The Lesser of Two Evils: Trump and Harris’ Climate Change Policy, Strategy, and Rhetoric
Sally Hayes ’25
Christine Wu ’25
Rhetoric and Climate Stance
Just weeks before the 2024 Presidential Election, the United States was struck with two devastating hurricanes. These extreme weather events remind us that the climate vote is highly pertinent to our Nation's future security, safety, and economy. Do either candidate’s proposed policies appropriately address and care for environmental protection and global warming?
Trump is a forthcoming climate change denier. When he isn’t calling climate change “lunacy,” he can be caught offering nonsensical anecdotes about projected climate emergencies: recently, Trump claimed that sea level rise would create “more oceanfront property” (Brangham & Khan, 2024). Trump uses his anti-environmental protection antics to demonstrate his allegiance to the domestic Oil and Gas companies and draw attention to his proposed economic policy.
Harris’ environment rhetoric interlaces non-committal statements, climate buzzwords, and promises to improve the economy. Although Harris addresses the “existential threat” of climate change, she has failed to provide concrete climate policy goals (McDaniel, 2024). She uses the phrase “Green Energy Economy” but seemingly lacks genuine care for this energy transition's climate and social justice impacts (Brangham & Khan, 2024). Harris generally uses the topic of climate change to leverage her economic policy, a savvy strategy she used to appeal to financially strained American voters. Still, it is also one that reveals her non-prioritization of issues of climate change.
Economic Factors
Trump needed funding and support for his campaign, so he wined and dined with Oil and Gas executives at his Palm Beach golf club, Maralago. He controversially agreed to roll back climate restrictions imposed by the Biden-Harris administration in return for 1 billion dollars of funding for his Presidential campaign (Friedman et al., 2024). This only begins Trump’s economic planning, which will negatively disrupt the current climate progress. To boost the American economy, Trump plans to “drill baby drill” (Friedman et al., 2024).
Harris leverages the Clean Energy Transition plan to create new jobs in the clean energy sector. This plan continues Biden’s Climate Corps, where he developed a program to train U.S. citizens for employment in the green energy sector (Cunningham, 2024). Although Harris has not concretely planned to instate any new programs, her support of the current environmental protection standards and investments makes her the favorable climate vote compared to Trump.
The Threat of Project 2025 on a Trump Administration
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plans to majorly reduce the Environmental Protection Agency’s power, believing that the EPA’s strict top-down regulatory standards harm U.S. production and the economy (Project 2025, 2024). Similarly, they plan to roll back air pollution standards to levy the oil and gas industry again (Project 2025, 2024). Even if this economic plan benefits the American people in the short term, the contributions to global warming and low-quality environmental conditions will increase costs in the long term. Although Project 2025 is not associated with Donald Trump, his administration is deeply interconnected with the Project and its plans. Further, Trump's climate policy is similar to the plans provided in Project 2025. So, any threat to the environment presented by the Project 2025 planning can be associated with the potential climate risks of Trump’s leadership.
Which Candidate is the Best for Earth in 2024?
On the standard of which presidential candidate will do more to protect the climate in their coming presidency, Kamala Harris won. Her administration would likely not do much to improve the current climate policy. She is expected to make many concessions regarding fossil fuels, oil, and gas; however, she has not planned to weaken environmental regulations or increase oil drilling. Given this, her climate policy will do more to protect our environment than Trump’s policy would.
References
Brangham, W., & Khan, S. (2024, October 18). Where Harris and Trump stand on climate change policies. PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/where-harris-and-trump-stand-on-climate-change-policies
Cunningham, M. (2024, September 3). Harris has yet to outline her plan for climate change. Here’s what the Democratic Party
platform says. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democratic-party-platform-climate-environment/
Friedman, L., Davenport, C., Swan, J., & Haberman, M. (2024, May 9). At a dinner, Trump assailed climate rules and asked $1
billion from Big oil. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/climate/trump-oil-gas-mar-a-lago.html
McDaniel, V. M. a. C. J. (2024, September 10). Kamala Harris’s climate policies, explained. Washington Post.
Project 2025. (2024, July 8). Policy | Project 2025. Project 2025 | Presidential Transition Project.
https://www.project2025.org/policy/
