WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden defended his record confronting climate change and earned the endorsement of major conservation groups as he sought to consolidate support for his 2024 reelection campaign at a gathering of climate activists Wednesday.
“Your work has never been more important than it is today,” Biden said at the annual dinner of the League of Conservation Voters in Washington. “Together, we’ve made a lot of progress so far, but we’ve got to finish the job.”
Before Biden’s remarks, the league and other top environmental groups – including the Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council’s Action Fund, and the NextGen political action committee – announced their backing of his candidacy. It marked the first time the four groups had ever jointly announced a presidential endorsement.
“There’s no support I’d rather have,” Biden said. “You know, many of you have been with me throughout my career and I can’t tell you how much it means.”
Yet some climate activists have expressed dismay over the White House’s willingness to expedite federal permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline in the debt-ceiling deal brokered late last month. The $6.6 billion pipeline would carry natural gas across West Virginia and is a pet project of Joe Manchin, the state’s influential Democratic senator, who is facing a potentially difficult reelection campaign of his own next year.
Other environmentalists have expressed their displeasure over Biden’s approval of a $8 billion drilling project that will allow ConocoPhillips to develop three well pads at the Willow site, part of a protected reserve in Alaska. One activist group – Climate Defiance – had said they planned to protest Biden’s speech on Wednesday night.
“It is an outrage that an environmental organization would honor the president days after he approved a pipeline. We cannot accept this. And we won’t,” the group said on Twitter, referring to the Mountain Valley protect.
Biden used his remarks to argue that despite those decisions, his administration had made historic progress on climate change. He cited the Inflation Reduction Act — which included $370 billion in subsidies and programs designed to flight global warming — as well as funding in his signature infrastructure law for public transit and a national electric vehicle charging network.
Earlier Wednesday, Biden issued the sixth veto of his presidency, of a bill that would have rolled back stronger vehicle emissions standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Separately, the Treasury Department announced new guidance allowing churches and nonprofit organizations to be able to take advantage of clean energy tax credits for buses.
“Imagine the choice — imagine seeing all this happen in the wildfires, storms, floods, and doing nothing about it,” Biden said. “Imagine taking away those clean energy jobs from working class folks all across the country. Imagine turning your back on all those moms and dads living in towns poisoned by pollution and telling them, ‘Sorry, you’re on your own.’ I was determined not to let that happen.”
The president’s reelection campaign said in a statement that the joint endorsement from the environmental groups was a “powerful recognition of President Biden’s historic climate agenda.”
The president, 80, has sought to solidify high profile endorsements for his reelection campaign in the weeks since formally entering the race, hoping outside groups can help counteract poll numbers that show lagging enthusiasm and concerns about his age.
Later this week, Biden is expected to receive the endorsement of the AFL-CIO labor federation during a rally with union members in Philadelphia.
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(With assistance from Ari Natter.)
