A coalition of lefty green groups that had not publicly endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2024 are planning to formally endorse Kamala Harris on Wednesday, HEATED has learned.

The groups—part of the more upstart, agitator wing of the national environmental movement—include the political arms of Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity, Food and Water Watch, and Clean Water Action.

Climate Hawks Vote, a California-based PAC that aims to elect outspoken climate leaders, will also endorse the sitting vice president, marking the first presidential endorsement in the organization’s 10-year history.

Harris has already received endorsements from the so-called “Big Green” groups—the political arms of the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and Clean Energy for America. But those weren’t much of a surprise, as each group had already backed Biden’s re-election bid, and are traditionally loyal to Democratic Party politicians.

The groups endorsing Harris on Wednesday, however, had so far held off on throwing their support behind Biden while he was running for re-election—in part because of the sitting president’s mixed record on climate policy.

“It was very much a debate” on whether to endorse Biden, said one of the group’s staffers, who spoke on background because the Harris announcement is not yet public. But with Harris, the calculus has changed.

“Because of her work in California and when she was a senator—a lot of us worked with her on creating the Environmental Justice for All Act—it gives us hope,” the staffer said. “She’s just a different person [than Biden], and has a stronger track record.”

Harris still lacks a climate policy platform

Still, it’s unclear how exactly Harris would be different from Biden when it comes to climate policy, because her campaign has not yet released an official climate policy platform.

On a call with the lefty green groups last week, campaign staffers said they likely wouldn’t have time to develop and release a robust climate platform before the Democratic National Convention next month, due to the unprecedented and accelerated nature of Harris’s candidacy, according to two people with direct knowledge of the call.

In lieu of that platform, climate activists are relying in part on Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign rhetoric to guide their ideas of what a Harris presidency would look like. While running for president in 2020, her platform included a $10 trillion climate plan, a carbon tax, and a pledge to ban fracking.

Related: Why some activists believe Harris will be more aggressive on climate than Biden.

But it may be unwise to assume that Harris supports the same policies today as she did four years ago. On Sunday, her campaign told Politico that she no longer stands behind her 2020 fracking pledge. “She would not ban fracking,” a campaign spokesperson told the outlet.

Because of that switch-up—and Harris’s lack of a concrete climate platform this accelerated election cycle—some activists are concerned about how effectively they can campaign for Harris once the endorsements go out. “We can’t knock on someone’s door and say, ‘Vote for this person,’ and not be able to tell them what their climate platform is,” one environmental justice activist told me. “That’s not going to be a great interaction.”

Indeed, Harris’s lack of a policy platform may be one reason why other environmental organizations are still holding off on endorsing the vice president. On Tuesday, Politico reported that several California environmental justice groups—including California Environmental Justice Alliance, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, and Communities for a Better Environment—have so far stayed quiet about Harris’s candidacy.

The youth-led Sunrise Movement, which made waves for publicly withholding its endorsement of Biden this election cycle, has also not yet endorsed Harris. In fact, in a letter to the Harris campaign last week, the group explicitly called on the vice president to release a policy platform that promotes “a strong vision to make the economy work for everyday people and ensure a livable future for us all.”

”You have an opportunity to win the youth vote by turning the page and differentiating yourself from Biden policies that are deeply unpopular with us, such as approving new oil and gas projects, denying people their right to seek refuge and asylum, and funding the Israeli government’s killing of civilians in Gaza,” the letter said.

”Young people are energized and ready to organize against fascism and for the future we deserve,” the letter said. “This is your chance to energize young people and our communities to vote, mount one of the greatest political comebacks in decades, and deliver a resounding defeat to the far-right agenda of Trump and Vance.”

Further reading:

• Where the four leading candidates to be Harris' VP pick stand on climate. ABC News, July 26.

• Al Gore endorses Harris: ‘That’s the kind of climate champion we need in the White House’. The Hill, July 28.

• More than 350 prominent climate advocates endorse Harris. The Washington Post, July 30.

• A climate activist group’s 8 asks for Harris. E&E News, July 26.

• Joe Biden’s enormous, contradictory, and fragile climate legacy. Vox, July 23.

Another important story:

• The Climate Cost of the Permitting Deal. Heatmap, July 30.

Senator Joe Manchin’s new permitting deal is the best shot Congress will get this year to boost transmission and renewables. It may also lock in generations of future fossil fuel production and exports. …

[On Wednesday], the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will vote on a deal [Senator Joe Manchin] struck with the panel’s top Republican, John Barrasso, that couples faster transmission and renewable energy approvals and restrictions on litigation with much stronger requirements for regular oil, gas, and coal lease sales on federal lands. It would also restrict the Energy Department from continuing its pause on liquified natural gas export terminal approvals (an action that has already been overturned in court) and also, activists note, potentially bar the federal government from having authority over oil and gas drill sites on private lands.

Catch of the Day: Stinson Beach is one of the best swimming beaches in California, according to Finn. It also reportedly has the best sticks.

Thanks to reader Tim for submitting.

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