Ditching The Green

Whatever happened to climate change?

After casting the tiebreaking vote for the biggest climate bill in U.S. history, Vice President Kamala Harris would seem to have some environmental bragging rights. Yet Harris and other top Democrats have not highlighted climate change or the environment in recent stump speeches, including keynote remarks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week. Former president Donald Trump, by contrast, has continued to attack Harris for her alleged “war on American energy,” and several speakers at last month’s Republican National Convention lambasted gasoline prices under President Joe Biden. The split-screen approach suggests that Democrats see talking about the environment as a lose-lose proposition. If they call for curbing fossil fuel production to fight global warming, they risk alienating voters in Pennsylvania, a pivotal swing state where natural gas powers the economy. But if they tout record U.S. oil production that has helped lower energy costs, they risk angering young voters, a crucial constituency for Democrats. There is no doubt that climate change has fueled extreme weather this summer, bringing longer and more extreme heat waves to wide swaths of the country. But with most voters ranking other issues as more important, and with Democrats wanting to paint a rosy picture of the future, party leaders appear to have calculated that climate silence is the safest strategy.

The silence is deafening...