This is one in a series of reports from States Newsroom on the key policy issues in the presidential campaign.
Climate change, highlighted in Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign as one of the country’s biggest crises, has received much less attention in the 2024 presidential race.
The candidates, Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, share the twin goals of reducing energy costs and increasing jobs in the sector in the U.S., but diverge widely in their plans to achieve that goal .
During the election campaign, each spent relatively little time detailing their own plans, instead criticizing the other as extreme.
Harris supports expanding renewable energy that provides electricity without the carbon emissions that are the main driver of climate change.
She touted her decisive vote in the U.S. Senate for passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping domestic legislation that Democrats pushed through along party lines and that provides hundreds of millions in tax credits for tidy energy.
Trump supports fossil fuel production and blames renewable energy policies for rising energy prices. He called for lifting bans on the exploration of fresh oil and gas wells to boost the supply of economical fuel and reduce costs.
Promise: Promote fossil fuels
Both candidates promise to reduce energy costs.
For Trump, that meant criticizing the Biden-Harris administration for promoting renewable energy production.
Inflation was caused by “stupid spending on the Green New Deal, which turned out to be a Green New scam,” Trump said at a Sept. 26 news conference. “Have you noticed that they never say anything about the environment anymore? What happened to the environment?”
The former president said at a campaign stop on September 25 that he would “cut your energy (costs) in half” by reducing regulations and cutting taxes.
He has not presented a detailed plan to achieve this goal.
Trump’s argument implies that the Biden administration’s focus on renewable energy has hampered oil and gas production, circumscribed supply and driven up prices.
But Harris has outlined her support for renewable energy as part of a broader portfolio that also includes fossil fuels.
Harris highlighted that the Inflation Reduction Act opens fresh leases for oil and gas production while providing incentives for wind and solar energy.
“I’m proud that as vice president we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy over the last four years while increasing domestic gas production to historic levels,” she said at an ABC News debate on Sept. 10 Trump.
A report This month, the US Energy Information Administration showed that US fossil fuel production reached an all-time high in 2023.
Promise: Promote renewable energies
Harris also pointed to provisions in the IRA that provide consumers with tax benefits for green technologies such as home heat pumps to reduce costs.
“Thanks to the Home Energy Technology Tax Credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, more than 3.4 million American families saved $8.4 billion in 2023,” her campaign’s 82-page economic plan says.
Trump also says he supports some climate-conscious technologies, including megadonor Elon Musk’s Tesla electric vehicle brand, but that Democrats have invested too much in non-fossil fuels.
He has called elements of the Inflation Reduction Act “freebies” and described spending on electric vehicle charging infrastructure as wasteful.
Promise: Restore jobs
Biden has long spoken about how a shift away from fossil fuels should benefit U.S. workers and put them at the forefront of a growing industry.
Harris similarly framed the issue in economic terms, saying the Inflation Reduction Act and other climate policies had created jobs.
“While I was vice president, we created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs,” she said at the Sept. 10 debate. “We have invested in clean energy to the point where we are opening factories around the world.”
At a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this month, Harris said Trump’s focus on fossil fuels would hinder job growth and said he would “send thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs overseas.”
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said Democrats’ focus on renewable energy sources has circumscribed existing energy jobs.
“We have great energy workers in Ohio and across the country,” Vance said at an August campaign stop in his home state. “They want to earn a livable wage and grow the American economy. Why don’t we have a president who will allow them to do just that?
“Unleash American energy,” he said. “Drill, baby, drill and let’s turn this madness on its head.”
Promise: Repeal the Democrats’ climate law
Trump was harsh on the Democrats’ climate bill, blaming its spending for rising inflation.
“To further combat inflation, I will end the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam. “Probably the biggest fraud in history,” he said in a Sept. 5 speech to the Economic Club of New York.
He said that as president he would redirect any unspent funds within the law.
Trump has tried to distance himself from the political blueprint Project 2025written by the Heritage Institute.
But there is some overlap between what the conservative think tank laid out and what Trump says he plans to do in a second term in the White House.
Project 2025 calls for the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act, calling it subsidizing special interests.
Harris often mentions her decisive vote for the law and has described her plans as president to expand the law’s goals.
Harris’ policy plan said she “proudly” cast the tie-breaking vote for the climate bill and that as president she would “continue to invest in a thriving clean energy economy.”
She added that she wants to improve that spending by reducing regulations “so that clean energy projects can be completed quickly and efficiently in a way that protects our environment and public health.”
