Joe Biden Unveils $2 Trillion Plan for a Clean Energy Economy
(July 14) Watch live as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivers remarks on the U.S. economy in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.
Biden unveiled plans Tuesday to spend $2 trillion galvanizing a clean energy economy, with ambitions to spur millions of union jobs building the wind turbines, sustainable homes and electric vehicles needed to rapidly throttle U.S. greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.
Biden’s clean energy blueprint, coming on top of separate initiatives seeking to pull the U.S. out of a pandemic-prompted recession, co-opts a hallmark of President Donald Trump’s re-election efforts by focusing on putting Americans to work rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. Biden’s plan also seeks to balance the desires of progressive Democrats who are demanding bold action to confront climate change while also protecting swing-state and manufacturing jobs.
On Tuesday, Biden will outline a goal of “a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035” — a move that would require rapid acceleration in the deployment of renewable wind and solar power as well as electricity storage, while continuing to rely on emission-free nuclear power. That rapid transition will enable the country to meet the threat of climate change while creating millions of jobs, according to campaign documents.
Biden has set a goal of spending $2 trillion over four years on renewable energy infrastructure, getting cleaner cars on the road and creating zero-emission mass transit systems. The spending would also boost sustainable home building, clean energy innovation and conservation.
That pledge replaces an earlier initiative to dedicate $1.7 trillion over 10 years to fighting climate change, and it adds to the $3 trillion Biden committed last year to spend on infrastructure and clean energy, as well as the $700 billion in new spending to spur manufacturing and innovation that he laid out last week.
A campaign official promised more details on how Biden would pay for his new proposals as well as the other pieces of his Build Back Better economic plan after the release. The official, who asked not to be identified prior to Biden’s announcement, said that tax increases on corporations and the wealthy that Biden has already proposed would be part of the plan. The campaign has said those tax increases would raise $4 trillion over a decade. Additional spending would likely be treated as one-time stimulus, meaning that Biden wouldn’t need to find a way to pay for the costs, further adding to the deficit.
Representative Steve Scalise, the House Republican whip from Louisiana, called Biden’s plan “Solyndra on steroids,” a reference to the solar manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee as part of the 2009 recovery package and later declared bankruptcy. Scalise predicted more such cases as a result of Biden’s plan, Scalise told reporters in a call Tuesday.
The Trump campaign also slammed the Biden plan, saying it would “devastate American families and businesses.”
Senior Biden campaign officials emphasized that his proposals cannot be easily undone by a successor, unlike Trump’s deregulatory agenda.
Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, who first charted the 2035 carbon-free power target Biden is now adopting, heralded the initiative in an emailed statement, saying it showed Biden is “serious about defeating climate change, and has a road map to become the climate president that America needs.”
One challenge for Biden lies in convincing progressive voters that he hasn’t left them short even as he set aside some of the more ambitious moves called for in the Green New Deal championed by left-wing Democrats including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Some arms of organized labor, key allies for Democrats, seemed to like the plan, while others could emerge as an obstacle. Biden’s emphasis on addressing climate change risks alienating blue-collar workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other swing states now producing natural gas and refining oil into gasoline.
The United Auto Workers welcomed the plan, calling it in an unsigned statement a “win-win” that “will ensure that the industry will thrive for decades to come with good paying union jobs.”
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm
QUICKTAKE ON SOCIAL:
Follow QuickTake on Twitter: twitter.com/quicktake
Like QuickTake on Facebook: facebook.com/quicktake
Follow QuickTake on Instagram: instagram.com/quicktake
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2FJ0oQZ
Email us at [email protected]
QuickTake by Bloomberg is a global news network delivering up-to-the-minute analysis on the biggest news, trends and ideas for a new generation of leaders.
source
