A Harris Presidency to Protect the Future

As the first woman, the first Black person, and the first South Asian person in her role, Vice President Kamala Harris has already changed what’s possible. Representation and lived experience is powerful and essential. In the face of an escalating climate crisis that disproportionately affects women and communities of color globally, a Harris Presidency is exactly what is needed in the few years we have left to protect our future.

Harris’ decades-long track record shows her commitment and vision for holding corporate polluters accountable and protecting communities from worsening pollution, extreme heat, drought, flood, and catastrophic fires. As far back as 2005, Harris created the San Francisco District Attorney office’s first environmental justice unit. As California Attorney General, she stood up for communities, taking on corporate polluters like Chevron and BP, opposing Chevron’s refinery expansion in the majority Black and Latino city of Richmond, and suing Southern California Gas Company over Aliso Canyon –- the largest natural gas leak in U.S. history.

As U.S. Senator, she pushed forward legislation for clean school buses, which was ultimately turned into law through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Her Climate Equity Act, to require the government to consider the impact of any environmental legislation or regulation on low-income communities, also became a model for the equity investments made by the IRA that she cast the deciding vote on as Vice President. Under her watch, the Biden-Harris administration established its historic Justice40 commitment to ensure that 40 percent of federal funds towards clean energy, clean water, and other climate investments reached underserved communities, and added five new monuments.

The reality is that we have the solutions to solve the climate crisis – clean energy, electrification, resilience – what we’ve been missing is the political leadership to implement these solutions at the rate and scale that science tells us we have to. But the Biden-Harris Administration created new global benchmarks on climate action by securing the most significant investments in clean energy ever and protecting the most land ever. 

The next administration will have to take decisive and comprehensive action to prevent the worst of the climate crisis, starting with a comprehensive, climate friendly Farm Bill with investments in renewable agriculture, water conservation, and the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP). Significant funding in clean energy and electrification will transition us to a green economy, all while creating family-sustaining, union jobs, and there’s still another decade of IRA allocation and implementation to go. Hundreds of billions of dollars must go into climate investments in an equitable way, with communities that have historically not had access to these funds at the center. If we’re going to meet our 30×30 goals, our next president will have to prioritize the protection and expansion of national monuments to safeguard biodiversity. We’ll also need our government to enact a series of laws that ensure strict enforcement of our clean air regulations, which have been weakened by the overturning of the Chevron doctrine.

All our progress, on the state level and federally, is in jeopardy if we do not fortify and protect the essential checks and balances of our government. In order to protect communities now and in the future, the next Administration will have to ensure the Supreme Court is not driven by individuals who prioritize a right-wing agenda and corporate polluters. We can protect our democratic achievements and keep moving toward a more just and equitable society, but we’ll need to expand the Court and enforce a code of ethics to preserve the fairness of our judicial system. 

Electing Vice President Kamala Harris as President will change our future, and we can’t take this monumental opportunity for granted. Every vote truly does matter, and we are voting for transformative, first-ever representation. What we do this November will determine the future for generations to come. Let’s not waste this chance.