Joe Biden’s successful 2020 presidential campaign set all kinds of fundraising records, attracting plenty of new donors to the political scene eager to oust President Donald Trump. Among them is a category of contributors that came into its own this cycle: climate donors. While plenty of climate-focused liberals have been giving to Democrats for years, leaders from the renewables industry and other climate donors emerged last year as a more distinctive and significant source of campaign cash.
The fundraising success of climate-focused campaign organizations is one more reason that the new administration is likely to push quickly for sweeping policy changes.
Deep green pockets
The history of environmental campaign giving goes back to 1969, when the League of Conservation Voters was founded to counter the political clout of industry donors. Today, the league is bigger and better funded than ever, pumping a record $50 million into the 2020 election cycle (as Blue Tent recently reported.) But moving on climate change is just one of LCV's priorities, and the big news in recent years has been the emergence of donors who focus entirely on climate.
Tom Steyer started his outsized giving in this area in the 2014 election cycle and has since poured several hundred million dollars into NextGen Climate Action. Bankrolled to the tune of $56 million in 2020, that group played an important role in turning out the youth vote for Biden and down-ballot Democratic candidates, as Blue Tent has reported.
NextGen also worked in collaboration with other environmental groups in 2020 through GiveGreen, which also included the LCV Victory Fund and the NRDC Action Fund.
Meanwhile, two other groups mobilized serious money in 2020: Climate Leaders for Biden, a collection of large donors; and Clean Energy for Biden, made up of renewable and clean energy industry donors. They brought in $17 million and $3.2 million for the Biden campaign, respectively, writes reporter Emily Atkin in her blog Heated.
Among the donors to CLFB were Nat Simons and Laura Baxter-Simons, leading climate philanthropists who run Sea Change Foundation; Lawrence Linden of Linden Trust for Conservation; and Democratic mega-donor Mark Gallogly and his wife Elizabeth Strickler, according to the New York Times. CEFB, meanwhile, was made up of 11,000 renewable energy industry professionals and co-chaired by Nathan Wyeth, a former solar energy executive.
“There were some clean energy fundraisers for Hillary, but it didn’t grow as large as it was this cycle,” Wyeth told Heated, comparing this cycle to 2016.
A clear choice
Early in the Democratic primary, Biden was hardly seen as the “climate candidate.” Vocally opposed to the Green New Deal, a comprehensive set of climate and job goals led by progressive lawmakers, Biden drew criticism from environmental groups like the Sunrise Movement for not having a more serious climate policy. On the campaign trail, Biden touted his agenda as being the most ambitious in presidential history, roughly using the Green New Deal framework to set goals like reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and using jobs programs to build new capacity for renewables.
Once he became the nominee, the choice was clear for donors. Both Trump’s detrimental environmental policy and his fossil fuel donors spurred climate donors into action. The Trump administration rolled back countless emissions regulations and cleared the way for new oil and gas extraction over the last four years—Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.
Republicans brought in more than $55 million in donations from the oil and gas sector, with $14.7 million of that going to Trump’s campaign, according to OpenSecrets. CLFB and CEFB’s ability to bring parity to energy-related fundraising signals the growing strength of the renewables industry, as did the stock market shortly after the Georgia Senate runoffs: Once it looked like Democrats would secure a narrow majority in the Senate, solar stocks rose notably as investors expected more investment in renewables to come. Wind and solar are also robust industries in red states like Texas and North Carolina, meaning the industry could provide a new political landscape for Democrats as they continue to court those donors.
A climate presidency?
Now donors and climate activists are wondering just how much the Biden administration will get done—and how quickly.
With both the House and Senate secured, Democrats’ biggest obstacles are moderate lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin (W. Va.) and the filibuster, which would require 60 votes to overcome in the Senate. Sunrise Movement Executive Director Varshini Prakash has already called for the Democrats to abolish the filibuster rule as a first step toward enacting sweeping climate policy. Otherwise, the only path forward for enacting Biden's promised $2 trillion in renewable energy spending is budget reconciliation, which would allow Senate Democrats to avoid the filibuster.
Climate activists hope Democrats won’t undercut their goals in order to appease the center, instead urging them to pitch climate policy as a jobs program in response to a dire economic situation.
So far, signs from the new administration have been encouraging on multiple fronts. But whatever happens next, one thing is certain: Major Democratic donors will be paying close attention.
