This Democratic Senator Says Biden’s Climate Efforts Are Falling Short — And Young Voters Are Noticing

One of Congress' fiercest Democratic climate hawks has a warning for President Joe Biden: His efforts to move the country off fossil fuels are "insufficient" to win over young voters who want stronger action on climate change.

In an interview with POLITICO's Energy podcast, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon said Biden has taken an "all-of-the-above" approach to energy that's cleared the way for new oil and gas projects on federal land — not, as climate activists have urged, a commitment to keep those fuels in the ground.

That's locking in new greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come, Merkley said, and prompting young activists to question the president's commitment to the cause if he's reelected. Surveys show younger voters expressing disillusionment with Biden’s presidency, including one Harvard poll that found that only 39 percent said they trust his handling of climate change.

“There's a lot of concern still because the question might be, ‘Hey, what will the second administration look like?’” Merkley said. “Will it be an administration that takes climate change much more seriously now than these last few years? The arc of the curve is totally insufficient to meet the challenge.”

Biden's Inflation Reduction Act includes the most aggressive climate measures in history, with hundreds of billions of dollars in incentives for clean energy. He has pledged to cut the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

But his administration has also greenlit new fossil fuel projects, and the United States is now producing record amounts of oil and gas — much of which is shipped to customers around the globe. In a report this week, the Energy Department said the U.S. produced more oil in 2023 than any nation has ever produced in a single year.

Merkley was among the first members of Congress to urge Biden to reevaluate how the federal government determines whether U.S. natural gas exports — also the world's largest — are in the public interest. That came two months before the White House announced it would pause issuing new permits for gas exports while it studies how the gas shipments affect the climate and the economy.

The pause has brought objections from the fossil fuel industry and congressional Republicans and has unnerved allies in Europe that rely on American gas as a bulwark against Russia.

But that reassessment is not enough, Merkley said. The young voters who may be crucial to Biden’s reelection chances aren’t satisfied with the pause because of “a whole host of other pro-fossil decisions” he has made during his first term, including approving the massive Willow oil project in Alaska and supporting the Mountain Valley gas pipeline in West Virginia, a project championed by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

Merkley told POLITICO he raised the issue in a meeting with Biden’s then-climate envoy John Kerry before the administration announced the pause. He also met with administration officials at the White House ahead of its decision.

Biden's decision to pause exports has split Democrats, with senators like John Fetterman from Pennsylvania, a key swing state,warning the move could damage its status as the second biggest natural gas producer.

Like other natural gas supporters, Fetterman pointed to the fact that the fuel produces far fewer greenhouse gases than other sources like coal — even if burning it still contributes to warming the Earth.

“The situation is very much different in Oregon than Pennsylvania," Fetterman said. "I would say to the most progressive green energy proponent: Natural gas has to be part of our energy stack in how we transition towards a greener renewable energy future. That’s something we can do at the same time."

But others have defended the pause, including Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, who called it a “very important step” for assessing the climate implications. And while she was sympathetic to the climate advocates seeking more aggressive action, they shouldn’t turn away from Biden.

“Come November they are going to be choosing between two individuals — Joe Biden and Trump, who is dramatically worse when it comes to making any progress at all on climate," she said.

Merkley has taken on gas exports before. He helped wage a battle against the proposed Jordan Cove natural gas export terminal in southwest Oregon, leading to the developer canceling the project in late 2021. That project would have added to the nation’s capacity for exporting gas to China.

In the interview, Merkley argued that no scenario exists in which approving a natural gas project would help fight climate change, even if it would replace coal in a developing country.

“It's clearly worse than local coal," said Merkley. “So there is no scenario in which shipping [gas] to India is advantageous for the climate.”

Natural gas, which is primarily composed of methane, emits about half as much carbon as coal when burned, and switching to gas from coal during the past decade is the main reason U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have fallen dramatically in recent decades.

But exporting it can sharply reduce that benefit. Studies have shown a wide range of potential emissions from gas exports, depending on the methane leaks in the pipelines and processing equipment, the amount of energy used to cool the gas into liquid form, and the fuel used by the huge tankers that transport it.

Merkley said approving more natural gas projects threatens to lock in decades of new fossil fuel use and would damage U.S. credibility as a climate leader on the world stage.

“No other country listens to us in a serious way right now,” Merkley said.

And he warned the U.S. is already off track to meet the Biden administration’s goal of securing a 100 percent carbon-free power grid by 2035 and reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“Those goals are easy to set because they're into the distance. They're mirages on the horizon…we are not even close to a path to reach the 2035 goal,” Merkley said.

U.S. natural gas exports have surged in the past seven years as the fracking boom propelled production of the fuel to record levels. Companies are now shipping natural gas in tankers carrying more than 12 percent of that annual U.S. output abroad — a figure that is expected to at least double in the next few years as gas export plants that have already received permits come online.

Merkley said those planned projects are more than sufficient to meet the needs of Europe, which has increased its imports from the U.S. after shunning gas from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

“Europe is trying to now decrease their fossil gas footprint. So they are not looking to us to have more fossil gas coming from the U.S. in the future,” Merkley said.

The full episode of POLITICO Energy is available on platforms including Apple and Spotify.