How Biden Tackles Climate
Terry H. Schwadron
Nov. 29, 2020
We all know what happened when Vice President Mike Pence said he would lead an all-of-government fight against coronavirus: He and Donald Trump simply gave up after an earnest start at providing states with extra hospital beds and to empty storage shelves of ventilators — many of which did not actually function. Keeping up the fight simply did not mesh with Trump politics.
Now comes President-elect Joe Biden similarly promising to attack the effects of climate disruptions as an all-of-government effect — as well as the pandemic. Clearly Biden and team have lofty goals in mind, if well short of the timing and breadth of Green New Deal advocates, but the key is that Biden insists that his group’s ideas are practical and achievable — many without Congressional approval.
Apparently, Team Biden will depend a lot on a combination of executive actions and on rule and policy changes through many of the federal agencies, from State to Treasury and Agriculture.
The full picture of the Biden climate plan actually is reflected in a 300-page blueprint called the Climate 21 Project, assembled by a group of former Obama administration officials. The hope is to bypass the legislative obstacles that Obama ran into before Trump dumped the whole thing.
Key ideas include ordering cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, pushing for faster development of everything needed to support electric cars, rejoining and leading international climate efforts, hastening a turn from reliance on fossil fuels by stopping subsidies, devising a common “carbon bank” and generally raising the responsibilities for climate policy to Cabinet level with appointment of John Kerry.
The Washington Post has offered a nice summary of it all, but not to worry, we’ll be hearing plenty as opponents hone in on the most controversial parts.
Pursuing Goals Simultaneously
The plans seem intent on pursuing several goals simultaneously, starting with rejoining the Paris international agreements. Biden also has promised to turn climate policy into a jobs program and to reduce reliance on oil and natural gas over two decades in ways that will require adherence by future presidents.
At the outset, of course, Biden wants to draw in the climate skeptics, a tiny minority of scientists and a whole lot of Trump supporters, who reject dealing with climate as a man-made disaster in the making — despite worsening hurricanes, wildfires, sea rise and other natural events spurred by warming waters. At heart, the idea is that human activity is driving greenhouse emissions that are speeding the warming of oceans. Unchecked it all will lead to droughts, fights over drinkable water, mass migration from overheated lands, redrawn global coastlines from melting ice caps.
The Trumpists had argued that is all theory, not fact (Now they want fact?), but in any case, Americans should not be forced to sacrifice as Chinese, Indians and others just delay compliance. Nevertheless, state, local and private efforts already have had measurable progress in the United States on emissions progress, and industries like autos and oil companies themselves are investing widely in solar and bio-energy sources while natural gas has supplanted coal as the major source for electric power in the country.
Apparently, Biden already has been raising the climate issue in every conversation with foreign leaders, consistently describes it as a “crisis,” and introduced Kerry early — all signs of seriousness.
The next step we can expect is a campaign to overturn dozens of executive orders by Trump that have propelled oil and gas drilling, exempted escaping methane from regulation and generally lessened pollution controls. Early on, we should expect to see a hefty investment package to promote electric cars, solar panels, battery research, and hydrogen “gas stations” to support cars.
Recommendations include creating a White House National Climate Council and a series of moves to promote carbon reductions through tax and budget incentives. A “carbon bank” under the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation could pay farmers and forest owners to store carbon in their soils and lands. Incentive programs would happen through rules set by the Transportation Department, Treasury, Interior and other departments.
The Political Front
It’s not clear how a Republican Senate or one too close to endorse the Biden plans will react, though there are early indications that Republicans who set aside worries about deficit spending for four years all of a sudden are becoming deficit hawks again. Spending requirements alone could sink legislative proposals, but so too could ingrained policies about working with China or seeming to allow a more global approach challenge the America First thinking of the last four years.
Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has supported climate change ideas as philanthropy, published an op-ed arguing that some of the most important steps the new administration could take “have nothing to do with the EPA” to pursue changes affecting housing building standards or SEC disclosure requirements. The Federal Reserve’s biannual financial stability report this week warned, “Climate change adds a layer of economic uncertainty and risk that we have only begun to incorporate into our analysis of financial stability.”
Still others see a chance to rebuild jobs through government left vacant, the replacement of non-scientists on environmental advisory committees and the return of leadership of the Bureau of Land Management to Washington.
Groups like the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental groups, have promoted duplicating California’s Buy Clean law, which requires the state to consider the pollution emitted by manufacturers of glass, steel and other materials when making purchasing decisions.
In the end, the question will be results. It is estimated that about 10 percent of the globe has already warmed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with preindustrial levels. Scientists say when the entire planet has passed that threshold of warming by 2 degrees C, Earth will suffer irreversible and severe damage. It is unclear how much of that would be reduced even in the Biden program, but estimates have suggested that the United States needs to cut pollution by about 3 percent to comply with targets of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
This week the EPA said greenhouse gas emissions from the power companies was down 8 percent over last year. Some automakers agreed this week to embrace Biden proposals on cutting fuel emissions, dropping a Trump-demanded fight against rules launched by California.
Step One was the election. Step two is a plan. Making anything happen now is more complicated, but will be welcome.
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