President Biden’s Fight Against Climate Change
Within the first few weeks of his Presidency, Biden signed numerous amount of executive orders in order to combat climate change. President Biden’s climate change plan has been announced to cost 1.7 trillion dollars over the course of 10 years. Though some would argue these are necessary steps which need to be taken in order to save our planet, others would say the plans will hurt American workers and ruin the economy. Here is a breakdown of the major executive actions Biden has taken, and how they will affect the nation.
Pressuring Countries to Take Action
President Biden brought the United States back into the international Paris climate agreement, through which countries worldwide agreed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming. Even more importantly, Biden is leading by example and reestablishing the nation’s leadership role with the international climate community The United States is an influential country, once other countries will see we are taking action against climate change, other countries will do so as well. Especially with the economy being an issue. Creating new environmental regulations and laws costs the market a lot. However, this gradual loss is necessary, and will later pay off in the new jobs and services produced while working to save our planet.
Replacing Government Fleet With Electric Vehicles
As of 2019, the U.S. government had 645,000 vehicles that were driven 4.5 billion miles and consumed 375 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel, according to the General Services Administration (GSA). About 35% of those vehicles were operated by the U.S. Postal Service, according to GSA.
President Biden announced, “The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America, by American workers.” This is a huge advancement that could not only eliminate fossil fuels but set an example for companies in the United States and around the world.
Methane Pollution Limits
Methane is the second-largest driver of human-made climate change after carbon dioxide and the rollbacks, if they remain in place, will allow additional emissions equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of roughly 100 coal-fired power plants.
The Biden administration is also calling on the EPA to review a highly consequential rollback of methane emission regulations for the oil and gas industry, instituted by the Trump administration in August.
Climate experts say.“We really need to deal with all of the sources of methane and that is not just the new construction in the fossil fuel industry,” Drew Shindell, an earth science professor at Duke University, said. “We need to really aggressively push to reduce methane emissions from all sectors.”
The Keystone Pipeline
The Keystone XL pipeline extension, proposed by energy infrastructure company TC Energy in 2008, was designed to transport the planet’s dirtiest fossil fuel to market fast. This is an expansion of the company’s existing Keystone Pipeline System, which has been operating since 2010. The pipeline can transport 830,000 barrels of oil from Canada to Texas.
Not only does the pipeline create a fast and easy route for fossil fuels to be transported, it is also extremely dangerous. Tar sands oil is thicker, more acidic, and more corrosive than lighter conventional crude, and increases the likelihood that a pipeline carrying it will leak. Since it first went into operation in 2010, TC Energy’s original Keystone Pipeline System has leaked more than a dozen times; one incident in North Dakota sent a 60-foot, 21,000-gallon geyser of tar sands oil spewing into the air.
President Biden revoked the permit on the Keystone XL pipeline and is actively working to eliminate it before it causes further damage.
But Isn’t This Expensive?
Biden aims to push as much as $1.7 trillion over 10 years into a plan to boost renewable power. Although Biden wants to create new American jobs with his climate plan, that may not be possible.
Electric Vehicles
Replacing the remaining vehicles with EVs could cost up to $20 billion, according to a Reuters estimate. Biden has publicly stated numerous times that he supports union automotive jobs. However, the new order for a full fleet of electric vehicles could hurt American manufacturers.
Tesla is considered the dominant U.S. manufacturer of electric vehicles. However, the company’s lack of union workers and the higher cost of its vehicles (even the less expensive Model 3) could be a barrier. Ford and GM might not have a vast supply of electric vehicles at the moment, but they do have union shops and both automakers are investing heavily to expand their EV offerings.
Keystone XL and Oil
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the number of oil and gas extraction jobs at roughly 160,000 at the end of 2020, and coal mining jobs slipped below 50,000 total by year-end. However, compared to the 400,000 workers Amazon (a company transitioning to a green economy) hired in 2020, these numbers look small.
Still, the transition away from fossil fuels will deeply hurt rural areas that are dependent on mining and drilling for their economy. These include the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico, the Marcellus in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the Bakken in North Dakota, and in parts of California, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma. The U.S. oil industry is expected to contract by 20% in the next decade and by 95% between 2031–2050, according to the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Overall green energy
The goal is expensive, but not as much as it used to be. As seen on the graph below, new solar and onshore wind became less expensive than coal generation. The Biden-Harris climate plan to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by 2035. These regulations will take time to be put in place, but this ambitious plan is what our planet needs. It is only the beginning
Sources:
Bill Ritter Jr. Director. “Biden Plans to Fight Climate Change in a Way No U.S. President Has Done Before.” The Conversation, 27 Jan. 2021, theconversation.com/biden-plans-to-fight-climate-change-in-a-way-no-u-s-president-has-done-before-152419.
Erprose. “Biden’s Climate Change Plan and the Battle for America’s Most Threatened Workers.” CNBC, CNBC, 2 Feb. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/01/31/bidens-climate-change-plan-and-americas-most-threatened-workers.html.
January 20, 2021 Melissa Denchak. “What Is the Keystone XL Pipeline?” NRDC, 20 Jan. 2021, www.nrdc.org/stories/what-keystone-pipeline#whatis.
Wayland, Michael. “Biden Plans to Replace Government Fleet with Electric Vehicles.” CNBC, CNBC, 26 Jan. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/01/25/biden-plans-to-replace-government-fleet-with-electric-vehicles.htm