Oil and gas critics escalate their gripes against Biden

Politics

The most aggressively climate-minded president in history is getting flak from his green base — thanks to a series of pro-fossil-fuel moves that are starting to remind environmental activists of his old boss’ first term.

To some green groups, the Biden administration’s approval of a massive oil project in Alaska, embrace of natural gas exports and slowness to announce its plans on offshore drilling fall far short of the president’s 2020 campaign promises of bold action to wean the nation off fossil fuels. Instead, they’re evoking echoes from the early years of Barack Obama’s administration, when the then-president embraced the economic gains of the fracking boom and delayed politically awkward decisions like the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The frustration from elements of the climate movement is starting to become manifest: Activists have interrupted recent public appearances by Biden’s aides and are vowing to “blockade” Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, much as anti-Keystone activists staged sit-ins that brought mass arrests outside Obama’s White House.