Harris Says 'Reduce Population' for Clean Air; White House Corrects It to 'Pollution' (July 14, 2023)

Vice President Kamala Harris came to Baltimore to announce what she called “the largest investment in financing for community-based climate projects in our nation’s history.” Then she delivered the line that made the news: “When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population, more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water.” The crowd applauded. The White House transcript changed the word to “pollution” [1].

The video above shows the line from Harris’ July 14, 2023, speech at Coppin State University, the final stop of the administration’s “Investing in America” tour [3][4]. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project, which marks the White House’s correction in brackets [1].

”Reduce Population [Pollution]”

Harris had just turned to the health benefits of the spending. “Think about the impact on something like public health,” she said. Then: “When we invest in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce population [pollution], more of our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water.” The transcript records applause [1].

Her office said the vice president misspoke, Fox News reported, and the official transcript reflects that she meant “pollution” [3]. A White House official also confirmed to the fact-checking site Lead Stories that Harris meant to say “pollution,” FactCheck.org reported [4].

The slip capped what Fox News called Harris’ “gaffe-filled week” [3].

”The Clock Is Not Only Ticking, It Is Banging”

The speech was a climate pitch from start to finish. “It is clear that the clock is not only ticking, it is banging. And we must act,” Harris said [1].

She opened with the stakes. “I want to thank you for your leadership and your partnership in taking on one of the most urgent matters of our time: this climate crisis,” Harris said. “I mean, if you watch the morning news, it will be the lead story. It’s been every day for the last couple of weeks. It is the lead story.” [1]

She suggested the argument was over. “I think we finally, at least in our progress, come to the point that most people can no longer deny it because it is so obvious,” she said [1].

Praising young climate activists in Colorado who she said “were not listening to ‘no,’” she added: “I like to say, ‘I eat no for breakfast.’ So I get it, right?” [1]

There was a second slip, and the transcript left that one alone. Pitching the program to business leaders, Harris said: “this investment is an incentive — this public investment is an inventive by design for billions more dollars from the private sector” [1].

The $20 Billion

The money was real. Harris announced “$20 billion to a national network of nonprofits, community lenders, and other financial institutions to fund tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across America” [1].

It came from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, “a $27 billion investment that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act,” the press pool reported [2]. The largest piece, the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund, would provide grants to two or three national clean financing institutions, according to news coverage the vice president’s office circulated that day [5].

“Nearly $12 billion of this funding we’re announcing today will be invested in overlooked communities,” Harris said. She tied the spending to the administration’s goal “to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050” [1].

House Republicans had already voted to repeal the fund. Its repeal was part of H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, which passed the House that March and drew a veto threat from the White House, as HYGO News reported in its page on that bill.

A Gaffe-Filled Week

Three days before Baltimore, at a July 11 roundtable on the Americans with Disabilities Act with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Harris explained transportation. “This issue of transportation is fundamentally about just making sure that people have the ability to get where they need to go. It’s that basic,” she said, according to the official transcript [6].

The next day, she sat down with labor and civil rights leaders to talk about artificial intelligence. “I think the first part of this issue that should be articulated is AI is kind of a fancy thing,” she said. “First of all, it’s two letters. It means artificial intelligence,” Fox News reported [3].

By the Numbers

$20 billion: the grants Harris announced in Baltimore [1].
$27 billion: the size of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created by the Inflation Reduction Act [2].
Nearly $12 billion: the share Harris said would go to “overlooked communities” [1].
2: standing ovations Harris received, according to the press pool [2].
8: nonprofit groups awarded the $20 billion, The New York Times reported [7].
312-226: the 2024 Electoral College result, Donald Trump over Harris [10].

What Happened Next

The “gold bars” fight. In February 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin moved to claw back the $20 billion that the Biden administration had awarded to eight nonprofit groups. Zeldin suggested the program was vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse, citing a Project Veritas hidden-camera video in which a former EPA staff member likened the outgoing administration’s spending to throwing “gold bars” off the Titanic. The Times reported that the government had not substantiated those claims, despite investigations by the EPA’s inspector general, the Justice Department and the FBI [7].

The courts stepped in. In April 2025, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan blocked the EPA from canceling the grants. On Aug. 4, 2026, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld that injunction in a split decision [7]. Days later, the EPA and the grant recipients agreed to keep roughly $17 billion frozen while the administration takes the case to the Supreme Court, a move E&E News reported could delay the awards until summer 2027 [8].

The EV credits are gone. The One Big Beautiful Bill that President Trump signed on July 4, 2025, ended the federal tax credits for new and used electric vehicles acquired after Sept. 30, 2025, according to the IRS [9].

Out of Paris. On Jan. 20, 2025, his first day back in office, Trump ordered the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to submit formal notice of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement [11].

Harris lost. In 2024, Harris ran as the Democratic nominee for president and lost to Trump, 312 electoral votes to 226, according to the National Archives [10].