France Media Agency
January 25, 2022 | 11:51 a.m.
MANILA, Philippines — After a series of setbacks to push his priorities through the deeply divided U.S. Congress, U.S. President Joe Biden may turn his attention to climate change in a bid to save the planet — and his legacy in jeopardy.
Last week, the president announced efforts were underway to revive the environmental component of his $1.8 trillion social spending plan, after he was nearly killed in the Senate.
The Build Back Better program was to include $555 billion for renewable energy and clean transportation incentives in the nation’s largest-ever climate investment, to meet Biden’s goal of halving gas emissions greenhouse effect of 2005 by 2030.
“I’ve spoken to a number of my colleagues on the Hill. I think it’s clear that we would be able to get support for the $500 billion plus for energy and environmental issues.” , Biden told reporters last week.
Democratic lawmakers immediately got busy behind the scenes to see if they could make it happen.
american wallet
Prioritizing bold action on climate change might be taken for granted in progressive circles — but realpolitik proponents see it as a gamble of sorts.
In a country hit every year by deadly floods and raging wildfires, climate action is an incongruous priority, with the public expressing far more concern in opinion polls about inflation and the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19.
The trick to White House aides putting Biden’s vision into words has been to appeal to the American wallet rather than his existential fear.
Instead of imposing penalties on polluters, the $555 billion package would offer substantial tax credits to producers and consumers of wind, solar and nuclear energy.
Under this carrot-not-stick approach, motorists would get up to $12,500 in tax breaks for buying domestically-made electric cars, while households could reclaim about a third of the cost. installation of solar panels.
Debbie Weyl, deputy director of the World Resources Institute lobby group in the United States, says there is “no doubt” the country would struggle to meet its environmental goals without the reforms.
For the moment, the Democrats can only count on the votes of their own camp, the Republicans appearing united in their opposition to the proposals.
A spokeswoman for Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican who is used to working across the aisle, told AFP the Alaskan senator was unable to support the energy and climate provisions of the Build Back Better text.
The spokeswoman criticized the “highly partisan” process for drafting the legislation and said the energy elements were designed to “deliberately harm Alaska.”
Manchin’s equation
Biden’s majority is as slim as it could be in the equally divided Senate, where his vice president can vote for the Democrats when votes are split 50-50.
As a result, any Democratic senator effectively has the right to veto any White House initiative submitted to the chamber.
Joe Manchin, a centrist who is making headlines in the coal-mining state of West Virginia, has been the most prominent in Build Back Better.
Some local miners’ groups have come out in support of the president’s climate reforms, which include helping people with “black lung disease,” a serious illness caused by inhaling coal dust.
But Manchin effectively killed the pack when he said he would withhold support because he feared spiraling spending could exacerbate the already alarming US inflation rate.
Staffers and politicians in Washington are now hoping the party can coalesce around a narrower, cheaper bill, with much of the climate-focused legislation remaining intact, but key elements to which Manchin s opposed to deletion.
“I’m confident that the Democrats will pass a (reduced) but monumental climate bill this year,” Paul Bledsoe, climate adviser in Bill Clinton’s administration, told AFP.
“If they don’t, voters will punish them.”
Democrats have just months to act before the midterm elections, in which they could lose their narrow congressional majorities, making any legislative progress even more problematic.
Biden, who is struggling with plummeting approval ratings, cannot afford to fail.
