It’s Not Just the GOP That Stands in the Way of Biden’s Climate Goals
Organized labor remains divided over the transition to clean energy, though there’s reason to be optimistic
In his first seven days in office, President Joe Biden has made clear that climate change is central to his administration’s agenda. Already, he has rejoined the Paris climate agreement, reinstated Obama-era fuel economy standards, restored national monuments like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante, canceled the Keystone XL pipeline permit, and, on Wednesday, issued a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands.
Yet all of these actions, significant as they may be, were delivered via executive order, meaning it would take just a few pen strokes from the next president to reverse them. None of them will bring a meaningful — or fast — reduction in emissions; most are simply efforts to undo the damage caused by Biden’s predecessor. Now, with the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hitting record levels and Earth having just experienced its hottest decade on record, the real question is whether Biden can advance his more ambitious initiatives, like eliminating emissions from the power sector by 2035 and achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050. Here, there’s some skepticism.
“It seems really unlikely that Biden would be able to put forward a single large climate bill that would encompass all the different pledges and promises that he made as part of the campaign,” said David Konisky, a professor at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
The problem Biden faces is a political one: He must contend with a divided Senate, in particular Senate Energy Committee Chair Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who has long supported the coal industry. The last major climate bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, passed the House but never made it to a vote on the Senate floor.
It’s more likely that Biden instead will take what Konisky calls “small bites of the apple” — for example, using a new infrastructure bill to push spending on renewable energy, or the creation of new national auto pollution standards. Still, that’s a far cry from the $2 trillion climate…
