Because Biden’s green agenda is at risk. Financial Times Report
Concerns within the Democrats jeopardize one of the main moves the Biden administration expects the US to achieve its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030
Joe Biden's bold climate agenda is at risk following objections from a Democratic senator. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator, has made it clear to the White House that he will not support the Clean Electricity Performance Program, a $ 150 billion measure included in the President's bill that provides incentives for power companies that want to abandon fossil fuels. .
The provision is one of the main moves by which the Biden administration and many Democrats expect the United States to achieve its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030. Now, however, it risks being gutted. of the Manchin opposition, which causes concern among many Democrats and climate experts.
"What kind of authority can the United States have here if we can't deliver on our commitment, which includes reducing carbon emissions by 50% within the next 10 years?" said Michael Mann, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Penn State University, who also warned in a tweet that Manchin has dropped a "bomb" on the summit to be held in Glasgow.
"Other heads of state will certainly realize that the United States is unable to deliver on this promise if we cannot pass legislation in Congress that codifies this commitment," he told the FT .
Senior officials in the Biden administration on Sunday downplayed Manchin's opposition.
One person familiar with the negotiations said the CEPP measure wasn't necessarily off the table, and that the White House hadn't made any decisions about looking at other options. The Biden administration has been open to modifying the plan to meet Manchin's concerns. This could include allowing natural gas and coal producers to qualify for incentives provided they employ a particular carbon capture technology.
A spokesperson for Manchin said, Senator Manchin has clearly expressed his concerns about using taxpayer dollars to pay private companies to do things they are already doing. It continues to support efforts to combat climate change while protecting American energy independence and ensuring our energy reliability ”.
Some Democrats, including Ron Wyden, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, have pushed the White House and other lawmakers to embrace a carbon tax in the legislation. But it's unclear whether Biden would be comfortable with a big new fiscal policy shift he didn't campaign on in 2020.
While several other climate provisions are expected to survive in the bill, including funding for electric vehicle charging stations and renewable energy tax credits, Mann said only a "market mechanism" would help renewable energy. to compete to the point of producing a "rapid decarbonization".
Meanwhile, Democrats who see climate measures as arguably the most important elements of Biden's spending action have warned of the global consequences of a bill cut.
“We will soon be in Glasgow at COP26. The world knows what is at stake. They see our west on fire. They see bigger fires in Australia. Even bigger in Siberia. The soot that settles on the Arctic. Several countries underwater in a few decades, ”tweeted Sean Casten, a Democrat from Illinois.
The COP26 climate summit in Scotland runs from 31 October to 12 November. The United States hopes to present a "show of leadership" at the summit and a large delegation including the President and Cabinet Secretaries is expected to be sent. However, this leadership would be undermined if the United States presented itself without a clear plan to meet the new climate goals it announced in April.
Ahead of COP26, the United States also spearheaded a global effort to reduce methane emissions – which 33 countries have signed – and said it will double its financial contributions to climate abroad, to reach 11.4 billion. dollars per year by 2024, pending congressional approval.
(Extract from the foreign press review by Epr Comunicazione)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/perche-agenda-verde-di-biden-e-a-rischio-report-financial-times/ on Sat, 23 Oct 2021 06:25:44 +0000.