Biden floats expansion of climate platform

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Monday that he would expand his environmental platform amid calls from some environmental groups aligned with former primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). 

“I outlined a bold plan to lead a clean energy revolution and fight for environmental justice. But the best policy work is continuous, creative, and keeps reaching for greater ambition and impact. In the months ahead, expanding this plan will be one of my key objectives,” Biden said in a statement while accepting an endorsement from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Action Fund. 

“I have asked my campaign to commence a process to meaningfully engage with more voices from the climate movement — including environmental justice leaders and worker organizations, and collaborate on additional policies in areas ranging from environmental justice to new, concrete goals we can achieve within a decade, to more investments in a clean energy economy,” he added. 

His statement followed calls from some environmentalists for Biden to expand his climate platform following Sanders’s exit from the race. 

They have called for him to reach 100 percent clean energy sooner than his platform’s current 2050 deadline and commit to rejecting new permits for fossil fuel infrastructure such as pipelines, among other measures. 

LCV Action Fund’s senior vice president of government affairs, Tiernan Sittenfeld, praised Biden in the group’s endorsement of his presidential candidacy. 

“Biden will immediately put our country on track for a 100 percent clean energy economy with policies centered in justice and equity that restore America’s global climate leadership,” Sittenfeld said. 

Similarly, LCV Board Chairwoman Carol Browner, who led the Environmental Protection Agency in the Clinton administration, said in a statement that Biden “will work tirelessly starting on day one as president and every day to protect our environment and the health of our communities and to combat the climate crisis.”