Tim Walz, tapped as Vice-President Kamala Harris’s running mate on Tuesday, may not be a household name, but the Minnesota governor is well known as a climate champion in green advocacy circles.
“Like Vice-President Harris, Governor Walz knows that climate change is the existential threat of our time,” the Sierra Club executive director, Ben Jealous, said in a statement. “The Harris-Walz ticket is one that understands the fight before us.”
Walz has forged a robust climate record during his two gubernatorial terms, most notably by signing one of the strongest green energy bills into law last year.
The policy requires Minnesota to eliminate carbon from its electricity generation by 2040, obtaining 100% of its utilities from carbon-free sources. Only a handful of states are requiring the switch to carbon-free electricity to occur at such a rapid pace.
“This law, even more ambitious than similar measures in traditionally progressive states, showcases the kind of forward-thinking leadership our country needs to address the worsening climate crisis,” said Cassidy DiPaola, communications director for Fossil Free Media, a non-profit pushing for the swift transition away from fossil fuels.
The climate victory came during a legislative session in which Minnesota Democrats and Walz worked together to pass dozens of other green policies. Among them: a bill meant to streamline energy permitting that Walz signed in June.
“This is a measure that will help protect our environment and get the clean energy projects that are going to help fight climate change in motion,” he said.
During his tenure, the governor has also funded clean energy career training and allocated $2bn to natural resources, climate and energy projects in a bill that has been compared to the Inflation Reduction Act.
In 2019, he formed a climate crisis sub-cabinet and advisory board within his administration and, three years later, unveiled a plan that aims to slash planet-heating emissions in half by 2030 and boost the share of electric cars on Minnesota roads to 20%. “This issue will transcend whoever’s elected,” Walz said at the time. “This issue is not going away. It needs to be addressed.”
Also among Walz’s climate accomplishments: boosting Minnesota’s mass transit, including by championing a new Amtrak rail line, between the Twin Cities and Chicago, which came online in May.
Under Walz’s leadership, the state of Minnesota also tackled planet-heating pollution from the building sector by updating its commercial buildings codes and energy efficiency rules while lowering utility costs for low-income households. It also took on pollution from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as “forever chemicals” or PFAS – when Walz signed one of the nation’s broadest bans on the pollutants last year. And the state additionally prioritized environmental justice. In 2022, Walz’s 2022 budget called for a $200m investment in clean water and wastewater, and that year, he signed a bill investing $240m in lead pipe replacement.
The governor has also been praised for his environmental rhetoric, with Time magazine calling him one of the “country’s most skillful climate communicators” for his ability to tie green policies to the need for economic development and jobs.
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His appeal is broad enough that on Tuesday both Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive Democratic congresswoman who has championed the Green New Deal, and Joe Manchin, the conservative former Democratic now independent senator and coal baron, welcomed Walz’s selection.
“Voters will have a clear choice between a Harris-Walz ticket, who will fight for our clean energy future that lowers harmful pollution and creates safer communities, or a Trump-Vance administration whose pro-polluter, extreme Maga [Make America great again] agenda will give big oil a free pass to profiteer and pollute,” Lori Lodes, executive director of advocacy group Climate Power, said.
Walz’s climate record is, unsurprisingly, viewed far less favorably by Donald Trump’s campaign, which called him a “west coast wannabe” following the announcement of Harris’s pick.
“From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide,” said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign press secretary.
But environmentalists say by choosing Walz – who this week said, “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness” – the Harris campaign could help energize progressive voters.
“This decision shows that Kamala Harris is taking seriously what is needed to rebuild the 2020 Biden-Harris coalition and energize young people, people of color, and union voters ahead of November,” Stevie O’Hanlon, communications director for the youth-led environmental justice group the Sunrise Movement, said in a statement.