Biden campaign updates climate plan after lifting passages from green groups

Former Vice President Joe Biden unveiled his plan to battle climate change Tuesday, but the plan lifted multiple passages from climate policy think tanks.

The Biden campaign said they inadvertently left citations off of some passages of the report, adding that the proposal was updated to include proper citations.

“Several citations, some from sources cited in other parts of the plan, were inadvertently left out of the final version of the 22 page document. As soon as we were made aware of it, we updated to include the proper citations,” Biden’s campaign told The Hill.{mosads}

Biden’s campaign had described carbon capture sequestration, a method of trapping carbon emissions from power plants and other polluting industries, as “a rapidly growing technology that has the potential to create economic benefits for multiple industries while significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions.”

The Blue Green Alliance described the process in almost exactly the same way in a letter 2017 letter to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, omitting only the word “the” before “potential.” The group acknowledged in a statement to The Hill on Tuesday that Biden’s campaign used language from documents publicly available on its website.

That example and others were first flagged by Josh Nelson, vice president of Credo Mobile who previously worked for the Climate Reality Project, which was founded by former Vice President Al Gore, and the National Wildlife Federation.

On the left, Joe Biden’s climate plan. Source: https://t.co/WHWvRK784s

On the right, a letter the Blue Green Alliance sent to leadership of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2017. Source (page 96): https://t.co/YxP3R16ZIo pic.twitter.com/oJSFXW742z

— Josh Nelson (@josh_nelson) June 4, 2019

In another portion of his climate plan, Biden’s proposal said it hoped to make carbon capture sequestration “a widely available, cost effective, and rapidly scalable solution to meet mid-Century climate goals.”

The nonpartisan Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) describes the goal of the Carbon Capture Coalition the exact same way.

On the left, Joe Biden’s climate plan. Source: https://t.co/WHWvRK784s

On the right, a description of the Carbon Capture Coalition on the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions website. Source: https://t.co/nulmTqXZ1p pic.twitter.com/4f010MqNjY

— Josh Nelson (@josh_nelson) June 4, 2019

Plagiarism has been an issue in Biden’s past presidential ambitions. The former longtime Delaware senator withdrew from the 1988 presidential race after reports that he incorporated passages from other speeches into his own.

“We do not coordinate with campaigns, but carbon capture should be an essential element in any comprehensive strategy to eliminate carbon emissions,” said Alec Gerlach, communications director with C2ES.

Mike Williams, interim co-executive director of the Blue Green Alliance, acknowledged that Biden’s campaign used language from the group’s website but said the group is “appreciative that multiple campaigns have put forward plans to address climate change and we have been in communication with several campaigns to discuss ways to tackle this crisis that put America’s workers at the forefront of the discussion.”

“We’re proud of our efforts to champion policies that will address climate change, repair America’s infrastructure systems, and build a stronger, fairer economy for all Americans,” he said in a statement.

Updated: 4:55 p.m.