Point: Is President-elect Biden ready for the urgency of the climate crisis?
This is an op-ed by David Hastings, a climate scientist and retired professor of oceanography. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. Click here for another view on this topic.
During his campaign, President-elect Joe Biden declared climate change the “No. 1 issue facing humanity” and vowed a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy that he said would create millions of jobs. Will he follow through?
The last Democratic president, Barack Obama, had a mixed environmental record.
He signed the Paris Climate Accords and gave a modest boost to clean energy production. His administration gets credit for issuing higher standards for automobile fuel emissions, and to reduce electricity in appliances, from dishwashers to walk-in freezers.
But the Obama EPA dragged its feet against imposing carbon-dioxide standards for power plants and oil refineries, and wasted time pushing an ineffective cap-and-trade system rather than a badly needed carbon tax.
Obama was miles better than President Donald Trump, but Biden will have to be miles better than Obama.
The good news is that the candidate Biden had the most ambitious plan addressing the climate crisis ever proposed by a major party nominee for president.
His infrastructure and clean energy proposals included a pledge to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035. To a number of observers, setting 2035 as the target appears unrealistic, but it’s what the science tells us we must do.
Candidate Biden also has been seemingly undeterred by the $2 trillion price tag over four years, because he proposes the climate crisis as an opportunity to create millions of jobs, address systemic inequities and correct environmental problems in communities most heavily affected by climate effects.
How feasible is it to achieve these goals?
It’s an uphill climb, to be sure. To achieve his ambitious pillar for a “clean-energy revolution” means doubling the best rate of solar and wind deployment each year from 2020 to 2029 — then tripling it each year from 2030 to 2035.
This will need to go hand in hand with building an energy grid, which is a key part of the plan to create half a million jobs annually that cannot be shipped overseas. He will also need to eliminate emissions from the energy-producing sector, which would result in substantial health and environmental benefits.
A second pillar of his campaign’s climate plan relied on reducing greenhouse emissions by setting higher efficiency standards for cars, buildings and appliances.
A third pillar, Biden’s plan for increasing automobile efficiency, involves rebates to trade in gas-guzzling vehicles for more efficient U.S.-made cars.
His plan also calls for transitioning to electric vehicles by installing a half a million EV charging stations. He proposed an environmental justice initiative that directs 40% of his investment in clean energy directly toward “fenceline” communities populated mainly by minorities and indigenous communities who are disproportionately harmed by the effects of climate change.
Certainly, the Biden administration will rejoin the Paris climate pact to resume leadership in securing other nations’ commitments.
But while his plan has the right “to do” items, and he will have a mostly cooperative House majority, how can he make progress given the Senate will possibly remain in GOP hands?
For starters, Biden can sign a series of executive orders to achieve a number of important objectives, including 100% clean energy. He could declare a climate emergency, stop all new fossil fuel mining and drilling leases, and strengthen automobile efficiency and power plant emission standards initiated during Obama’s tenure.
Some Democrats from gas and coal states, including Montana’s Jon Tester and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey who resisted Obama’s climate policy efforts, have softened their stances. But others, such as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin from the big coal state of West Virginia, a current ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee, might stall progress.
Biden has a deep understanding of the arcane ways of the Senate’s process, and he will need all of his political skill to wring something good out of this antiquated legislative body.
Candidate Biden seemed to understand both the urgency and opportunity in the climate crisis. Now it is up to President Biden to deliver.
