A cast of high-profile climate advocates are coming together to launch three different efforts to elevate the climate crisis in the 2020 election and highlight president Trump’s failures on the issue.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former secretary of state John Kerry will lead a task force to advise Joe Biden and the Democratic Party on climate change policy. Biden this week announced task forces on six separate issues, aimed at unifying with supporters of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.
Other members of the climate task force include Florida congresswoman Kathy Castor, who leads the select committee on climate; and Obama-era environment chief Gina McCarthy, who now runs the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Another effort, Evergreen Action, will be run by staff from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign. The group says it will provide “an open-source climate policy platform based on Inslee’s ‘gold standard’ climate plan, in order to inspire bold action by the next president and Congress.” Inslee’s ambitious climate plans during the primary paved the way for other candidates to ramp up their own policy
proposals.
“Evergreen is picking up where Gov. Inslee left off: Leading the fight for bold climate policies and a national mobilization to defeat the climate crisis,” said political director Maggie Thomas, who advised both Inslee and senator Elizabeth Warren on climate.
Evergreen launched a policy memo with Data for Progress to lay out a $1.5 trillion “Clean Jumpstart” stimulus plan. A third group, Climate Power 2020, describes itself as “a team of seasoned political strategists, content creators, digital organizers, activists, and communications operatives,” launching “a campaign dedicated to changing the politics of climate in 2020.”
The group’s board includes a number of Obama officials: John Kerry, John Podesta, John Holdren, Gina McCarthy, Ernest Moniz, Samantha Power and Mustafa Ali. It also includes Rhiana Gunn-Wright, co-author of the Green New Deal; Varshini Prakash, founder of the youth-led Sunrise Movement; Jamal Raad, from Evergreen Action; and Maria Urbina, from Indivisible. Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid and philanthropist Tom Steyer are also on the board
