With help from Renuka Rayasam and Rachel Roubein
IT’S NOT THE ECONOMY, STUPID — President Joe Biden likes to say — really likes to say — that when he thinks about climate change, he thinks about jobs. He has said it repeatedly on the campaign trail, in the White House, and he said it again last night in his address to Congress: “For too long, we’ve failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.” And in case anyone had missed the point: “For me, when I think climate change, I think jobs.”
It’s true that climate action can create jobs installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, assembling wind turbines, building electric vehicles and planting trees. It’s good politics to keep pointing this out, and it was probably clever of Biden to tuck $1 trillion worth of green investments into his infrastructure-focused American Jobs Plan instead of trying to sell a stand-alone climate plan.
But marketing strategies aside, climate action is not really about creating jobs. It’s about making sure the one planet that has oxygen, Boston terriers, that scoop-there-it-is GEICO ad and everything else we love remains habitable and enjoyable for humanity. We’re currently on track for about 3 degrees Celsius of average warming by 2100, which would produce unfathomable environmental, meteorological and geopolitical cataclysms. The last time the earth was that hot was 3 million years ago, when global sea levels were about 50 feet higher. That’s why climate is a crisis.
It’s terrific that accelerating America’s transition to clean energy has the potential to boost America’s economy, but there’s a danger that prioritizing job creation over emission reductions could delay that transition and make it harder to solve the climate crisis. Biden said last night that the green investments in the American Jobs Plan were guided by one principle, Buy American, so that wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries can be produced in Pittsburgh rather than Beijing. That may be a worthy and popular goal, but it is not the same goal as Fix the Climate. The key to rapid decarbonization will be to continue to drive down the cost of clean energy so that it’s much cheaper than fossil energy, and it’s not clear whether well-paid union workers in America can manufacture a simple product like solar panels as cheaply as the Chinese can.
It’s not even clear whether a jobs-jobs-jobs message is the most effective way to sell green policies. Climate wonks spend an inordinate amount of time debating communications, as if magic words could transcend the partisan polarization of a shirts-and-skins nation. Some want to emphasize wildfires, hurricanes and other negative impacts that show the climate threat is here and now. Others argue that excessively apocalyptic messages alienate the public. Green New Deal progressives have tried to shift the focus to social and racial justice. The non-wonk James Carville actually suggested this week that climate messaging has been insufficiently emotional.
But not even Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, is sure which climate messages are the best motivators for climate action. In fact, while it’s clear Americans care more about the economy than climate change, he’s skeptical that jobs are a more persuasive talking point than climate risk for selling green policies — although that calculus might change if the intended audience is West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who may control the fate of Biden’s infrastructure plan.
The larger point is no matter how Biden decides to sell his climate policies, jobs should not be the main goal of those policies. An infrastructure bill that dramatically expanded renewable energy and electric vehicles in America would help fix the climate even if it created jobs in China. And the climate desperately needs fixing. Elon Musk may want to get us a backup home on Mars, in case we broil our starter home, but it makes a lot more sense to try to make things work on the planet we already have. Ruining it would be a catastrophe. And no matter how it polls, that’s the word we should think about when we think about climate.
Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at [email protected] and [email protected], or on Twitter at @renurayasam or @mikegrunwald.
VAX SCENE
BREAKING THE ICE — Health care reporter Rachel Roubein emails Nightly with the latest edition in our occasional series about what the Covid immunization drive looks like around the world:
In Alaska, a small group of public health doctors are trying to increase demand for the coronavirus shots as vaccination rates begin to plateau nationwide.
One day, they’ll Zoom into a village that’s accessible only by dog sleds in the winter. The next, they’ll meet virtually with residents of a remote mining town. And then they’ll beam into a fishing boat, or downtown Anchorage, or a community council meeting.
Alaska, like many states around the country, has seen its supply of the vaccine begin to outpace demand. Nearly half of all residents have gotten their first shot, but 23 percent of Alaskans 18 and over say they are hesitant about receiving a coronavirus vaccine.
That’s why the state’s new physicians speaker bureau, comprising roughly a dozen state health officials and volunteers, has stepped in. Formed during the pandemic, the group is using Covid-era technology to facilitate dozens of conversations in a state that’s vaster than Texas, California and Montana combined. The doctors start with a PowerPoint presentation, and then they open the floor to questions. There’s no standard length of time for the talks. If the group is given 10 minutes on a meeting’s agenda, that will do. If the conversation flows for an hour, that’s great, too.
“Our goal is to meet all Alaskans where they’re at, and give a safe, comfortable spot where people can ask whatever questions they have,” said Lisa Rabinowitz, a staff physician at Alaska’s health department.
The questions range widely: Can pregnant people get the vaccine? How safe are the shots? When will the pandemic end? How long will masks need to be worn?
“We answer them truthfully, and honestly,” said Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer.
Oftentimes, those in the audience will dive into why they decided to get vaccinated — a peer-to-peer message that public health officials say is so critical to persuading the hesitant to get the shot.
And slowly, one-by-one, they’re changing minds. For Zink, the evidence lies in her Zoom chat box, where nearly every session, a participant messages her to say they’ve decided to get vaccinated.
On the Hill
DESERT SOLITAIRE — Mark Kelly is a reliable ally of Biden. Except when it comes to the border, writes co-congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett.
The Democratic senator from Arizona sounded a rare note of criticism after Biden’s Wednesday night address to Congress, asking the president for more federal resources at the border and calling the influx of migrants coming into his state a “crisis” — language that Biden’s White House is resisting. Kelly didn’t back down today from his knock on Biden for omitting a detailed plan for the border and his vow to “continue holding this administration accountable.”
Though Kelly’s home state shifted toward Democrats during the presidency of Donald Trump, the GOP is using Biden’s handling of the border in an effort to hobble the former astronaut’s reelection campaign next year. Gearing up to try to take back a Senate seat in Kelly’s once reliably red state, Republicans are already criticizing him for not being a more aggressive check on Biden. But Kelly says that’s exactly what he’s doing.
“This continues to be a major problem that shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of Arizona communities. And I think it was important to highlight that it wasn’t part of the address last night,” Kelly said in an interview.
What'd I Miss?
— Ukrainian ex-lawmaker says he spoke to FBI about Giuliani: Andrii Artemenko made a star turn in Rudy Giuliani’s controversial Ukraine documentary and once tried to pitch the Trump administration on a plan for peace between Moscow and Kyiv. Now, he says, he’s told the FBI what he knows about the former mayor. Artemenko first drew major attention in the U.S. when The New York Times reported he gave Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen a draft of a peace plan between Ukraine and Russia.
— U.S. economy grew at a 6.4 percent rate last quarter: Powered by consumers, the U.S. economy grew at a brisk annual rate last quarter — a show of strength fueled by government aid and declining viral cases that could drive further gains as the nation rebounds with unusual speed from the pandemic recession.
— Trump floats DeSantis as 2024 VP: Trump said today he would “certainly” consider Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a potential running mate should he decide to mount a third White House campaign in 2024. The praise for DeSantis represents the latest public fissure in the relationship between Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
— Sen. Scott to meet with Floyd family: South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said he is meeting with members of George Floyd’s family today, one week after a former police officer was convicted of murdering Floyd and hours after Scott delivered the rebuttal to Biden’s first address to Congress.
— Gillibrand eyes NDAA for military sexual assault revamp: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said today the annual defense policy bill will be the likely vehicle to enact an overhaul of how sexual assault is handled within the military.
— Lawmakers press Biden’s top scientist on gender, race and Epstein connections: Eric Lander, Biden’s pick to lead the White House’s top technology office, pledged today to advance equity and diversity in science, after mounting concerns from both Republicans and Democrats about his record on race and gender issues and his past meetings with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
From the Health Desk
THE NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM OF THE VACCINE WORLD — It might feel like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are the center of the vaccine world, but there’s a lot more out there. Health care reporter Sarah Owermohle breaks down what you need to know about the different vaccines in use globally in the latest POLITICO Dispatch. Bonus: Sarah and Dispatch’s Jeremy Siegel answer this key question: If your vaccine were a Harry Potter character, which would it be?
The Global Fight
BACK TO EARTH — The Czech drugs regulator doesn’t have enough data to adequately assess Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for clinical trials, Irena Storová, the head of the State Institute for Drug Control, said today.
The news comes against the backdrop of growing Czech-Russian tensions, writes Siegfried Mortkowitz. Last week, Prague expelled 60 diplomats and staff from its Russian embassy in an escalating standoff over allegations the Kremlin was behind a deadly 2014 explosion in the Czech Republic.
But it’s also the latest setback in what has been a rocky week for the Russian jab. On Wednesday, Brazil’s drug regulator said it had found abnormalities in its Sputnik V samples, leading it to refuse to import the vaccine. This follows a negative assessment from Slovakia’s drug regulator earlier in the month, when it said that the Sputnik V doses delivered were different to those supplied elsewhere or to the European Medicines Agency.
Czech Health Minister Petr Arenberger said earlier this month that Sputnik V could be used in clinical trials to determine its efficacy. But according to Storová, her agency has yet to receive an application for clinical trials.
Nightly Number
Parting Words
NOT KOOL — More than 85 percent of Black Americans who smoke report using menthol products, and the Biden administration’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes has divided Black lawmakers: Rep. Jim Clyburn recently softened his opposition to a menthol ban, but did not vote on a February House bill that would have outlawed the cigarette and e-cigarette flavor. Rep. Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, praised the move today.
Nightly’s Renuka Rayasam spoke today with Keith Wailoo, a Princeton University history and public affairs professor and author of the soon to be published book, Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette, about the ban. This conversation has been edited.
Is this ban racist, like some groups are arguing?
No, I do not agree with that. The disproportionate use of menthol is the product of years of targeted marketing to promote menthol smoking in urban Black communities starting in the mid-1960s. The fact of the preference cannot be separated from history of how that preference has been cultivated and nurtured.
In 2009, when legislation for the first time gave the FDA authority over tobacco regulation, and flavored cigarettes were banned across the board, menthol with the only flavor that was exempted. The reason is that a small subset of Black lawmakers argued it would be discriminatory, when a vast majority saw menthol as an enticement to start smoking. The only reason we’re even debating menthol goes all the way back to the fact that it was exempted in this curious bit of horse trading.
What about the criminal justice arguments that groups like the ACLU are making against this ban?
The argument is that consumers love menthol smoking, so much that if they weren’t available they would engage in black market sales. It’s possible. Then the policing of illegitimate sales would produce police surveillance and that police surveillance would result in deaths of many more Black people. You can see the multiple steps here that are necessary for you to argue that therefore we should keep menthol on the market.
One needs to look critically at the question of racial discrimination. Sometimes there’s a legitimate concern. Sometimes these arguments are merely being marshaled for political effect in order to beat back a rolling momentum towards regulation.
Also this doesn’t keep in mind the number of silent deaths that have happened as a result of menthol smoking over the course of multiple decades. The major organizations that speak on behalf of the health and well-being of Black people by and large now line up in favor of a menthol ban.
Why not ban smoking completely, then?
When you have these significant moments in new tobacco regulations, people often say things like, What’s next? To me those are mostly distracting arguments. What is on the table now is a ban on a form of smoking that has long been deemed to be an illegitimate enticement for young people to smoke. It’s a leftover from legislation from 12 years ago. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if Congress hadn’t acted boldly to give FDA jurisdiction over the tobacco industry. The Obama administration banned it once, the industry sued them and won in court on a technicality. During the Trump administration Scott Gottlieb announced they were moving forward and got pushback from tobacco growing states. This is the third round of doing something that makes extraordinary public health sense.
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