Other Democrats, including Rep. Parag Khanna and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, have proposed a tax on the “windfall profits” of energy com...
Other Democrats, including Rep. Parag Khanna and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, have proposed a tax on the “windfall profits” of energy companies. According to Garin’s poll, the idea is popular even with Republicans, 73% of whom said they support it.
Asked about the concept, a White House official was evasive, but said, “We’re not going to sit on our haunches and do nothing.”
The hunt for climate voters
Environmental groups have become increasingly sophisticated in the way they engage in politics in recent years, constantly refining their strategies while lobbying Washington.
There’s the inside game on Capitol Hill — pushing lawmakers to act on their priorities. This is a difficult question for the environmental movement. By one estimate, various groups spent over $2 billion on lobbying on climate-related issues between 2000 and 2016, with the energy industry in the lead. At the time, “the environmental community was largely playing an inside game” but lacked political power, Podesta said.
“Without engaging more forcefully in public debate, you are overwhelmed,” he said.
Then there is the outside game – building a coalition of voters motivated by environmental concerns, primarily climate. And here, the green groups are no longer content to preach to the proverbial choir. Campaigners say 2019 was the first year the climate appeared in surveys as a prominent voting problemand they expect this trend to continue.
Democrats view climate voters as an increasingly critical part of their governing coalition, but worry whether many of them will run in 2022 — especially if Biden is unable to stick to the rest of his platform. climatic. This is the task to which many leftist groups are now turning.
During the last election cycle, the League of Conservation Voters-affiliated super PAC, the LCV Victory Fund, studied what it calls “environmental swing voters” in an effort to find new pools of support.
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