President Joe Bidens relationship with climate activists is starting to look something like a rollercoaster, with highs and lows, twists and turns and the occasional full stomach drop.

That tension was at its most public when a few dozen activists from Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate group, descended on the White House on Friday to demand Biden stand his ground and keep climate provisions in his infrastructure plan.

We believed him when he said that climate change was the existential threat of our time. We believed him when he said that his jobs plan was going to be a once-in-a-generation investment in America, Deirdre Shelly, campaign director at Sunrise, told HuffPost at the event. And over the past few weeks, weve just seen his plan our best shot right now at starting the decade of the Green New Deal weve seen him make his plan small and weaker.

Biden has been on shaky ground with the climate community before.

In May 2019, Reuters reported that the then-presidential candidate was eyeing a middle ground climate policy that would maintain a future for oil and gas, appeal to both environmentalists and the blue-collar voters who elected Donald Trump and likely face heavy resistance from green activists.

The backlash was fierce . Progressive supporters of the Green New Deal labeled Biden Middle Ground Joe, an unfavorable twist on his signature nickname Middle Class Joe.

Biden dismissed the criticism, defending both his record on climate in the Senate and his plan for addressing planet-altering climate change as president. There is no middle ground about my plan, he said during a Democratic debate in August 2019.

Many of the same organizations that hammered Biden on the campaign trail have cheered him as president, as he has outlined an aggressive path to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, boost renewable energy on federal lands and create millions of green union jobs.

The Sunrise Movement, which CNN called an early winner in the Biden transition, claimed victory when Biden issued a frenzy of early executive orders on climate. The moves made it clear that President Biden hears our generations demands loud and clear, understands the power of our movement, and is serious about using executive power to deliver on his campaign promises, the group said a week into Bidens presidency.

But Sunrise and several other environmental groups have soured in recent weeks, as the administration has thrown its support behind major fossil fuel and mining projects and weighs leaving billions in climate funding out of its landmark infrastructure proposal in order to win over Republicans.

At the protest Friday, Sunrise Movement volunteers called on Biden to maintain funding to establish a Civilian Climate Corps , a New Deal-style program to fight climate change and protect and restore Americas public lands, and to sit down with youth organizers rather than negotiate with Republicans working to strip climate provisions from the administrations proposal.