Biden’s Climate Plan and Jobs in Renewables
You can read Joe Biden’s climate action plan here. And definitely read it before you judge it. Critiques are always welcome, but always critique honestly.
A recent podcast from Today, Explained, took a deep dive into what Biden’s plan means for combating climate change as well as creating new jobs across the country. David Roberts, an expert on climate policy, called the plan “unquestionably the most ambitious climate plan ever proposed by a presidential candidate.” He broke the plan down into three buckets:
- Standards
- Investments
- Justice
As one example of new standards, Biden wants a net-zero carbon standard in the electricity industry by 2035. This would replace coal and gas as power sources and replace it with renewable sources. This is an ambitious goal, and may not be entirely feasible on the natural gas side. However, coal has been steadily declining for decades due to market forces, not due to regulations. While a tax-payer handout of $15 per ton of coal was dubbed a “new, bold idea to put coal miners back to work” by the current administration, it’s actually the exact opposite. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book and has not stopped the slow death of coal. We cannot continue to fund a dying industry that pollutes our environment, kills its workers, and has minimal economic impact. That takes us to our second bucket, Investments.
Biden’s original plan included $1.7T of investment over 10 years. That was rejected by even moderate climate groups. His new plan invests $2T over 4 years. That displays his willingness to work with the consensus that has built around the urgency of investing in renewable resources and building jobs in that sector. The bread and butter of job creation in this plan are the investments, which are wide-ranging and well-funded. They include investments in low-carbon infrastructure, electric car chargers, research and development for battery storage, high voltage transmission lines, and rebates for swapping old, inefficient vehicles for new ones. One does not have to think too hard to imagine the number of jobs, both directly related to these investments and ancillary, that will be created.
And naturally, there’s a fear of putting people out of work. That’s where Justice comes in. Still today, we see where coal country has been decimated by poverty for generations after the coal boom faded. This climate plan requires that 40% of the investments must go to vulnerable communities. That’s coal country, communities of color, urban communities, and tribal communities. Although they are physically far apart, they share common problems: lead paint on their waters; dirty water coming out of their faucets; a lack of child care centers; sub-standard schools; no public transportation / polluting public transportation.
Based on those 3 categories, the plan is accounting for training, retraining, retrofitting, and a revival of manufacturing in the United States. It demands good paying jobs with unions. It demands fair labor standards. And it requires accountability. And for the long-term, it will build new systems of understanding our country’s impact on the environment.
The opposition to plans like this continues to use falsehoods. The biggest misconception is that a plan like this will cut jobs. The data says otherwise.
“Anybody who thinks transitioning the economy to clean energy will kill — not create — jobs is just simply out of touch with reality,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of the nonpartisan advocacy group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). “We’re creating way more jobs through clean energy than fossil fuels. This is the energy industry today.”
The plan isn’t perfect. There are sensible arguments against parts of the plan, but they are unlikely to dismantle the overwhelming consensus that this plan makes sense economically and environmentally. Just 3 days ago, 40 investors with $1T in assets urged financial regulators to act on climate change. If you like to follow the money, there it is.
The broad appeal of the plan has united far more people than it has divided. It is sweeping. It is wide-ranging. It appeals to the rich and to the poor. And it shows that there is still momentum to change course on our climate goals.
