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The Boston trip was one of 83 Biden took last year outside of Washington, significantly fewer than the 113 taken by Donald Trump in 2019 but close to the 89 trips by Barack Obama in 2011, according to data from official presidential schedules, White House media pool reports, and a travel archive compiled by former CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

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Trumps number, however, was inflated by many more trips than Biden and Obama in the immediate vicinity of the nations capital, including 35 to his Northern Virginia golf club. Bidens travel included more trips to personal properties, vacation sites, and the Camp David presidential retreat than Trump or Obama.

Biden visited 29 different states last year, compared to Trumps 30 and Obamas 31, each of them heavily emphasizing states they had won as they prepared for an election year. Biden did more foreign travel, taking trips to 14 different countries or US territories last year. Trump went to nine and Obama went to 10 in their third years. Biden also traveled to two active war zones Ukraine and Israel while Trump went to one in 2019, Afghanistan. Obama went to none in 2011.

Biden also spent more time outside of Washington. The 223 full or partial days he was away from the nations capital exceeded Trumps 197 and Obamas 153. More than half of Bidens trips last year 47 involved nights away from the White House. That compares to 27 for Trump and 23 for Obama.

Theres much talk about Bidens age, but he has traveled aggressively and extensively just like many of his predecessors have, said Brendan J. Doherty, a political science professor at the Naval Academy who has studied presidential travel.

Still, Republicans have criticized Biden for his travel, both for not doing enough of it and doing too much.

President Biden needs to get out of Delaware and Washington, D.C., go see the rest of the United States and see how our communities are getting by under his economic policies, Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, told Fox News in September. For heavens sake, Bidens got to get out of the basement.

The Republican National Committee has hammered Biden for his frequent trips to his two Delaware homes and other vacation spots, including Camp David. The RNC claimed he spent 142 days last year on vacation, including trips to Nantucket, Lake Tahoe, and St. Croix.

Unlike Joe Biden, everyday Americans cant run away to the beach or Camp David when things get tough, RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. Bidens not up for the job, and Americans deserve better.

The RNC figures include a broad definition of vacation, with White House officials and experts noting that a president is always on the job and can perform duties from anywhere.

The Globe analysis found Biden spent parts of 114 days at his personal properties or vacation sites last year, compared with 106 for Trump and just 23 for Obama. Biden has made more frequent use of Camp David, which can be a secure location for respite or official meetings. He spent parts of 30 days there, while Obama spent 17 and Trump just 7, the Globe found.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Bidens drive has delivered historic results for middle class families as well as restored US alliances around the globe.

President Biden is eager to keep fighting for every Americans future, and continue sharing, in-person, the progress were making all over the country, while continuing to stand up for our interests all over the world, Bates said.

Biden reportedly has pushed to travel more and current and former staffers say his stamina is not a question despite his advanced age. Biden turned 81 in November. Trump turned 73 in June 2019 and Obama turned 50 in August 2011.

He travels in order to be more effective at what hes doing, said Ted Kaufman, a longtime Biden congressional aide who later was appointed as his Senate replacement when he became vice president. One of the reasons why hes been so effective in dealing with the [European Union] and NATO . . . is because he travels a lot.

Polls have shown about three-quarters of Americans believe Biden is too old to serve another four-year term. He can help dispel that by getting out of the White House, Doherty said.

But there are risks to travel. The Trump campaign has repeatedly mocked Biden in ads with a clip of him tripping multiple times on his way up the stairs to Air Force One in 2021. NPR reported last summer that Biden had started using a shorter set of stairs on Air Force One more frequently after he tripped over a sandbag and fell during an appearance at the Air Force Academy in Colorado in June.

The opposing party is always ready to pounce on any potential physical or rhetorical stumble, but they will also criticize the president if he stays at the White House, so the presidents team likely concludes that hoped-for benefits of travel outweigh the potential risks, Doherty said.

Despite last months Boston trip, Biden took fewer trips last year that involved a campaigning or fund-raising event than Trump. Biden had 22 such trips, nearly identical to Obamas 21 but much less than Trumps 40, many of which involved campaign rallies. A Trump spokesperson did not respond to emails requesting comment.

Typical of his predecessors, Biden focused his travel on states that he won in the 2020 election: 19 of the 29 he visited. He made 10 trips to the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where he was born. That was more than any other outside the Washington metro area except for his current home state of Delaware, which he visited 28 times.

Trump traveled to 18 states he won in 2016 out of the 30 he visited in his third year in office. Texas, which he easily won, was his most frequent stop (eight trips) outside the D.C. region aside from Florida, where he has a home. Obama went to 24 states he won in 2008 out of his total of 31 visited, with deep blue New York (10 visits) topping his list outside the Washington area.

Doherty expects Bidens travel to accelerate this year. He found that presidents dating back to Jimmy Carter travel most in their fourth year in office as they campaign for reelection. This January, Biden traveled to 10 different states, including Pennsylvania and South Carolina twice, topping the five states he visited in January 2023.

Presidents tend to be quite confident in their ability to communicate, and believe that they can build support if the public understands the presidents many efforts on their behalf, he said. And travel is one key way that they try to do that.

Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera.

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President Biden's travel compares favorably to Trump, Obama - The Boston Globe

A decade after former President Barack Obama labeled natural gas a bridge fuel in his 2014 State of the Union address, his former vice president is grappling with how far to extend its use.

President Joe Bidens decision last week to pause reviews of proposed terminals that would export liquefied natural gas ignited a political firestorm. Environmentalists praised the president, saying it showed he is serious about phasing out fossil fuels and confronting climate change. Business groups said it would drive other countries into the arms of both the coal industry and gas-producing nations such as Russia, which have fewer environmental rules to control emissions.

But the current debate essentially is an extension of a fight that has consumed domestic energy policy for the last decade how hard should the U.S. lean on natural gas to green the energy system?

The fuel emits less carbon dioxide than coal when burned, making it a bridge to a low-carbon energy system with more wind and solar. But leaky wellheads, pipelines and even residential appliances emit an even more powerful albeit shorter-lived greenhouse gas in the form of methane, reducing its climate advantage.

The difference in this years fight is that it concerns the role of American gas abroad, and the extent to which LNG exports help cut coal consumption in Asia and backstop Europe as it seeks to remake its energy system without the aid of Russian natural gas.

The United States doesnt have a coherent gas policy and were going to keep seeing goofy stuff until we do, said Emily Grubert, an associate professor of sustainable energy policy at the University of Notre Dame who worked at the Energy Department during the first years of the Biden administration. Were essentially refusing to confront that our climate goals imply natural gas needs to go away over the next two decades.

To reach the goals that countries set under the Paris climate agreement which assumes a zeroing out of emissions by 2050 fossil fuel demand must fall 80 percent by midcentury, leaving no space for new long-term oil and gas projects, according to the International Energy Agency.

The climate impact of LNG can vary by country. A 2019 Energy Department study found widespread differences across regions. In Asia, life-cycle emissions associated with U.S. LNG were 54 percent to 2 percent less than local coal. In Europe, that figure had an even bigger range from 56 percent less than coal to a percent more than coal.

The broad ranges reflect differences in how LNG cargoes are used, the distance they travel and supply chain emissions associated with the gas, said Arvind Ravikumar, a professor who studies oil and gas emissions at the University of Texas at Austin.

In China, LNG has displaced coal from district heating. That is likely a net positive for climate not only because coal is carbon intensive when burned, but also because Chinese coal mines are major methane emitters in their own right, Ravikumar said. Even so, LNG isnt as strong a substitute for power generation or energy-intensive industries since coal remains cheaper.

Its a different situation in India, where gas is unlikely to compete with either coal or solar. Both power sources are cheap compared to gas, making the type of coal-to-gas switch seen in China unlikely. Indian gas imports largely are used as a feedstock to make fertilizer.

Its absurd to think there is one right answer, Ravikumar said. It depends on what country youre talking about.

Bidens pause only covers LNG terminals with pending applications. It does not extend to projects already under construction or those already approved by federal regulators. That means any emissions impact related to the pause likely will be delayed, Ravikumar said.

Implementation of the new EPA guidelines on methane emissions from oil and gas facilities, by contrast, could make an immediate impact in reducing emissions from LNG, he said.

That is really important because irrespective of the broader debate around the future of gas, there are things we can do tomorrow, Ravikumar said. We can reduce demand emissions from the supply chain.

Americas LNG boom is the latest byproduct of the shale revolution. Advancements in horizontal drilling and fracking more than 15 years ago unlocked a sea of cheap gas in the United States and transformed the countrys energy markets. Gas use in the power sector has surged, rising from 27 percent of electricity generation in 2014 to more than 40 percent last year. It is the countrys primary fuel source for residential heating and a key industrial feedstock.

The flood of cheap gas also prompted an export boom.

American gas suppliers can fetch a higher price for their fuel in Asia and Europe, which largely lack the domestic gas resources of the United States. And so they set about building a series of LNG terminals, which transformed the U.S. from a net-gas importer into the worlds largest gas exporter in less than a decade. The terminals cool gas to extremely cold temperatures, liquefy it, and enable it to be loaded onto ships and sent around the world. It is then regasified when arriving in port.

In the wake of Bidens decision, critics said U.S. allies could face energy shortages and skyrocketing prices. They argued the decision also could hurt Bidens climate ambitions and encourage countries to burn coal or buy gas from Russia, which has a famously leaky gas system.

The United States should not undercut our allies or fund our enemies with a policy that will increase global emissions and hamstring an engine of economic growth, American Gas Association President and CEO Karen Harbert said in a statement.

But analysts said American allies are unlikely to see gas shortages anytime soon.

U.S. LNG exports are poised for a boom in the coming years. The countrys export capacity stood at more than 14 billion cubic feet a day at the end of 2023. Five projects with a combined export capacity of 11.6 bcf per day are under construction and projects with another 16 bcf per day have been approved by federal regulators, according to an Energy Department fact sheet.

The issue is not future availability. There is plenty of LNG out there, said Ira Joseph, a senior research associate at Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy and longtime gas analyst. The issue is what kind of standard does it set for future policy? What is a pause, and what does it mean going forward?

Bidens pause arrives at an inflection point for the gas industry. Global gas consumption grew by 25 percent between 2011 and 2021, accounting for 40 percent of the growth in primary energy supplies over that time, according to the IEA. But the industrys growth came to a sharp halt in 2022, when Russias invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices soaring and prompted many countries to turn to coal and renewables as cheaper alternatives.

Global gas demand grew by a paltry 0.5 percent in 2023, with increases in the U.S. and Asia offset by a sharp decline in Europe. The future is cloudy. Europe represents a potential downside scenario for the industry. The IEA projects European gas demand will be 20 percent below 2021 levels by 2026, the same time period during which already approved new U.S. LNG terminals are expected to nearly double current U.S. export capacity.

Russias invasion of Ukraine sparked deep reflection within the European Union not just about how much the bloc relied on Russia for a key source of energy, but also on its overall use of fuels driving climate change. American LNG helped backfill lost Russian gas, rising to 21 percent of European gas supplies, according to Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

At the same time, the EU launched a plan to wean itself off Russian gas by accelerating its investments in wind and solar and emphasizing the need for energy savings. A spike in energy prices helped drive down demand, particularly in gas used to power industries.

EU gas demand has stabilized somewhat following consecutive years of steep declines, said Georg Zachmann, a senior fellow who tracks energy markets at Bruegel. But, he added, speedy renewables deployment, progressing climate change (less heating degree days), massive deployment of heat pumps, etc. all point towards quickly declining gas demand.

A group of 60 mostly left-leaning European lawmakers wrote a letter to Biden and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm before the decision was announced, calling on them not to use EU gas demand as a reason to justify expanding exports.

If Europe represents the potential downside for gas, Asia offers the industry reason for optimism.

The region is projected to account for 70 percent of new global gas demand in the medium term, according to the IEA. The advent of more LNG terminals could drive down prices, making gas cheaper relative to its competitors and spur more demand.

That is a scenario where Bidens pause comes into play, analysts say. The delay in permit reviews could complicate contract negotiations for the planned terminals, and prompt buyers to look to alternative suppliers or other fuel sources.

It could hinder [the] energy transition. It could hinder these climate incentives solely by the fact that if we take away needed LNG for regions in Europe and Asia, there could be a kind of a backstep or backpedaling towards coal usage, said Emily McClain, vice president of North America Gas Market Research at Rystad Energy, a consultancy.

Arguments that a pause in U.S. permitting would result in greater Asia coal consumption ignore basic demand trends in the region, said Sam Reynolds, a research lead with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a think tank that supports a shift to clean energy.

The largest buyers of U.S. LNG historically have been South Korea and Japan. But in Japan, LNG imports fell 8 percent last year and are expected to continue that downward trend as it brings more nuclear power online. Demand in South Korea could fall up to 20 percent by the mid-2030s, Reynolds added.

In growth markets such as China, Southeast Asia and South Asia, U.S. LNG has struggled to compete with cheaper and geographically closer suppliers such as Qatar, Malaysia and Australia, Reynolds said.

Paulina Jaramillo, a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, said the Biden administration was warranted in pausing to review the climate impact of additional LNG terminals. Some level of U.S. LNG exports should be expected. When the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change modeled pathways to net zero, it found gas consumption likely would continue through midcentury, she noted.

But global gas consumption needs to fall to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius or less making a large expansion of U.S. LNG exports inconsistent with the countrys climate targets, Jaramillo said.

A bridge by its nature is meant to lead to a destination, she said. It is time to get off the bridge.

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Biden confronts climate challenge that tested Obama - E&E News by POLITICO

WASHINGTON President Joe Bidens campaign is trying to organize a first-of-its-kind fundraiser that officials hope would be lucrative and headline-grabbing, but also energizing for Democratic voters who so far have not shown enthusiasm for the partys 2024 ticket, according to four people familiar with the planning.

The idea is for three Democratic presidents Biden, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to appear together at a fundraiser this spring, the four people familiar with the discussions said.

Discussions are underway to coordinate the presidents schedules, these people said, though no date has been set. The fundraiser would likely take place in March or April, two of the sources familiar with the discussions said.

The plan underscores the belief among Biden allies that the party needs an all-hands-on-deck approach to help him win a second term. Its also just one in a growing list of ways that Democratic leaders, and the Biden campaign, are gearing up for a general election they view as having the highest of stakes.

The Biden campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for Clinton and Obama declined to comment.

The Biden campaign in recent days shifted into a general election posture earlier than the presidents aides anticipated. Their expectation has long been that former President Donald Trump would be Bidens opponent this fall after the Republican primary process played out. But that moment arrived this week, Biden aides concluded, after Trumps victory in New Hampshire, which followed his win in Iowa.

As a result, the campaign is increasing the pace of its hiring, particularly in battleground states, and ramping up its focus on voters whose support it believes will decide the November election, officials said. Biden, for instance, has tailored recent events to Black voters, including on Saturday in South Carolina. Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday in Nevada kicked off a series of small events with Latino voters.

The presidents travel schedule which has already picked up its pace will accelerate even more, so that he is out in the country a minimum of two days a week, according to Biden officials.

Its going to be very aggressive, one White House official said.

The Biden campaign also is poised to launch a multimillion-dollar ad campaign aimed at drawing a contrast with Trump, according to two people familiar with the plans. One of the sources said it could debut around Bidens State of the Union address, which is scheduled for early March.

An earlier general election fight also requires additional campaign cash.

The overarching goal of a fundraiser where Biden, Clinton and Obama share a stage is to raise a significant amount of money, two of the people familiar with the discussions said. The expectation is the event would bring in both big and small donations.

But the Biden campaign also hopes the presidential trio will help mobilize the party base.

There is real focus and urgency around making sure we beat Trump, a Biden adviser said. Everyone is all in. And this kind of event early on is just the latest demonstration of that.

If the fundraiser is viewed by the campaign as a success, a second one could be organized for later in the year, one of the people familiar with the discussions said.

What Democrats see as a party show of force, however, could be viewed differently by some voters who helped Biden win in 2020, such as moderate Republicans. Clinton and Obama have been lightning rods for the GOP, and Clinton has faced criticism from some Democrats in recent years over the handling of allegations of sexual misconduct that were made against him in the 1990s.

Still, both Clinton and Obama remain popular among Democrats. And they are more popular Democratic leaders than Biden, though former presidents generally tend to enjoy higher approval from Americans than the current one.

One potential warning sign for Biden is that his approval rating in year three of his presidency as he campaigns for re-election is lower than Obamas and Clintons at this same point in their presidencies. Those numbers highlight the challenge Biden faces with voters this November.

At the same time, the presidents aides argue that key economic indicators have shown recent promising signs of improvement that they believe will benefit the president in coming months and help turn around his approval rating. To try to seize on that momentum, the White House has expanded how Biden conveys his economic message by having him engage more one-on-one with Americans about specific issues, including student loan debt and running a small business.

Weve mixed up the events so the president is out there talking to people individually, the White House official said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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First-of-its-kind campaign fundraiser in the works with Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Biden - Yahoo News

The Biden administration and Democrats are pushing back against a years-long trend in energy policy that was set in motion by their own former leader.

In tandem with actions aimed at protecting the climate, former President Obama pursued an aggressive policy of natural gas exports — one which President Biden continued for most of his first term.

Early Friday morning, however, Biden — under heavy pressure from many in his own party — signaled a step back, announcing a pause on permits for the segment of the vast fleet of new gas export terminals still awaiting federal permission to build.

During that pause, the president wrote, the administration will “take a hard look at the impacts of [liquified natural gas, or LNG] exports on energy costs, America’s energy security, and our environment.”

Environmentalists, congressional Democrats and communities in the shadow of the export terminals have pushed Biden on the issue, fearing that the gas terminals will fuel an enormous boom in the burning of the planet-heating chemical and undercut renewables, potentially hamstringing attempts to slow climate change.

President Biden walks with former President Obama on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, in Philadelphia during a midterms campaign rally. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The gas industry contends that because the fuel burns cleaner than coal, the expansion of U.S. gas exports will help the world at large cut emissions — and their restriction will hand the initiative to less responsible actors.

Critics, however, have pointed to findings that even relatively small amounts of leakage from natural gas pipelines can make the fuel as damaging to the climate as coal — findings the industry disputes.

The Biden administration’s decision to implement the pause and review LNG exports’ impacts marks an elevation of critics’ concerns. It also represents a sea change from Obama’s tenure, when the White House didn’t see the themes of climate action and gas boosterism as contradictory, and when the current boom in U.S. gas exports began. 

Back then, the White House embraced the idea that gas could be a “bridge fuel” connecting a largely coal-based U.S. power system to a glittering future of renewables — and that U.S. exports of fracked gas could do the same thing for the world at large.

Obama took office amid an epochal boom in U.S. oil and gas that he had inherited from former President George W. Bush. Starting in the second half of the Bush administration, surging gas prices — which spiked sixfold between 2002 and 2005 — helped fund revolutionary new drilling methods that fueled a gas boom. 

These shifts had a dramatic effects on the formerly placid world of U.S. gas, which had been largely flat for decades. In 2005 — the year prices spiked — the nation produced about as much gas as it had in 1967.

That changed quickly. By 2008, when Obama took office, gas production had edged up to 13 percent over where it had been in 2005. By the time he left, it was 50 percent higher — and for the first time in history, the United States had a gas export industry.

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Biden bucks Obamas legacy on climate and gas with LNG export pause - The Hill

Malia Obama might be the daughter of a former world leader, but shes keeping things subtle with her directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival. For one thing, shes dropped the Obama from her name to go by Malia Ann. Also, if you were expecting some kind of political thriller, or a Lady Bird-like coming-of-age piece about a young woman growing up in a very big, white house, think again.

Obamas 18-minute narrative short film The Heart is a quiet story about a man named Joshua (Tunde Adebimpe) who lives with his mother (LaTonya Borsay). We open to a black screen and listen in on a strange, half-hearted argument. Joshua has failed to bring milk home along with the other groceries, and although he insists the store ran out, his mother doesnt seem to believe him. Later that night, she dies from a heart attack while hes upstairs in the shower. As we come to find out, her will contains a strange request: She wants her heart preserved in a jar for posterity.

As far as Sundance short films go, The Heart is pretty par for the courseits subtle, its somewhat strange, and its visuals are warm and lo-fi. In her Meet the Artist video, Obama describes the production as somewhat of a fable and adds, The film is about lost objects and lonely people, forgiveness and regret. But I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things.

Yes, yes, of course[sips tea and adjusts monocle]but more importantly, is this short film any good?

On the whole, The Heart is a solid but mostly forgettable short film. Theres plenty of technique on display, from its well composed shots to its homey, nostalgic color palette, but the story and performances ring a little emptyas though a piece is missing. On an emotional level, at least, The Heart actually is a little lifeless.

Obama, now 25, clearly picked up some solid filmmaking chops during her time at Harvard, where she reportedly focused on Visual and Environmental Studies. Her previous production experiences include writing for Donald Glovers Swarm in 2021 and working and/or interning on series including Girls and Halle Berrys CBS sci-fi drama Extant. Obama also interned for the Weinstein Company in 2017, before allegations against Harvey Weinstein made national news. In spite of Obamas technical accomplishments, however, its hard not to wish that The Heart felt a little more personal. Ironically, given its title, the short feels a little too intellectually drivendevoid of real feeling.

The short films climax is more confusing than anything, and not just because Josh is riding a bus home with the heart on full display beside him. (Did no one think to give him a paper bag for that thing?) Along the way, he spots a woman who looks just like his mother. Despite her protestations that she does not know him and has never met him, Josh proceeds to explain why he failed to buy the milk on the day she died, but only after hes made her drop all her groceries on the ground. As Josh tearfully explains himself, his forcibly adopted surrogate mother tells him the quarrel is nothing to cry about just before the camera cuts to a shot of the spilled milk on the ground. (Get it?)

After the two part ways, a final shot of the inside of the bus reveals the heart that Josh left behind, sitting on its seat alone. OK.

As a former First Daughterand one whose family endured an untold amount of racist harassment in the mediathe stakes for Obamas debut effort feel a little higher than your average first-timer at Sundance. Speaking with GQ last year, Donald Glover himself recalled telling his protge that the quality of her first film would be paramount. Youre Obamas daughter, he recalled telling her. So if you make a bad film, it will follow you around.

The Heart is not a bad film, and its certainly not awful enough to follow Obama or anyone around; really, its about what youd expect from a young filmmaker who is still relatively fresh in the game. If nothing else, the intention behind it is admirable enough to hope that Obama keeps exploring what she has to say as a filmmaker. We hope that you enjoy the film, she said during her Meet the Artist session, and that it makes you feel a bit less lonelyor at least reminds you not to forget about the people who are.

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Nepo Baby of the Week: Is Malia Obama's Film Debut Any Good? - The Daily Beast