Why Biden is struggling to sell his climate change record

President Biden is trying to sell his record on climate change and the environment with a series of speeches and media appearances this week.

Standing in front of the Grand Canyon in Arizona on Tuesday, Biden touted his environmental record while signing into existence a new national monument surrounding the area to protect it from uranium mining. In a state that’s currently baking under a historic heat wave, during the hottest summer on record, Biden connected the recent extreme weather with the climate change that, studies show, has made it much more likely.

“There is more work ahead to combat the existential threat of climate change,” the president said during his speech, in which he also announced a $44 million investment to “strengthen climate resilience across our national park system,” paid for with funds from his signature legislative achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022.

In a Wednesday morning TV interview with the Weather Channel, Biden said he had “in practice” declared climate change a national emergency, as many climate activists are demanding, with his robust climate agenda. And on Wednesday afternoon, he will speak in Albuquerque at the groundbreaking of a wind tower manufacturing facility expansion, to claim credit for the clean energy and manufacturing boom the IRA helped create.

The president’s latest messaging blitz is likely an attempt to boost the popularity of his climate change record, which has been frequently criticized by both Republicans seeking to dismantle it and climate activists who think it does not go far enough. On Monday, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found 57% of Americans disapprove of his climate change record (40% approve).

These are the key points to understanding why Biden finds himself in this predicament.

The most ambitious climate change policies of any president in history

When Biden signed the IRA one year ago, it included $369 billion in climate-related spending over 10 years — by far the biggest U.S. investment in combating climate change — with an array of subsidies for clean energy and clean car production, consumption and manufacturing.

An all-of-government approach

The Biden administration isn’t just pushing for spending bills to address climate change; it’s writing new regulations to require increased energy efficiency in everything from vehicles to gas stoves, tightening air pollution rules and creating the first rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. After rejoining the Paris climate agreement upon Biden’s inauguration, the U.S. has taken an active role in leading global climate change negotiations, including coaxing other large climate polluters such as China to pledge to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming gas.

Some climate activists are still disappointed

Environmentalists have blasted the administration for approving some proposals to drill for oil or gas offshore, and in sensitive areas like the controversial Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope, in spite of Biden’s campaign pledge to end fossil fuel leasing on federal land and water.

The White House contends that its hands have been tied on fossil fuel leasing by court rulings, but some legal experts say it could have fought back harder in some of those cases.

Biden has also backed increasing exports of natural gas to help Europe stop buying Russian gas, frustrating climate activists.

Conservatives are angry too

When Biden took office, he temporarily paused selling new federal oil and gas leases, and he canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have brought Canadian tar sands oil to U.S. refineries. Republican congressional leaders and the oil and gas industry responded by blaming him when oil prices rose during the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Prices are not affected by recent lease sales, which take many years to bring oil to market.)

The IRA is working as intended, with renewable investment skyrocketing

On Monday, a report from the American Clean Power Association stated that in the year since the IRA passed, there was more than $270 billion in capital investments in renewable energy — more investment than in the previous eight years combined. That represents over 200 clean energy projects and more than 100,000 new jobs.

The more people know about the IRA, the more they like it

While Biden’s climate change record is underwater in the Post-UMD poll, the IRA gets 39% approval with just 20% disapproving and the rest unsure. That high rate of uncertainty is due to the fact that only 27% said they have heard a “great deal” or a “good amount” about the law, with 71% saying they've heard little or nothing about it.

While only a third, or less, of the public is familiar with the IRA’s individual provisions, each of those provisions is very popular. Expanded tax credits for buying solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps, and for manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines, all enjoy the support of at least 50% of the public, while none is opposed by more than 22%.

So Biden is betting that talking up his record will raise awareness of its popular components and boost his climate change approval ahead of his reelection campaign.