President-elect Joe Biden has made it a secret that tackling climate change will be his top priority. But to legislate on its platform to mitigate global warming, it could find an unexpected ally: the Republicans.
Biden campaigned on the most ambitious climate agenda in history: one that included plans to pioneer green energy and infrastructure projects and proposals to eliminate environmental racism. Much of its “Build Back Better” economic agenda is clearly linked to climate-related policies.
Biden has said he will enter the U.S. on the first day of office in the Paris Climate Agreement and undo dozens of environmental regulatory rollbacks put in place by President Donald Trump – which will be enforced.
But what comes next will be the hardest part: trying to implement its climate agenda by law.
And that’s where he could find a partnership with Republicans on Capitol Hill.
When the G.O.P. In some relentless denial that change in the human-climate environment also exists, dozens of Republican lawmakers have acknowledged that the time has come to address the crisis and move forward with policies that have gained bilateral traction.
However, no one has approached the level of reform proposed by Biden. As a result, his administration will have to tread carefully by balancing the progressive weather actions it has promised with its willingness to reach bilateral solutions and promote political unity.
Meetings with legislators from both parties and climate advocacy organizations on both sides of the political spectrum indicate that the appetite for climate change policy is strong in both parties, making the issue possible, even if there is room for bilateral cooperation under the new president.
Biden has tied much of how he can explore the issue in two close elections to the Senate run-up in Georgia next month. If the Democrats win both, it wins control of the chamber, and with it, the leadership posts of climate-oriented committees, which will give Biden a foothold in setting road rules on the issue. But if Democrats fall short, Republicans will retain control of the Senate, and with it, the ability to push their own climate bills.
Either way, the majority that exists will be a narrow, bipartisan compromise, whether desired or not, is the only way to legislate.
“We see a huge opportunity in this administration,” said Quillian Robbins, a spokeswoman for the for-profit American Conservation Coalition, which advocates for tougher solutions to climate change. “A divided government seems to be taking away that opportunity, but, really, it’s an opportunity for sustainable weather solutions, rather than flipping through the executive orders of one administration, for the administration of another.”
Opportunities for reconciliation
Biden has promised to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, limiting oil and gas drilling in public lands and public waters, raising gas mileage standards for vehicles and signing administrative orders to block the construction of certain residue-fuel pipelines. He can do all this through executive action.
Biden has also promised a 100 percent clean electricity standard by 2035 (which could mean shuttering or complete renovation of coal-fired and gas-fired power plants in the U.S.) and the U.S. Zero emissions by NE-2050, the latest. He also proposed a tr 3 trillion investment in renewable energy projects, with 40 percent of the funds benefiting communities of color harmed by pollutants. He won’t get a ton of Republican support on those ideas.
Biden has made it clear, especially through the choices of its employees, that they see the issue properly as a government approach that helps build new green infrastructure using cabinet agencies such as the Department of Transportation and the Department of Home Affairs and promotes developing green energy sources. , As well as taking the State Department to unify other international powers to focus equally on weather policy and carbon emissions.
And it is in these areas – especially because it relates to the investment and development of green resources, green technologies and green infrastructure – that it can find common ground.
Sense. Mike Brann, R-Ind., Debbie Stebano, D-Mitch., Lindsay Graham, RSC, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D.R.I. Sponsored by the Growing Climate Solutions Act, d. The agricultural sector, while San Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and the White House have introduced another bilateral bill focused on enhancing naturally occurring carbon capture methods in sea and marine ecosystems.
Earlier this year, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, along with seven of his Republican colleagues, began pushing for a new conservative climate policy effort – which was meant to rival the progressive “Green New Deal” – Rep. Dan Cranshaw, R. Text., Who introduced the law, entitled New Energy Frontier, in which carbon-capture technology was developed.
“All of this needs to start with technological innovation,” Craneshow said in an interview. While Cranshaw said he strongly opposes U.S. re-entry into the Paris Agreement and does not agree with most of Biden’s environmental plans, but is willing to work with the administration on proposals that are part of his bill.
“I think we can agree on the policies that I have put in place,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy David Mann Kinley, RWVA, and Kurt Schrader, D-O Re., Have proposed a 10-year public-private partnership to invest in clean energy and infrastructure and subsequent new regulations.
Some on the left have called those proposals too narrow – emphasizing the paradox of promoting many techniques that separate carbon from carbon-emitting plants and leave such carbon-emitting plants – but Democrats also seem to have enough room for compromise. . .
The White House, which has lent its name to several Senate compromise bills, said Democrats need to try to do whatever it takes to tackle climate change.
Asked by NBC News whether the Biden administration and its allies in Congress should prioritize the president-elect’s agenda or a primary bipartisan compromise, the White House replied, “Both.”
“If we are aggressive and bipartisan at the same time, the best results will come,” the White House, which has both pressed for progressive climate change policies and is also a co-sponsor of more humble bilateral legislation, wrote in an email to NBC News.
“The Biden plan is broad enough to encircle both, and we must pursue both. But to succeed, the administration must first set the conditions for victory,” the White House said. “
“Real bipartisanship is achieved in the best possible way,” he added.
In a statement, the Biden transition reiterated that the president-elect had preferred climate change and would implement his policies with “both policy and executive action.”
That strength can be achieved by kicking the administration with a flurry of executive actions on the weather regarding the White House, as Byden has promised. But with a slim majority in the House, and even the Senate close to splitting, regardless of who wins in Georgia’s run-offs, Byrd will have to do well with the second set of almost repeated campaign promises: bilateral cooperation.
The groups on both sides are ready for it.
“Yes, there will be obstacles from some Republicans, but I really believe there will still be a lot of potential for bipartisanship in the fight against climate change,” said Michael Bruin, executive director of the Sierra Club.
Bruin pointed to clean energy tariff standards, accelerated the development of new energy tariff technologies, growing American jobs in the green sector and saving consumers money on their energy tariff bills as solid areas for consent.
Conservative environmental groups have echoed that sentiment, praising some of Biden’s more ambitious proposals.
Robinson of the Conservative American Conservative Coalition said “incentives are indeed connecting both politically and economically,” making significant investments in green technologies and infrastructure more possible than ever before.
Top steer, billionaire climate activist and Democrat who emphasizes the ambitious environmental justice platform, running for president, also agreed with NBC News that “the country has moved forward on this issue.”
“I think the business community has moved forward very clearly; I think the Republicans have moved forward,” said Stear, who helped negotiate between the 2020 Democrats on climate change but who is currently working with the administration on the issue. No.
“Now this is not a biased issue,” he said.
But he also made it clear that Biden, who won the presidency after such a large part of his campaign on climate change, should set the terms of the talks.
“We won the argument,” he said. “Now that moment is here, it’s time to get home.”
