Joe Biden announced his plans to combat climate change on Tuesday, revealing he wants to spend $2 trillion over four years, increasing clean energy in the transportation, electricity, and building industries. The plan outlines how he would also simultaneously create jobs as well as address racism.
During his speech in Wilmington, Delaware, the 2020 candidate garnered praise after denouncing Trump’s approach to coronavirus and climate change. “These are the most critical investments we can make for the long-term health and vitality of both the American economy and the physical health and safety of the American people,” he said. “When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is ‘hoax.’ When I think about climate change, the word I think of is ‘jobs.’”
According to The New York Times, the plan appears to have the approval of many progressive Dems, most of whom were once critics of Biden. Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, an environmentalist, called the plan “visionary” and explained, “It is comprehensive. This is not some sort of, ‘Let me just throw a bone to those who care about climate change.’”
Biden detailed his goal for disadvantaged communities to receive 40 percent of all the clean energy and infrastructure benefits in his proposal. Linking environmental advocacy to racial justice, he explained that communities of color are disproportionately affected by pollution and other toxic harms. He wants to create an office of environmental and climate justice at the Justice Department to address how “environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of color.”
Now, who’s footing the bill? Biden says he plans to ‘ask’ “the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.” Translation: he proposes a combination of an increase in the corporate income tax from 21 to 28 percent, plus an undetermined amount of stimulus money should cover it. The former VP also included his desire for an emissions-free power sector by 2035, assuring “these aren’t pie-in-the-sky dreams,” but instead calls them “actionable policies.”
