Some Democratic senators threaten to hinder President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees if he is not aggressive enough against climate change, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.) told Axios.
Why it mattersWhitehouse is a climate change leader in his party, but he’s also shown he’s a two-tier deal maker when he wants to. So what he says suggests wider support among other Democrats.
What they say:
“I think there are quite a few senators who strongly believe that we missed tremendous opportunities in the Obama administration, that the Trump administration was a wasteland in which we were declining and that the urgency of the moment is incredibly compelling and that we just won. Don’t tolerate a casual, tacky approach to dealing with this vital problem. ”
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, in a recent Axios interview
In a statement to Axios, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Hit a similar note. “Part of what drove President-elect Biden to his resounding victory was his commitment to tackling the climate crisis head-on, and I will strongly encourage the upcoming government to deliver on that promise in every way possible.”
Driving the newsWhitehouse said he is calling on the upcoming Biden administration to let the Justice Department investigate organizations that have funded fossil fuel companies in the past that may continue to promote “climate denial and climate obstruction and political ownership of the Republican Party.”
- An example Whitehouse cites is the Heartland Institute, an organization known for spreading false information about climate change.
- The institute’s chairman, James Taylor, dismissed the threat, saying the group “welcomes a free and fair discussion on climate change” in an email to Axios.
- Whitehouse noted that he shared his question with John Kerry, Biden’s new international climate envoy, and “I’m getting good feedback,” Whitehouse told me. “We’ll see when they actually come in and when they actually start to rule.”
The intrigue: So what happens if Biden doesn’t move as aggressively as Whitehouse and others want? “We have a lot of officials who need to be confirmed by the Senate,” Whitehouse said.
- It is less common, but not unprecedented, for senators from the same party as the president to hold back cabinet nominees due to disagreements on policy or even specific parish issues.
For the recordIn a statement to Axios, Jamal Brown, a spokesman for Biden’s transition team, reiterated Biden’s plans to pursue an aggressive climate agenda. He did not respond to Whitehouse’s comment about the withdrawal of nominees or the investigation of specific organizations.
- Biden said in 2019 that he would try to hold companies accountable if they knew and misled the public about climate change, a related issue that Whitehouse is pushing for.
- Whitehouse supports lawsuits on that matter, but his focus for now at the federal level is organizations like Heartland.
Go deeper: Why Biden and Democrats went big on climate change