Biden Unveils $2T Climate Plan: 'What I Think of Is Jobs'

'The Climate President that America needs,' Wash. Gov. Inslee said in an email response
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 15, 2020 8:26 AM CDT
Biden Unveils $2T Plan to Fight Climate Change
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event on Tuesday in Wilmington, Del.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Joe Biden released a $2 trillion plan Tuesday to boost investment in clean energy and stop all climate-damaging emissions from US power plants by 2035, arguing that dramatic action is needed to tackle climate change and revive the economy. In remarks near his home in Wilmington, Del., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee sought to reframe the politics of climate change, rebuffing arguments from President Trump and his Republican allies that Democratic plans to invest in clean energy would cost jobs. "When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax,'" Biden told reporters, per the AP. "When I think about climate change, what I think of is jobs." Biden would spend $2 trillion over four years to promote his energy proposals, a significant acceleration of the $1.7 trillion over 10 years he proposed spending in his climate plan during the primary.

The proposal, which doesn't include specifics on how it would be paid for, doesn't go as far as some measures in the Green New Deal, the sweeping proposal from progressives in Congress that calls for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the economy by 2030. But it does align with a climate bill spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in reducing emissions to zero by 2050, and it goes farther than that bill on ridding the nation's power sector of damaging fossil-fuel pollution. Biden also placed a heavy emphasis on updating America's infrastructure, improving energy efficiency in buildings and housing, and promoting production of electric vehicles and conservation efforts in the agriculture industry. "Joe Biden's ... plan shows that [he] ... has a roadmap to become the Climate President that America needs," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in an email to a liberal advocacy group.

(More Joe Biden 2020 stories.)

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