Dem Senator Wishes Biden Got A Primary Challenge From The Left

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon suggested Tuesday that “it wouldn’t hurt” to see President Joe Biden face a primary challenge from someone to his left on climate policy, during an interview on Washington Post Live.

Merkley opined that such a challenger would have forced Biden to make explicitly clear where he stands on climate, as the Biden administration scored hundreds of billions of dollars for green interests via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) but has approved several fossil fuel-related projects, Merkley said during the interview. The administration’s approval of projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline is “a fatal flaw” for the president and his team, Merkley said during the interview.

“On this most important issue facing humanity, team Biden is failing,” Merkley said during the interview. A hardcore environmentalist primary challenger could have forced Biden to make clear that he is either completely on board with a rapid shift away from fossil fuels, or to reveal that he is not so absolutely committed, Merkley suggested during the interview.

“Those climate groups that did that early endorsement [of Biden], they should go back and say, ‘You don’t want just our endorsement, you want our activists knocking on doors,'” Merkley said during the interview. Merkley’s remarks suggested that he does not believe Biden’s climate approach is doing enough to drive out younger, climate-oriented voters to the polls come November 2024.

During the interview, Merkley also reemphasized his call for a declaration of a national climate emergency, which “would give the president a lot more powers” to do things like “banning oil exports or activating the Defense Production Act.” He also stated that “frankly, President Biden and his team do not understand the level of challenge we’re facing” with regard to climate change.

While not up to Merkley’s standards, the Biden administration’s green agenda has been among the most ambitious in American political history. The IRA, the administration’s signature climate and health care law, could drive up to $3 trillion in green energy investment in the coming years, according to analysis by Goldman Sachs.

In June, Biden said that “you’re not going to see anybody building a new coal-fired plant in America” because “it’s too expensive,” a development which is partially attributable to his administration’s massive regulatory agenda. As a candidate for the presidency in 2019, Biden delivered a “guarantee” that his administration would “end fossil fuels.”