has pushed for urgent action on climate
change. “And we know that fossil fuel lobbyists
in Washington are already hard at work to
eliminate key climate provisions from the
(Democrat-only) package.
“To meet this moment, Democrats must stand
firm and pass a package that makes historic
investments in climate, jobs and justice,′′ he said.
Even the bipartisan agreement is not
certain to pass a closely divided Congress. A
framework announced June 24 by Biden and a
bipartisan group of senators does not include
legislative provisions and many details need
to be worked out.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden,
D-Ore., called the bipartisan deal inadequate
when his state and others in the West face a
record heat wave and destructive wildfires. “It will
not include comprehensive clean energy policy,
and I am not willing to support throwing climate
change overboard,” Wyden said. “The two bills
have to be directly connected.”
The $973 billion bipartisan deal includes money
to build a national network of electric vehicle
charging stations, purchase thousands of electric
buses and upgrade the electrical grid. It also
would spend $55 billion to improve drinking
water and wastewater systems and $47 billion in
resiliency efforts to tackle climate change.
But many climate-related proposals were cut
out, including plans promoted by Biden to
make electricity carbon-free by 2035 and spend
hundreds of billions in tax incentives for clean
energy such as wind and solar power and
technologies that capture and store carbon
emissions.