Biden Administration Climate Policies Face Difficult Obstacles

Yesterday, President Biden unveiled his American Families Plan before a joint session of Congress. Together with the rest of his infrastructure plan, it represents a warm embrace of the Green New Deal’s approach: heavy on government social programs, vague on climate change. Though the American Families Plan doesn’t mention climate or clean energy, Biden pledged in his speech to reduce America’s carbon emissions.

Specifically, the administration is gearing up to propose a new Energy Efficiency and Clean Electricity Standard, with a new goal of achieving zero carbon emissions from electricity by 2035. The name harkens back to Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have forced states to adopt California-style regulations of their electricity sectors. But details have been hard to come by, to say nothing of an actual real-world plan for getting there. Such a plan would be ambitious indeed, given the virtually insuperable obstacles standing in its path.

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Mario Loyola

Mario Loyola is a professor of environment at Florida International University and a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

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Yesterday, President Biden unveiled his American Families Plan before a joint session of Congress. Together with the rest of his infrastructure plan, it represents a warm embrace of the Green New Deal’s approach: heavy on government social programs, vague on climate change. Though the American Families Plan doesn’t mention climate or clean energy, Biden pledged in his speech to reduce America’s carbon emissions.

Specifically, the administration is gearing up to propose a new Energy Efficiency and Clean Electricity Standard, with a new goal of achieving zero carbon emissions from electricity by 2035. The name harkens back to Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have forced states to adopt California-style regulations of their electricity sectors. But details have been hard to come by, to say nothing of an actual real-world plan for getting there. Such a plan would be ambitious indeed, given the virtually insuperable obstacles standing in its path.