💬 "Are Biden’s Climate Ambitions in Congress Dead?"

Podcast’s Essential Bites:

[0:07] SL: "The hits to Joe Biden's climate ambitions keep on coming. Two years ago, Biden put forward a $2 trillion climate plan. After Democrats failed to move a bill forward last year, that package became $300 billion. [...] This spring was supposed to be the moment that package passed, and then spring turned into summer. And now as lawmakers prepare to clear out for August, it looks like any size climate bill is unlikely. Thanks to [...] Senator Joe Manchin."

[1:46] KH: "Senator Schumer released a statement that Senator Manchin had said that because of the numbers on inflation that he couldn't consider additional spending for climate at this point."

[8:53] SR: "I thought this was a package that was going to [...] quickly reach the Senate floor, pass the Senate, and move on and pass the House [...]. And in part because in addition to being a major investment in climate and clean energy [...], it is a package designed to be anti-inflationary and to confront the energy costs and energy insecurity increasingly facing the American people."

[13:37] SR: "There are clearly things the administration hasn't been intending to do that they need to get a move on with, using their existing authorities to confront climate pollution, to confront Americans' energy costs, to confront pollution that's harming public health and environmental justice, and reducing energy costs, and building this new energy future for Americans. [...] There are crucial executive actions that I hope we see the president begin to start moving on [...] to confront pollution from power plants, from industrial facilities, to stop permitting or leasing new fossil fuel infrastructure."

[20:36] SR: "The Rhodium Group published some analysis, identifying the trajectory of emissions that they see [under] current law, current policy, current investment, economic trends delivering by 2030. And it's not a picture that gets us close to President Biden's targets, or rather the scientific necessity of cutting climate pollution in half by 2030. [...] The Rhodium Group [predicts] it to be somewhere in the [25]% range."

[23:07] KH: "Joe Manchin went to Davos and talked about how important [climate policy] was. So I do think it erodes trust. [...] The political will of our elected officials is not where it needs to be. And remember, it's not just Joe Manchin. It's 50 members of the US Senate [that] do not want to pass climate legislation. [...] Half of the people that are elected to run our highest body legislatively, do not want climate action. And that says a lot about where our country is right now."

Rating: ☁️☁️☁️