President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law a $430 billion law that is considered the largest climate package in US history, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prescription drug prices.
Biden used the event to criticize Republicans as he sought to use a string of Democratic-led legislative victories to help propel his party in November’s midterm congressional elections.
“In this historic moment, Democrats have sided with the American people and all Republicans have sided with special interests,” Biden said. “Every Republican in Congress voted against this bill.”
Legislation to combat climate change and lower prescription drug prices is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions nationally. It will also allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for the elderly and ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay the taxes they owe.
This is what Joe Biden had to negotiate to get his health and climate plan passed.
What are the climate goals that Biden was seeking?
In April 2021, Biden promised to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% by 2030, compared to 2005.
A goal set as part of the Paris Climate Agreement, which should enable the world’s largest economy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
In the energy sector, which accounts for about a quarter of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, Biden wants to reduce pollution levels to zero by 2035.
As for transportation (around a quarter of emissions) Biden has set himself the goal that half of the cars sold in the United States in 2030 are electric.
In November 2021, a victory was scored with the approval in Congress of a major infrastructure modernization plan, which includes measures such as the construction of a network of charging stations for electric vehicles or adaptation to natural disasters, each more frequent.
The Democratic administration has also taken regulatory action through the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which in December 2021 adopted new federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars sold after 2023.
And it is working on new regulations to reduce emissions of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) from the oil and gas industry.
Some states in the country have gone ahead, without waiting for the federal state to act. For example California, where all new cars sold after 2035 will have to be electric.
Even if all these measures are applied, US emissions will only be reduced by 24% to 35% by 2030, and not by half as Biden wants, according to a recent report by Rhodium Group.
Joe Manchin, the Democratic obstacle
The Biden administration has suffered setbacks. He declared a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling on federal land, but a judge overturned the decision.
Since then, the state has issued many drilling permits, especially since fuel prices rose as a result, in part, of the war in Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
Biden’s climate agenda was dealt a serious blow when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin announced that he would not support the “Build Back Better” investment plan.
Manchin opposed the project at the end of 2021, so it was negotiated again based on a more limited package of about 555,000 million. But the congressman from West Virginia, a state known for its coal mines, again rejected it, saying it leads to reckless spending in times of inflation.
Without their vote, the law will not pass the Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority.
At an event at the White House, Biden was joined by Democratic leaders, including Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, whose support was crucial to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, after he initially opposed a similar measure. .
“Joe, we never had any doubts,” Biden said of Manchin.
His opposition buries the massive tax credits planned for producers and consumers of wind, solar and nuclear energy, which proposed to transform the US economy towards clean energy sources.
In June it suffered another setback: the Supreme Court limited the ability of the federal agency EPA to regulate emissions from power plants.
According to the judges, a blanket cap on emissions that would result in the closure of coal-fired power plants would need congressional approval. But restrictions can be taken on a case-by-case basis at each plant.
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, estimates that this decision leaves room for maneuver for the Biden administration to achieve its goals.
To move forward, some Democratic congressmen called on the president to declare a state of climate emergency, which would increase his ability to act. The White House has left the door open to this measure.
With information from AFP and Reuters
