go forward with a huge Trump-era oil project
on Alaska’s North Slope and to defend two oil
pipelines in the upper Midwest, the Dakota
Access Pipeline and Enbridge Energy’s Line 3
replacement project.
Environmentalists also are frustrated by the
administration’s failure to revive a ban on
federal coal sales imposed under President
Barack Obama.
While Biden made “good decisions” in rejecting
the Keystone XL oil pipeline and drilling on
Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, his
administration’s support for other oil projects
and pipelines undermines Biden’s commitment
to slow global warming, said Drew Caputo of
the environmental law firm Earthjustice.
“We’re not going to successfully fight climate
change if we trade pipeline for pipeline” and
oil project for oil project, he said. “We have to
transform the economy. Investing in expensive
fossil fuel infrastructure like pipelines really puts
the administration’s ability to deal with climate
change at risk.’’
A letter signed by 134 House Democrats calls
on Biden to ensure the infrastructure legislation
includes “robust” spending that “matches the
scale of the challenge climate science tells us
we face.”
The letter, led by Reps. Mike Levin of
California, Andy Kim of New Jersey and
Sharice Davids of Kansas, outlines five
climate priorities in the reconciliation
package, including a carbon-free grid by
2035, replacement of lead water pipes and
service lines, and a commitment that 40%
of program benefits are reserved for poor