Joe Biden, the projected winner of the presidency, as per the plans on their website plans to act to restore dozens of environmental safeguards that President Trump abolished and launch the most audacious climate change plan of any president in history. While some of Biden’s more radical programs will meet stiff resistance from Senate Republicans and conservative attorneys general, the United States is poised to take a U-turn on climate change and conservation policy.
Biden’s plans act on the climate immediately and ambitiously, because there is no time to lose.
9 key elements of Joe Biden’s plan for a clean energy and environmental justice revolution:
1) Take executive action on day 1 not only to reverse all the damage Trump has done, but to go further and faster.
To make immediate progress on its climate agenda, Biden plans to take actions that include demanding aggressive methane pollution limits for new and existing oil and gas operations; the development of rigorous new fuel economy standards aimed at ensuring that 100% of new light and medium vehicle sales are zero emissions and annual improvements for heavy vehicles; protect America’s natural treasures by permanently protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other areas affected by President Trump’s attack on federal lands and waters; and the prohibition of new oil and gas leases on public lands and waters.
2) Work with Congress to enact in 2021, President Biden’s first year in office, legislation that, at the end of his first term, puts us on an irreversible path to achieving net zero emissions across the economy no later than in 2050.
3) Gather the world for urgent and additional actions.
As reported by them, “We know that we cannot solve this emergency on our own: the United States accounts for only 15% of global emissions.”
On the 1st, Biden will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. But we must go further. In his first 100 days in office, Biden will convene a global climate summit to directly engage the leaders of the world’s top greenhouse gas-emitting nations to persuade them to join the United States in making more national commitments. ambitious, beyond the commitments they have already made. Biden will not allow other nations, including China, to play with the system by becoming destination economies for polluters, undermining our climate efforts, and exploiting American workers and businesses.
4) Make a historic investment in clean energy and innovation.
Biden will invest $ 400 billion over ten years, as part of a broad mobilization of public investment, in clean energy and innovation. That investment is twice the investment of the Apollo program that put a man on the moon, in today’s dollars. It will also establish ARPA-C, a new research agency focused on accelerating climate technologies.
5) Accelerate the deployment of clean technology throughout our economy.
Creating the best and most innovative clean technology in the world is not enough. We must also ensure that it is used by households and industry to achieve aggressive emission reductions as reported by them.
Biden plans to set a goal of reducing the carbon footprint of the US building stock by 50% by 2035, creating incentives for deep renovations that combine home appliance electrification, efficiency and clean energy generation on site. He will work with our nation’s governors and mayors to support the deployment of more than 500,000 new public charging points by the end of 2030. And, Biden will ensure that our agriculture sector is the first in the world to achieve net zero emissions, and that our farmers earn income as we achieve this milestone.
6) Make environmental justice a priority in all federal agencies.
Everyone is already feeling the effects of climate change. But the impacts of climate change (and inaction on climate change) – on health, the economy, and overall quality of life – are much more acute in communities of color, tribal lands, and low-income communities. The coronavirus pandemic, which according to early data is related to air pollution that disproportionately affects low-income and communities of color, is shedding new light on this reality.
Biden will make it a priority for all federal agencies, and hold accountable for results, participate in community-driven approaches to develop solutions for environmental injustices that affect communities of color, low-income communities, and indigenous communities.
7) Hold polluters accountable.
On Day 1, Biden plans to require public companies to disclose financial risks related to climate and greenhouse gas emissions in their operations and supply chains. In your first year, you will work to enact legislation that requires polluters to bear the full cost of climate pollution.
But that’s not all: Biden will direct his EPA and the Department of Justice to pursue these cases to the fullest extent allowed by law and, where necessary, will pursue additional legislation to hold corporate executives personally accountable, including time in the jail when warranted. Allowing corporations to continue polluting, affecting the health and safety of both their workers and surrounding communities, without consequences perpetuates a heinous abuse of power. These companies must be accountable to the American people, the communities where they operate, and the workers they employ.
8) Create 10 million high-paying middle-class union jobs.
Every federal dollar spent rebuilding our infrastructure during the Biden Administration will be used to prevent, reduce and resist the impacts of this climate crisis. American workers should build the American infrastructure and manufacture all the materials that make it up, and all these workers should have the option of joining a union and bargaining collectively. Biden will ensure that his infrastructure legislation incorporates labor provisions so that federal investments create millions of middle-class jobs, benefiting workers in all industries.
9) Fulfill obligation to the communities and workers who have risked their lives to produce fossil fuels that made it possible for the United States to win world wars and become an industrial power.
Biden will support communities and workers affected by the changing energy market, including increasing payments from coal companies to the black lung benefits program, reforming the black lung benefits system so that it is no longer manipulated in favor of the coal companies that can hire lawyers and doctors to ensure miners’ benefits are denied, expanding efforts to help miners detect black lung cases earlier and access care, and enforcing regulations to reduce benefits. black lung cases first. Biden will also establish a task force to help these communities access federal investments and leverage private sector investments to help create high-paying union jobs based on each community’s unique assets, partner with unions and community colleges to create training opportunities for these new jobs. , repair infrastructure, keep public employees like firefighters and teachers on the payroll, and keep local hospitals open.