On climate, it's Biden's green revolution versus Trump's war on red tape
WASHINGTON: The US presidential election pits a politician who plans to tie the country's economic recovery to tackling climate change against another determined to remove as many regulatory hurdles to oil, gas and coal production as possible. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has focused on dismantling former President Barack Obama's climate agenda to free the energy and auto industries from the costs of regulations meant to protect health and the environment.
Joe Biden, a Democrat who served as Obama's vice president, has beefed up his strategy to tackle climate change with a focus on a new massive green infrastructure to re-invigorate the U.S. economy that is reeling from the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. As deadly wildfires tear through all three states on the West Coast and remind Americans of climate change's risks, here are some of the major issues at play in the Nov. 3 election. Biden, heeding calls from his party's progressives for a faster transition away from fossil fuels, has proposed $2 trillion in spending over his first four-year term and aims to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035.
Biden's proposals include upgrading 4 million buildings for energy efficiency, building 1.5 million energy-efficient homes and public housing, and investing in public transportation in cities with over 100,000 residents. Power utilities have pointed out that his plan depends on rapid advances in nascent technologies. Biden supports research on high-tech nuclear energy that would be virtually emissions free but likely still have waste issues.
Like Biden, he supports advanced nuclear technology. Biden wants to strengthen auto emission standards set during the Obama administration. Trump, who had called the regulations "industry killing," replaced the standards with weaker ones in March. Biden has also proposed incentives for auto manufacturers to produce zero-emission cars, a federal procurement program for clean vehicles and set a goal for all new American-built buses to be zero-emissions by 2030. He has also called for the installation of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030 and ending fossil fuel subsidies. Trump had a vision of a renaissance in "beautiful clean coal," the fuel that emits the most carbon dioxide when burned, and invited miners to the White House in early 2017 as his administration announced plans to slash air and water regulations.
Biden has said he will return the United States to a leadership role on climate change, assertively restoring a U.S. role in future climate negotiations to advance the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. He has said he brought China's President Xi Jinping on board with the Paris pact, a claim some former Obama administration officials have said was overstated.