Biden’s State of the Union missed on climate — but was that on purpose?
The president had one listener top of mind.
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It’s Friday, which means we’re giving you a three-minute take on a big climate story from the week. This morning, that story takes us to Capitol Hill.
For much of President Joe Biden’s first year in office, climate has been center stage. But that wasn’t the case this week.
Addressing Congress in his first State of the Union speech, Biden mentioned the “climate crisis” once and only briefly referenced his climate record, which has been historic (if unfinished).
Instead, Biden largely danced around climate change: The president spent most of the 62 minutes coalescing around a theme of unity, attacking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, emphasizing economic growth, and touting his domestic agenda.
Though this “climate light” approach was frustrating for many environmentalists, there is also a certain genius to the speech — if it works.
Previously, Biden has leaned into executive orders on climate (many of which, by the way, could be at risk in a Supreme Court with a conservative majority). Now, there’s a growing consensus that Biden needs his landmark Build Back Better bill, which contains $550 billion in climate provisions, to meet his climate targets.
And there’s only one vote standing between him and that goal: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).
Appealing directly to the West Virginia senator Tuesday night, Biden mentioned “inflation” six times (Manchin has repeatedly brought up inflation to justify his Build Back Better blockade). Biden also wove into his speech pieces of the landmark climate legislation, without explicitly mentioning climate — something that may resonate with a man who represents a bleeding red state.
When Biden did talk climate, it wasn’t to drive transformational change or urgency around a rapidly worsening crisis — as he has done before. Instead, it was to ground environmental action into tangible benefits for working-class America:
“Let’s provide investments and tax credits to weatherize your homes and businesses to be energy efficient and you get a tax credit; double America’s clean energy production in solar, wind, and so much more; lower the price of electric vehicles, saving you another $80 a month because you’ll never have to pay at the gas pump again.”
But Biden also missed a key opportunity here: Finding unity in a crisis that touches us all. The president could have discussed climate when he presented his four-point "Unity Agenda" — a list of “four big things we can do together” that included beating the opioid epidemic, taking on mental health, supporting veterans, and ending cancer.
He also could have linked the unfolding crisis in Europe to the need to accelerate investments in clean energy. Instead, Biden fell back on a popular talking point for Democrats and Republicans alike: gas prices.
“The United States has worked with 30 other countries to release 60 million barrels of oil from reserves around the world. America will lead that effort, releasing 30 million barrels from our own Strategic Petroleum Reserve… These steps will help blunt gas prices here at home.”
In a week when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released yet another terrifying report, labeled “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” you’d think there’d be a little more urgency.
But sounding the alarm on climate is only one way to spark change. On Tuesday night, Biden showed there are subtler ways to move the needle on climate action.
Whether that strategy pays off, like Build Back Better, is still up in the air.