Young Voters Want Biden to Act on Climate and Fossil Fuel Industry Accountability
By Cassidy DiPaola
Just days before the 2020 election, when Joe Biden was still vying for his seat in the White House, he declared climate change the “No. 1 issue facing humanity, and the No. 1 issue for me.” He went on to promise a national transition from fossil fuels toward renewable energy, proclaiming that “we have a moral obligation to everyone” to take bold climate action.
This promise for a clean, guaranteed future sparked a hope in youth voters that led them to the polls and led Biden to victory. Nationwide, 61 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Biden, but a year and a half later, President Biden has yet to fulfill these promises. Young voters are unhappy with the Biden Administration’s lack of action on climate and fossil fuels, and as a result, this is threatening Democrats’ chances at the polls.
While governmental action takes time, there are still so many things that Biden can do with simply the stroke of a pen. For more than a year now, frontline activists, scientists, families, community leaders, and young people have been urging the president to use his executive authority to declare a climate emergency and stop approving new fossil fuel projects. These are things President Biden has the power to do now, without any help from Congress.
If President Biden fails to take bold climate action and fulfill his campaign promises, he’ll risk losing youth voters, a key constituency, in the midterms. Fossil Free Media and Data for Progress released a new poll that finds a majority of young voters across the country want the Biden Administration to fulfill its campaign promises to act on climate and stop approving new federal fossil fuel projects.
The writing is on the wall: If President Biden and the Democrats want to retain the majority, they must take bold climate action.
The majority of young voters are overwhelmingly concerned about climate change — making it a key consideration at the polls. We find that 77 percent of young voters (including 90 percent of Democrats) are "very" or "somewhat" concerned about climate change. Even young Republican voters have climate change on their mind, with a majority saying they are “very” or “somewhat” concerned about climate change.
Future generations depend on the actions of our current leaders. Unsurprisingly, 81 percent of young Democratic voters and 64 percent of young voters overall agree that Biden should take ambitious actions now to secure our tomorrow.
Young people understand that some of our world’s most devastating crises have been shaped by the dirty hands of the fossil fuel industry. That is why we want President Biden to end our dependence on the fossil fuels that are destroying our climate and hold oil and gas companies accountable for the pain and pollution that they have caused. Our polling finds that 63 percent of young voters — including 80 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Independents — want the Biden Administration to make oil and gas corporations pay for their pollution. Young people no longer will allow these corporations to get away with polluting our air, land, and water. It is time for Big Oil to pay the price.
Not only do young people want the oil and gas industry to pay for its pollution, they also want to stop this pollution from occuring in the first place. President Biden pledged to prevent fossil fuel corporations from leasing publicly owned lands and waters to drill for oil and gas. Yet, the Biden Administration approved more drilling permits in 2021 than Donald Trump did in the first year of his presidency, according to federal data analyzed by the Center for Biological Diversity. If President Biden wants support from youth voters, he must listen to the 74 percent of young Democratic voters (and 59 percent of young voters overall) who want Biden to follow through on his pledge to ban drilling on public lands and waters.
Young voters and voters of color turned out for Joe Biden in record numbers in the 2020 election. But their support is beginning to wane due to the Biden administration’s lack of action. Fifty-six percent of young voters — including 58 percent of Democrats and even 52 percent of Republicans, do not think the president is doing enough on climate change.
Young people are overwhelmingly concerned about climate change and the devastating consequences that come with it. As the midterm elections fast approach, climate change will remain a priority in the minds of voters. Our polling shows that young voters are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates in the 2022 midterms if they pass climate change legislation in Congress — with 46 percent of young voters (including 62 percent of Democrats) saying they are “much more” or “somewhat more” likely to do so.
Just as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s latest report states that we are at risk of a “brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity” to combat climate change, President Biden and Democrats are at risk of missing a brief and narrow window to secure youth votes. It is our hope that the president takes his “moral obligation” to future generations seriously and acts now to take bold climate action and move away from fossil fuel development.
Cassidy DiPaola is the Communications Manager and Spokesperson at Fossil Free Media, a nonprofit media lab supporting the movement to end fossil fuels.