Overall Grade = C+

Wildlife = C-

Public Lands = B

Environmental Justice = B

Climate = C-

As the candidate with the longest political career, Vice President Biden’s environmental track record is a mixed bag. Biden continues to rely heavily on the Obama administration’s accomplishments as justification for his candidacy, but this means he must also take responsibility for the Obama administration’s shortcomings, including the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, the failure to set protective ozone-pollution standards in 2011 to protect human health, and rolling back protections for endangered species across the board. Biden’s climate plan fails to address phasing out leasing of fossil fuels on public lands and fails to set ambitious goals for drastically reducing greenhouse gas pollution by 2030.

Wildlife (Grade: C-) – Senator Biden failed to support the 1993 Amendments to the Endangered Species Act, which would have significantly strengthened the law and put more imperiled species on the path toward recovery.1 As vice president, Biden targeted the recovery program for the desert tortoise, wrongly characterizing it as government waste.2 As part of the Obama administration, he supported an executive order weakening protections for the northern spotted owl and finalized a set of regulations that weakened implementation of the Endangered Species Act, undermining the conservation of all endangered species nationwide. Biden’s website contains no information regarding the protection of endangered species or the extinction crisis, signaling it would not be a priority for his administration.

Public Lands (Grade: B) – As a senator, Biden generally took positions that supported public lands. Unfortunately, he also voted for both the Real ID Act and the Secure Fence Act, which has allowed the Department of Homeland Security to waive virtually all environmental laws in its rush to construct the border wall. While he was Vice President, the Obama Administration established several significant national monuments and marine reserves. However, these gains were undermined by other policy changes, including weakening the regulatory safeguards on all national forests, allowing offshore fossil fuel leasing in Alaska, and failing to curb oil and gas development on public lands. Biden does not address the management of public lands or fixing the damage caused by the southern border wall on his campaign website.

Environmental Justice (Grade: B) – Biden released a general clean energy and environmental justice plan to “stand up to the abuse of power by polluters who disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities.” Biden broadly promises to (1) reinstate federal protections rolled back by the Trump administration that were designed to protect communities; (2) engage in community-driven approaches to develop solutions for environmental injustices affecting communities of color, low-income communities and indigenous communities; (3) hold polluters accountable; (4) ensure access to safe drinking water for all communities; and (5) ensure communities harmed by climate change receive preference in competitive grant programs under his plan. However, the plan lacks specificity about executing these goals, including actions directing federal agencies to actively mitigate ongoing public health and other harms linked to fossil fuel extraction and other dirty energy industries. The plan also fails to speak to empowering frontline communities in a clean and democratic energy transition. He was noticeably absent from the first-ever Presidential Forum on Environmental Justice held in November 2019.

Climate (Grade: C-) – As a senator Biden failed to support stricter vehicle-emissions standards in 1990,3 1999,4 20035 and 2005.6 He also voted against legislation in 2002 that would have strengthened renewable energy initiatives.7 During the Obama administration, some progress was made in curbing the extraction of coal from public lands, regulating methane emissions, and establishing the Clean Power Plan. However, these gains were more than offset by the administration’s promotion of oil and gas extraction and its embrace of fracking. Biden does not support the Green New Deal and appears to support only some aspects of a just transition away from fossil fuels. Biden would not declare that the climate crisis is a national emergency. While his climate plan would end new fossil fuel leasing on public lands, it is silent on phasing out production from existing leases. Biden would not ban fracking or end fossil fuel exports. While his plan promises to end fossil fuel subsidies, he stops short of committing to a complete ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure. Biden’s climate policy positions do not track the scientific recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and only set a “net zero” emission target at 2050, without any interim goals for achieving 100% carbon-free electricity or requiring 100% zero-emission vehicles by 2030.