The Climate Agenda in the Build Back Better Plan
By Ayla Kanber, Earth Forward Group
As of Friday, November 19, President Biden’s Build Back Better Plan was officially passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is now being considered by the Senate, and it is expected that the bill will be approved by Christmas this year.
This plan addresses investments needed for American health-care, education, climate, immigration, and tax laws. One of the more noteworthy aspects of the plan is the climate agenda, which represents the largest investment made by the federal government to combat climate change. Specifically, $555 billion of the total $2.2 trillion spending bill will be allocated towards programs that curb fossil fuel emissions in attempts to alleviate the negative consequences of global warming. Some of these consequences include deadly wildfires, more frequent and severe natural disasters, flooding, heat waves, drought.
Part of President Biden’s climate pledge is to reduce carbon emissions by 50–52% by 2030, and the climate agenda in the Build Back Better Plan will help to achieve this goal.
What is addressed in the climate agenda?
The main feature of the climate agenda features $320 billion in tax incentives that cut costs to consumers and manufacturers of electric vehicles, electric heat pumps, solar panels, wind farms, and other renewable energy equipment.
Additionally, the bill would ban new oil and gas leases off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico coast. The bill would also charge fees for methane leaks, which frequently escapes oil and gas wells and is a potent greenhouse gas. Despite the positive impact these changes will have on the environment and reducing emissions, the fossil fuel industry claims that these policies will punish American firms and help foreign competitors succeed.
The plan also includes programs to aide low income and minority communities that are more frequently exposed to environmental hazards; this includes $15 billion to finance clean energy projects and $2.83 billion to plant trees in poorer city neighborhoods that are disproportionately affected by the heat island effect.
Even with these carefully considered programs, analysts believe that the most impactful portion of the Build Back Better Plan on lowering emissions will be the tax credits. This is because the tax legislation is extending current tax credits by 10 years — when usually these credits expire after only 1 to 5 years. This will give consumers and manufacturers more opportunities to take advantage of these policies and make more environmentally-friendly decisions.
There has been intense debate up to the House narrowly passing the Build Back Better Plan, and it is likely that these setbacks will continue through the Senate vote. Specifically, Democrat Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia shows resistance to the climate agenda due to his financial ties to the coal industry. Also, West Virginia is a major producer of coal and gas, so Manchin has publicly stated that he will not support any program that hurts the fossil fuel industry. Manchin’s vote is crucial to passing this bill in the Senate, so it is unclear what the vote outcome will be as the chamber deliberates over the next few months. The Senate aims to approve the bill before Christmas this year.
