Joe Biden has unveiled a new, more aggressive climate and employment plan that advisers say he would bring to Congress “immediately” if he were elected president.
The new proposal outlines $ 2 trillion for clean energy infrastructure and other climate solutions, to be spent as quickly as possible in the next four years, which would be the Democrat’s first term in office. Last year, he proposed $ 1.7 billion in spending over 10 years.
“Addressing the economic crisis will be the number one priority for a Biden president,” a senior campaign official told reporters. “This will be the legislation to which it is addressed [Capitol Hill] Immediately to finish. The reality is that we will face a country that will be in great need of this type of investment to be made here. ”
Two crises are converging: a devastated economy and high unemployment that could drag on for years as the nation struggles to gain control of the coronavirus pandemic, and a window that closes quickly to significantly reduce heat-trapping emissions and lead the way. global climate action.
Biden unveiled The climate plan, the second part of his “Build Back Better” proposal, was speaking from Delaware on Tuesday afternoon.
“When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is ‘deception,'” Biden said, referring to Trump’s previous claims that the crisis is false. “When I think about climate change, the word I think of is ‘jobs.'” In a detailed speech on climate policy, Biden said his proposal would create one million jobs in electric vehicle manufacturing, one million in building improvement and a quarter of a million cleanup after the extractive industries. Biden said he would give Americans money back by switching to cleaner cars and making their homes more efficient.
He said he was focusing on his first four years as president because “science tells us that we have nine years before the damage is irreversible.”
The new targets align Biden more closely with three main opponents, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Jay Inslee. The Governor of Washington. They follow the recommendations of a Sanders and Biden supporters unity working group that was co-chaired by New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who co-sponsored the Green New Deal.
Biden employees painted a picture of a modernized America with the “cleanest, safest and fastest rail system in the world”, the largest electric vehicle manufacturing sector, 4 million renovated buildings and 1.5 million new sustainable homes and public housing units. They presented the spending as a work plan as well as a climate program.
The plan aims for a clean electricity system that includes renewable energy and nuclear power by 2035. Biden would not ban fracking for natural gas, which would require an act of Congress. But he would ban new fracking on public land.
Gina McCarthy, a former administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency who is now chair of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, said the plan was “by far the most ambitious we’ve seen of a president in the history of our nation. “
Unions and environmental justice communities would be central to climate efforts, campaign employees said. Climate change affects low-income communities of color the most, a background paper noted.
Biden would create a national crisis strategy to ensure equitable government responses to disasters, start a working group to lessen climate risks for the most vulnerable, and establish an office for climate change and health equity.
The fastest timeline is intended to ensure that no future president can reverse climate gains, in the way the Donald Trump administration has fueled fossil fuels. Trump plans to exit the Paris climate deal, but Biden has promised to re-enter it and double American contributions.
Much of Biden’s plan would require the agreement of Congress. Gaining control of the Senate is essential.
“He is confident that he will be able to work with Congress to achieve something constructive,” said the senior campaign official. “Of course, at the same time he makes sure to campaign in every state necessary to make sure we win as many Senate seats as we can to achieve that goal.”
Another Biden official said the program would be funded by tax increases for corporations and “asking wealthier Americans to pay their fair share.”
The updated climate plan follows Biden’s announcement last week of a $ 700 billion “buy American” proposal to revive American manufacturing.
Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said Biden’s revised plan responds to many of the group’s previous criticisms by “dramatically increasing the scale and urgency of investments, filling in details on how it would achieve environmental justice and create Good union jobs and promising immediate action, on Day 1, in its first 100 days, in its first term, in the next decade, not just on some distant goals. ”
Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said Biden’s plan would kill 10 million jobs in the US energy industry and called it a “socialist manifesto.”
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