For White House, Climate Action and Job Creation Go Hand-in-Hand | Article

Using climate action to accelerate recovery from the economic fallout from COVID-19 has been a top priority during the first seven months of the Biden-Harris Administration. These considerations have been incorporated into infrastructure legislation on the Hill as policymakers seek to build and upgrade American infrastructure in a way that provides job and training opportunities and is adaptive to a changing climate.

The Executive Action on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad released shortly after President Biden took office was an early signal of the Administration’s desire to further economic recovery through climate policy. Some of the directives most pertinent to workforce development and infrastructure in the executive order are the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps and the establishment of an Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. The former would fund jobs and training opportunities for Americans in community resilience, reforestation, green energy, and carbon sequestration. The latter would coordinate the identification and delivery of federal resources to revitalize the economies of coal, oil, and gas, and power plant communities.

The American Jobs Plan released in March outlined the Administration’s ambitions for infrastructure investments, with a focus on providing job and training opportunities to American workers. The $2 trillion plan emphasized climate mitigation and adaptation projects such as electrifying homes and vehicles, plugging orphan oil and gas wells, and modernizing the electric grid. Other projects, such as delivering broadband internet to rural America, would further bolster climate mitigation goals by improving connections to energy efficiency technologies. The President's proposed $6 trillion 2022 Fiscal Year Budget released in May includes funding for the goals in the American Jobs Plan.

The success of the Administration's plans hinges on Congressional support. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF) developed by 22 senators and endorsed by the Administration in June includes many of the targets set forth in the American Jobs Plan. The $1.2 trillion proposed spending in the plan would provide funding for electric vehicle infrastructure, new transmission lines to facilitate renewable energy expansion, the climate resilience of built infrastructure, and a new Infrastructure Financing Authority to leverage billions of dollars into green investments.

Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee led by Chairman Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) have additionally put forward a $3.5 trillion budget resolution addressing climate change and a host of other social and economic concerns. Through the reconciliation process, the budget resolution could pass the Senate with a simple majority rather than with 60 votes. Voting for both the budget resolution and the BIF is expected to commence before Congress leaves for recess in early August.

On Monday, July 19, President Biden delivered remarks urging Congressional legislators to pass an infrastructure spending plan: “...We should be united in one thing: Passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, which we shook hands on.”

Author: Anna Sophia Roberts