPA chief.
McCarthy is one of two climate appointees Biden has included in his administration – along with John Kerry, a former US senator and secretary of state who serves as his climate envoy. She sits next to White House senior adviser Neera Tanden in the West Wing, and is closely related to Chief of Staff Ron Klain and his deputy, Bruce Reed, CEO of the Clean Electric Association of America Heather Zichal, who served as an Obama-era climate adviser. The White House.
Her supporters say her office has taken many actions that would have failed without its own pressure, such as working to ensure that federal agencies keep climate change in place. at the forefront of their rule-making process. They say the White House office is drawing heat because its actions have been overshadowed by the failure of Democrats in Congress to change their climate laws.
“There was a huge focus on legislation in the first two years — so try and get one thing done,” said Christy Goldfuss, who ran the White House Council on Environmental Quality under Obama. what. But since midterms are approaching, she said, “that window is about to close. After that, the administrative program became extremely important. ”
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Others on the left wing of the environmental movement have called for the dismantling of the Office of Climate Policy, seeing its existence as more of an obstacle than an engine of climate action. They have said that they want to let the agencies and their specialists do the work.
“Given that distinction, the program often sues the federal government over policy decisions,” said Jean Su, director of energy justice and senior attorney at the Center for Biodiversity, an environmental group that often sues the federal government over policy decisions. The climate agenda under Biden has been thwarted. (Su is not one of nine Democratic officials who voiced their displeasure with the office.)
Much of the office’s criticism from Democrats on and off Capitol Hill has focused on the period before December when Manchin pinned its hopes on overcoming Build Back Better, which has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on credits. electric vehicle tax and clean energy.
During that run, for instance, the climate office edited the Interior Department’s review of oil and gas leases on federal land and decided to quietly announce it the day after Thanksgiving, a Democratic staff member said. The review, which called for restarting oil and gas sales, largely ignored the impact that increased fossil fuel extraction would have on climate change – despite Biden’s promises. would end oil and gas production on federal land.
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In December, the agencies sent the White House Office of Management and Budget data and methodology to determine what constitutes a “benefit” for Justice40, but have yet to finalize that definition. And while the Biden administration last week tallied up how much it had pledged to the effort, a separate administration official said “progress has been frustrating and slow.”
“While we wait, the White House hopes the Black and brown communities will be grateful for the debris on the dinner table,” the official said.
In an email, a spokesman for the White House dismissed all complaints about the office’s operations as untrue. And supporters of the office say it is an effective public messenger for Biden’s agenda and liaison with industrialists and environmentalists.
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“We need steroid solutions,” said Jane Lubchenco, deputy director for climate and environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “The CPO is trying to provide the kind of coordination that makes that happen.”
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