CBS News
Do Trump and Harris have climate change plans? See where both candidates stand
As Election Day 2024 approaches, neither former President Donald Trump nor Vice President Kamala Harris have released their plans to address climate change or energy policy. Their campaign speeches, party platforms and track records in office provide some guidance for voters on what they might expect from a Harris or Trump administration.
The public record shows the two hold widely diverging views on climate. Trump has in the past called climate change a “hoax” and more recently, he told Elon Musk in an interview in August that the biggest threat to the world “is not global warming, where the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years.” (In fact, a 2022 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggested that along U.S. coasts, sea levels could rise by two feet or more by 2100.)
The former president says increasing oil and gas production will make the U.S. the world’s top energy producer. “Drill, baby, drill,” he often says at campaign rallies.
Harris has talked about the threat of climate change and the damage to communities and families from more severe weather — floods, hurricanes and wildfires — “has been devastating.” “I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real,” she told CNN in an interview.
“Vice President Harris is focused on a future where all Americans have clean air, clean water, and affordable, reliable energy,” said Seth Schuster, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign.
As vice president, Harris has favored a shift to a “clean energy economy” while not completely backing away from oil and gas, as indicated by her recent comments on CNN that she would not ban fracking as president. She has tread lightly on the issue, careful not to alienate voters in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, one of the top natural gas producers in the country.
Here are where the two candidates stand on some of the key climate issues.
Donald Trump’s stance on climate change
Trump says he’ll roll back parts the Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping set of proposals to expand clean energy passed under Biden. He has also taken aim at the Green New Deal, which he derides as the “Green New Scam.”
The Green New Deal is a non-binding set of proposals to tackle climate change introduced in 2019 by progressive Democrats Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts. The resolution has not passed, but even if it did, nothing in it would carry the force of law.
On the oil and gas front, Trump has vowed to unlock new lands for drilling, expedite drilling permits and speed up approval of natural gas pipelines, among other initiatives. He has also indicated that he will restart liquified natural gas, or LNG, exports on his first day back in office, according to reporting by Politico. President Biden paused LNG exports in January, a move that was later blocked by a federal judge.
As president, Trump opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling through a $1.5 trillion tax bill. Environmental groups decried his actions, pointing to the threat drilling poses to Indigenous communities and the land that’s home to nearly 200 species.
While his public statements clearly indicate a preference for an economy powered by oil, gas and coal over renewable energy, Luke Bolar, chief external affairs officer of ClearPath Action, a right-learning clean energy group, said there were “a lot of wins for clean energy innovation,” during Trump’s first term citing the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, the Grid Storage Launchpad, expansions and extensions of the 45Q tax credit, and the Energy Act of 2020, a variety of initiatives intended to improve and expand electrification, carbon capture and nuclear energy.
If elected, Trump has promised to undo what he calls the “electric vehicle mandate” of the Biden administration on Day One in office, a move Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said “will save America’s auto industry and cut costs to reduce inflation and get our economy booming again.”
The Biden administration has not issued a mandate but has introduced incentives to spur EV adoption, including a tax credit for those who meet income and eligibility requirements of up to $7,500 for new EVs and $4,000 for used EVs, and set a target that half of all new vehicle sales be zero emissions by 2030.
Trump has also signaled that he would drain funding from climate-focused agencies if he’s elected. In discussing budget cuts, he told Fox News, “One of the things that’s so bad for us is environmental agencies. They make it impossible to do anything.”
As president, Trump proposed a 26% budget cut to the EPA in 2020 and a 31% cut in 2019, both of which were ultimately rejected by the Democrat-led House Appropriations Committee.
Project 2025, the Republican policy blueprint drafted by conservatives with ties to Trump, calls for the “restructuring and streamlining” of the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump has distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation-backed project, but CBS News’ analysis shows that among the 735 specific policy proposals outlined Project 2025, more than one-third are connected to Trump in some way.
Trump in 2017 announced the U.S. would pull out of the landmark Paris climate agreement, an accord signed by over 200 countries to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The withdrawal process took three years to complete and was finalized the day after the election, on Nov. 4, 2020. On Mr. Biden’s first day as president, he signed an order to rejoin the agreement. Trump would exit the agreement again if elected.
Does Donald Trump have a climate change plan?
Trump has not released a comprehensive roadmap outlining proposed policies, but his team did share an outline of his energy plan with CBS News via email, some of which is detailed in the preceding section.
One of the more ambitious goals in the plan is to slash energy and electricity prices by “far more” than half. “Your energy bills will be down by 50%-70%,” a statement at the top from Trump reads. Experts who spoke with Axios cast doubt on this promise, explaining that his ability to alter global energy prices would be limited.
Outside of the energy plan, the Republican Party’s intentions for a Trump presidency can be gleaned from the official GOP platform.
Kamala Harris’ stance on climate change
Harris regularly touts the Inflation Reduction Act, which she cast tie-breaking vote for. In her interview with CNN, she said she believes the climate crisis is an “urgent matter” and the nation should apply emissions metrics and adhere to specific deadlines.
“We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act,” she said. “We have set goals for the United States of America and by extension, the globe around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as an example.”
As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration introduced tax credits in an effort to spur electric vehicle adoption. According to reporting by Axios, Harris has not made clear whether she supports her previous stance of making automakers build only electric or hydrogen vehicles by 2035. A spokesperson from her campaign told the news site that Harris “does not support an electric vehicle mandate.” CBS News has asked the Harris campaign for more information and is awaiting a response.
Before taking on her role as vice president, Harris held big oil companies accountable through her position as California attorney general. In 2016, she launched an investigation into Exxon Mobil for allegedly misleading the public and shareholders about climate risks. That same year, she also pursued legal action against Plains All-American Pipeline regarding a 2015 oil spill.
However, she’s not expected to completely pull the plug on America’s oil and gas production if elected president.
As a candidate in the Democratic primaries four years ago, Harris said during a CNN town hall that she was in favor of banning fracking, the process that involves injecting a solution of water and chemicals into rock formations to extract oil and natural gas.
But during a CNN interview on Aug. 29, she said, “as president, I will not ban fracking,” a statement industry executives have quickly latched onto. Still, they remain skeptical about what her other energy initiatives will entail.
Oil and gas production reached record highs under the Biden administration. Mr. Biden approved almost 50% more gas and oil leases during his time in office than his Republican predecessor did during his first three years in office, according to reporting by Politico.
President Biden canceled the oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that were set in motion during Trump’s final days and instead proposed stronger protections for the 19-million-acre territory.
While she was a senator from California, Harris co-sponsored the Green New Deal, but in August, her campaign told CNN she no longer supports the package of policy proposals.
Does Kamala Harris have a climate change plan?
Harris has not laid out a detailed energy and climate plan. The presidential candidate only briefly touched on her positions during the interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Aug. 29 and during her Democratic National Convention speech in Chicago. Otherwise, her party’s platform offers more tangible examples as to how to she might address issues such as decarbonization and the fossil fuel industry.
Bangkok — A 64-year-old woman was preparing to do her evening dishes at her home outside Bangkok when she felt a sharp pain in her thigh and looked down to see a huge python taking hold of her.
“I was about to scoop some water and when I sat down it bit me immediately,” Arom Arunroj told Thailand’s Thairath newspaper. “When I looked I saw the snake wrapping around me.”
The 13-to-16-foot-long python coiled itself around her torso, squeezing her down to the floor of her kitchen.
“I grabbed it by the head, but it wouldn’t release me,” she said. “It only tightened.”
Kunyakit Thanawtchaikun/AP
Pythons are non-venomous constrictors, which kill their prey by gradually squeezing the breath out of it.
Propped up against her kitchen door, she cried for help but it wasn’t until a neighbor happened to be walking by about an hour and a half later and heard her screams that authorities were called.
Responding police officer Anusorn Wongmalee told The Associated Press on Thursday that when he arrived the woman was still leaning against her door, looking exhausted and pale, with the snake coiled around her.
Police and animal control officers used a crowbar to hit the snake on the head until it released its grip and slithered away before it could be captured.
In all, Arom spent about two hours on Tuesday night in the clutches of the python before being freed.
She was treated for several bites but appeared to be otherwise unharmed in videos of her talking to Thai media shortly after the incident.
Encounters with snakes are not uncommon in Thailand, and last year 26 people were killed by venomous snake bites, according to government statistics. A total of 12,000 people were treated for venomous bites by snakes and other animals 2023.
The reticulated python is the largest snake found in Thailand and usually ranges in size from 5 to 21 feet, weighing up to about 165 pounds. They have been found as big as 33 feet long and 287 pounds.
Smaller pythons feed on small mammals such as rats, but larger snakes switch to prey such as pigs, deer and even domestic dogs and cats. Attacks on humans are not common, though do happen occasionally.
There have also been fatal attacks in Indonesia, where a woman was found inside the belly of a reticulated python that swallowed her whole in June — the fifth person to be devoured by one of the snakes in the country since 2017.
CBS News
After Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, Memphis officer texted photo of bloodied man to ex-girlfriend, she testifies
A former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of the badly injured man on the night he was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton following a traffic stop, according to trial testimony Wednesday.
Brittany Leake, a Memphis officer and Demetrius Haley’s former girlfriend, testified during the criminal trial that she was on the phone with Haley when officers pulled Nichols over for a traffic stop. She said she heard a “commotion,” including verbal orders for someone to give officers his hands.
The call ended, but Haley later texted the photo in a group chat comprising Haley, Leake and her godsister, she testified. Prosecutors displayed the photo for the jury. It showed Nichols with his eyes closed, on the ground with what appeared to be blood near his mouth and his hands behind his back.
Leake said that when she saw the photo, her reaction was: “Oh my God, he definitely needs to go to the Med.”
The Med is shorthand for Memphis’ trauma hospital.
The fatal beating, caught on police bodycams and street surveillance cameras, has sparked protests and calls for police reform. Officers said they pulled over Nichols for reckless driving, but Memphis’ police chief said there was no evidence to substantiate that claim.
Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith are on trial after pleading not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his civil rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering. Their trial began Sept. 9 and is expected to run three to four weeks.
George Walker IV / AP
The Memphis Police Department fired the three men, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., after Nichols’ death. The beating was caught on police video, which was released publicly. The officers were later indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.
During her testimony Wednesday, Leake said she deleted the photo after she saw it and that sending such a photo is against police policy.
“I wasn’t offended, but it was difficult to look at,” she said.
Leake said Haley had sent her photos before of drugs, and of a person who had been injured in a car accident.
Earlier Wednesday, Martin was on the witness stand for a third day. Defense attorneys tried to show inconsistencies between Martin’s statements to investigators and his court testimony. Martin acknowledged lying about what happened to Memphis Police Department internal investigators, to try to cover up and “justify what I did.”
But Martin said he told the truth to FBI investigators after he pleaded guilty in August, including statements about feeling pressure on his duty belt where his gun was located during the traffic stop, but not being able to see if Nichols was trying to get his gun. Martin has testified that he said “let go of my gun” during the traffic stop.
Martin Zummach, the attorney for Justin Smith, asked Martin if he knew of any reasons why Nichols did not simply say, “I give up.”
“He’s out of it,” Martin said. “Disoriented.”
Martin testified that the situation escalated quickly when Haley pulled his gun and violently yanked Nichols from his car, using expletives and failing to tell Nichols why he had been pulled over and removed from the vehicle.
“He never got a chance to comply,” Martin said.
Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.
Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggled with his injuries. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.
An autopsy report shows Nichols – the father of a boy who is now 7 – died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Jesse Guy testified that he was working as a paramedic for the Memphis Fire Department the night of the beating. He arrived at the location after two emergency medical technicians, Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge.
Guy said he was not told about the medical problems Nichols had experienced before he arrived, and that Nichols was injured, seated on the ground and unresponsive.
Nichols had no pulse and was not breathing, and it “felt like he was lifeless,” Guy said.
In the ambulance, Guy performed CPR and provided mechanical ventilation, and Nichols had a pulse by the time he arrived at the hospital, the paramedic said.
Guy said Long and Sandridge did not say if they had checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not report if they had given him oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s lawyers whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said yes.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies after Nichols died. They have not been criminally charged.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas.
Federal prosecutors have previously recommended a 40-year sentence for Martin. A date has not been set in state court yet.
Nichols worked for FedEx, and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography. The city of Sacramento, where Nichols grew up, named a skatepark in his honor. “Tyre fell in love with skateboarding at a young age and it wasn’t long before it became a part of his lifestyle,” states the resolution approved by the city council. He had a tattoo of his mother’s name.
“Tyre Nichols’ family have been praying for justice and accountability from the very beginning of this tragedy,” Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the civil rights attorneys representing Nichols’ family, said in a statement when the trial began.
Boeing’s CEO said Wednesday that the company will begin furloughing “a large number” of employees to conserve cash during the strike by union machinists that began last week.
Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said the people who would be required to take time off without pay starting in coming days include executives, managers and other employees based in the U.S.
“While this is a tough decision that impacts everybody, it is in an effort to preserve our long-term future and help us navigate through this very difficult time,” Ortberg said in a company-wide message to staff.
Boeing didn’t say how many people will face rolling furloughs, but the number is expected to run into the tens of thousands. The aerospace giant had 171,000 employees at the start of the year.
About 33,000 Boeing factory workers in the Pacific Northwest began a strike Friday after rejecting a proposal to raise pay by 25% over four years. They want raises of at least 40%, the return of a traditional pension plan and other improvements in the contract offer they voted down.
Scott Brauer / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The strike is halting production of several airplane models including Boeing’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max. The company gets more than half of the purchase price when new planes are delivered to buyers, so the strike will quickly hurt Boeing’s cash flow.
Ortberg said selected employees will be furloughed for one week every four weeks while retaining their benefits. The CEO and other senior executives will take pay cuts during the duration of the strike, he said, without stating how deep the cuts will be.
All work related to safety, quality, customer support and certification of new planes will continue during the furloughs, he said, including production of 787 Dreamliner jets, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.
Ortberg said in a memo to employees that the company is talking to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers about a new contract agreement that could be ratified.
“However, with production paused across many key programs in the Pacific Northwest, our business faces substantial challenges and it is important that we take difficult steps to preserve cash and ensure that Boeing is able to successfully recover,” he said.
Boeing’s chief financial officer warned employees earlier this week that temporary layoffs were possible.
The company, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, but has most of its commercial-airplanes business located in the Pacific Northwest, is also cutting spending on suppliers, freezing hiring and eliminating most travel.
Despite two full days of talks assisted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the union said Wednesday that no resolution had been reached and no additional negotiations were scheduled, according to CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV.
Striking workers are picketing at several locations in the Seattle area, Oregon and California. The union, which recommended the offer that members later rejected by a 96% vote, is surveying the workers to learn what they want in a new contract. The union’s last strike at Boeing, in 2008, lasted about two months.
If the walkout doesn’t end soon, Boeing’s credit rating could be downgraded to non-investment or junk status, which would make borrowing more expensive. Shortly after the walkout began Friday, Moody’s put Boeing on review for a possible downgrade, and Fitch said a strike longer than two weeks would make a downgrade more likely.
Python squeezes Thai woman in her kitchen for 2 hours before she’s rescued by police
After Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, Memphis officer texted photo of bloodied man to ex-girlfriend, she testifies
Boeing set to start large-scale furloughs due to machinists strike
Python squeezes Thai woman in her kitchen for 2 hours before she’s rescued by police
After Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, Memphis officer texted photo of bloodied man to ex-girlfriend, she testifies