Biden rolls out climate policy

For weeks, fellow Democrats have been questioning Joe Biden’s climate change credibility, and on Tuesday, the former vice president offered an answer in a 22-page agenda to jump start a “clean energy revolution” that both tackles climate change and builds economic opportunity with new green jobs across the country.

The four-part plan contains some approaches to addressing climate and energy concerns throughout the U.S. and across the world, while at the same time touting actions Biden has taken on environmental issues throughout his nearly five decades of public service.

When Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders, a presidential primary rival, began to seize on a report suggesting Biden might stress a “middle ground” on issues like climate policy, Biden pushed back and told his Philadelphia official “kickoff” crowd the most important plank in his forthcoming climate change policy would be to “beat Trump.”

Still, Biden’s campaign points out that the first climate change bill ever brought up in the Senate was the one Biden introduced in 1986, the Atlantic points out.

Biden, in his first campaign trip to Iowa last month, also took time to remind a small group of silent climate change protesters dressed up as penguins of his first proposal. “You’re preaching to the choir, I love ya, keep going!” he said.

If elected, the Biden administration on “day one” intends to implement a number of executive actions to push for a “100 percent clean energy economy” including:

• Requiring “aggressive” methane pollution limits for new and existing oil and gas operations;
• Streamlining federal government activities to for better energy efficiency;
• And advocating for “liquid fuels of the future” like biofuels.

Embracing federal lands and protecting biodiversity is also a potential target for Biden’s executive actions.

Working with Congress, Biden hopes to invest in climate research and negotiate an “enforcement mechanism” to force polluters to “bear the full cost of the carbon pollution they are emitting.”

These efforts to protect the environment also hope to lend a hand to American workers.

A substantial portion of the job opportunities to grow out of clean energy would come in research and development, Biden believes. He’s promising $400 billion over ten years to make “largest-ever investment in clean energy research and innovation.”

On the global stage, the Biden administration would not only re-enter the Paris climate agreement but “use every tool of American foreign policy to push the rest of the world to raise their ambitions…”

Biden, in his plan, accuses China of creating more carbon pollution than any country, not just at home, but also abroad, financing “dirty fossil fuel projects” across Asia and beyond. He would punish China with carbon adjustment fees and also, as part of any climate agreement with China, he would block subsidies of Chinese coal exports.

Transportation in lanes, trains and automobiles is also addressed in Biden’s plan:

• Proposes more than 500,000 new public charging stations for electric cars nationwide
• “Targets” airline emissions by incentivizing innovation with sustainable fuels for aircrafts
• Both commuter and freight train travel would be improved for greater and more efficient access to the southern and western parts of country

Lastly, the plan addresses the moral lapse in allowing harmful environmental policies to persist. For instance, one area that Biden believes requires attention is ensuring access to safe drinking water. His plan details how different regions of the country are affected, and he prescribes solutions for safe water testing.

This is a developing story and will be updated.