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Biden Administration Announces Climate Change Initiatives
The Biden Administration's plans for addressing climate change continue to develop and be announced. To date, in addition to announcing that the U.S. is rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, President Biden has announced several initiatives to help reduce the amount of pollution that the United States is creating.
President Biden has committed to investing $1.7 trillion over the next ten years as well as to enlisting another $5 trillion from the private sector and states to invest in addressing climate change. Biden has announced that his ultimate goal is for the United States to be a 100% clean energy economy as well as to achieve net-zero emissions by the year 2050. President Biden has stated that his plan will be funded by reversing some of the tax reductions that were previously set by the Trump Administration.
To review and discuss the Biden Administration's climate change initiatives, Politico held a webinar last week discussing how the Biden Administration's goals can be achieved at both the federal and state levels. Representative Levin from Michigan spoke on the webinar, expanding on some of the ideas that the Biden Administration has planned.
According to Representative Levin, over the next four years the Biden Administration plans to expand the production of solar panels and wind turbines, both offshore and on land, as well as expand other forms of acquiring energy from solar thermal energy and geothermal energy. In addition to building on other ways of acquiring energy, the new Administration plans on many more vehicles becoming electric, which in turn means there need to be more chargers for vehicles nationwide. President Biden's plan is to build and install more than 500,000 chargers across the country in order to promote an easier use for electric vehicles.
One of the main concerns from the state level that Representative Levin discussed was the number of jobs that may seem to be lost from the transition to a clean energy economy. These job losses include those who work in coal mines and those who work on gas lines and in oil fields. Levin stated that even though there will be a loss of jobs in terms of using fossil fuels, there will be many more new jobs that are created for engineers and others who are specifically trained to maintain solar panels and both onshore and offshore wind turbines as well as people who are able to study and find ways of utilizing the energy that comes from solar thermal energy and geothermal energy.
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