This Is Why There Was So Little Mention Of The Climate Crisis At The DNC

Minnesota Gov. Walz's Environmental Record Has Been Greenwashed

(Caption: Source: US EIA)

My assumption was that the Democrats spent so little time talking about the climate crisis in Chicago last week was because of Biden's record. After promising to stop oil and gas extraction on federal lands, according to the US Energy Information Administration, he has set records for production (and exports) of oil and gas.

Of course, another reason is that Democrats continue to accept major donations from corporate oil and gas.

Not a good look to focus on all that.

But I think there were other and perhaps more important reasons. Let me explain.

The entire convention was all about changing the narrative - and a big part of that was portraying VP nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as a progressive, in the midwestern populist tradition. A man of the people, not the corporations.

The targeted groups were younger voters and people of color, who had begun to abandon President Biden. Gov. Walz and Kamala Harris were committed to diversity and social justice.

One would think that an emphasis on the climate crisis and, in particular, environmental justice would be a perfect fit for both that new narrative, the new candidates, and the targeted demographics.

The Harris/Walz ticket could safely distance themselves from the Biden pro-fossil record.

But that didn't happen, and I think I know why.

I just read an article on Gov. Walz' environmental record in Minnesota, see:

• The Whitewashing and Greenwashing of Gov. Tim Walz

There is no way the Democrats could talk about the climate crisis because it would have invited scrutiny of not only Biden’s record, but of Gov. Walz’s, particularly with respect to “Line 3”:

For our own part, we are scientists who frequently came up against the Walz administration as we worked to join the broad and Indigenous-led movement to stop “Line 3”, an enormous tar sands oil pipeline owned by the fossil fuel giant Enbridge that now runs through 300 miles of sensitive northern ecosystems and sovereign treaty territories of Indigenous people in Minnesota. Tar sands oil is some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet; greenhouse gas emissions from the oil running through Line 3 is equivalent to that of 50 coal plants annually, more than the entire state of Minnesota emits alone.

No way that Gov. Walz could be portrayed as a prairie populist when he installed corporate executives and Republicans in critical regulatory posts - the “Best” regulation money could “Buy”:

Once elected, Governor Walz appointed the Commissioners of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commissions (PUC), agencies that played pivotal roles in regulatory decisions that led to pipeline approval. Several of these commissioners had corporate or pro-industry backgrounds. For example, Walz’s appointment to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the primary environmental regulatory agency in the state, was former Best Buy CEO and major Democratic party donor Laura Bishop. All three state agencies went on to issue permits for Enbridge to allow for the construction of Line 3. 

No way the Kamala could talk about environmental justice when members of Gov. Walz’s environmental justice commission resigned in protest for his approval of an oil pipeline across sovereign tribal lands:

In protest, a supermajority of the MPCA’s recently formed Environmental Justice Committee – citizens tasked with advising the agency on environmental justice policies and outcomes – resigned, citing their refusal to “legitimize and provide cover for the MPCA’s war on black and brown people.”

So, it was not only Biden’s poor record on climate that kept the climate crisis off the stage in Chicago.

Because to have done so would have destroyed the new narrative they were crafting, when Gov. Walz’s actual climate and justice record was probed.