Consider This from NPR - Within Biden's Infrastructure Plan Lies An Agenda To Address Climate Change

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

The details in President Biden's proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan have a lot to do with protecting the environment. There's a new clean electricity standard and a focus on low-income communities hit hardest by climate change. But will it be enough? NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports on how some progressives in congress wished Biden's plan was more ambitious. While many republicans, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, see it as an overreach and have vowed to fight it. Dr. Leah Stokes, a professor in the department of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says that she'd favor a quicker timeline but still thinks Biden's plan will go a long way for curbing the effects of climate change. In participating regions, you'll also hear from local journalists about what's happening in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's going to be green and it's going to be big. That's how Democrats have said they want to spend trillions on the nation's infrastructure. It's not a plan that tinkers around the edges. It's a once in a generation investment in America. On Wednesday afternoon, President Biden spoke about what his version of this might look like, tucking up the idea of job creation and running defense against critics who say it's a Democratic wish list of environmental policy, not infrastructure. To that, Biden says, just look at those impacted by floods, fires and hurricanes. Ask all those farmers and small business owners and homeowners where they're investing in clean energy to fight the effects of climate change as part of infrastructure.

We have to lessen our reliance on fossil fuels. There's no doubt about that. Michael Regan heads the Environmental Protection Agency. Speaking to NPR on Thursday morning, he emphasized how the plan addresses the effects of climate change. Impacts to our wastewater treatment facilities and stormwater infrastructure to help reduce flooding. Most important for Regan, the plan would also remove dangerous lead piping throughout the country that disproportionately impacts low income communities of color. And to pay for all this, Biden wants to raise corporate taxes from 21 percent to 28 percent, which Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have opposed. In fact, McConnell said last week that he'll fight the proposal every step of the way.

Biden says he welcomes debate. We'll be open to good ideas and good faith negotiations. But here's what we won't be open to. We will not be open to doing nothing. Consider this. Biden wants to sell his ambitious infrastructure plan as the best way to fight climate change. But is it? That depends on who you ask.

From NPR, I'm Adi Cornish. It's Thursday, April 8th. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Sotva. If you're in need of a new mattress, consider this. A mattress with two layers of coils, like the Satva Classic, provides extra comfort and is half the price of retail stores. Visit s-double-a-t-v-a-dot-com-slash-n-p-r. This message comes from WISE,

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Before we talk about how Biden's American jobs plan might curb the impacts of climate change, we should ask, is it likely to get the support of lawmakers? Democrats have control of Congress, even though it's a razor-thin majority. So this legislation may only make it through a party-line vote. I have to tell you, I don't think it's the best way to go. That's Democratic strategist Bill Press. Our infrastructure is way, way, way overdue for being brought up to the 21st century. Now, press argues that because an update is so badly needed, it shouldn't be impossible for Republicans and Democrats to negotiate what stays in or how it's funded. What's lacking is the ability and the willingness of Republicans to deal. Mitch McConnell has said no, no, no, provided no alternatives. And sadly, every Republican senator has gone along with him. Yes, people see that roads and bridges need to be

repaired because they do. But this bill includes far more funding for issues that aren't directly related to roads and bridges. Republican strategist Alice Stewart. And quickly, we want to point out Biden's plan isn't a bill yet. The White House can propose initiatives, but it's Congress that writes legislation. Still, Stewart's point is echoed by many congressional Republicans. They say funding for more electric cars, for example. Well, they think that doesn't belong in a proposal like this one. But there's also one Democrat in the Senate who everyone is watching. Joe Manchin will be the man of the hour when it comes to this going to vote because he

stood up against the minimum wage increase in the last spending bill and that was taken out. And if he goes against this, this is dead in the water. Alice Stewart and Bill Press spoke with Robin Young, host of Here and Now, which is a co-production of NPR and WBUR. To Stewart's point about Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, Manchin has said he doesn't support Biden's goal of a 28 percent corporate tax hike. But he did say he could go for 25 percent, which is still an increase and likely the kind of negotiating the White House anticipated. On the other end of the Democratic spectrum, some progressives have complaints, too. The size of it is disappointing. It's not enough. That's New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

She says Biden's plan is less than half of what progressives in Congress have called for. But she's glad to see many of their priorities reflected. Strengthening unions, a focus on communities hit hardest by climate change. In those policies, she sees a victory for the Green New Deal. As much as people, you know, I think some parts of the party try to avoid saying Green New Deal, ultimately the framework, I think, has been adopted. NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben takes the story from here. Ocasio-Cortez's comments mirror the tension in how progressives view the White House's climate change agenda, full of signs that the president is implementing the climate

movement's broad ideas, but not always on the scale that they want. Varshini Prakash is executive director of the Sunrise Movement, one of the main groups that pushed for the Green New Deal. She applauded a New Deal-inspired plan for green jobs that Biden included in a January executive order. I think the Civilian Climate Corps, which is a measure to create jobs doing the work of averting climate catastrophe and putting people back to work, was something that we didn't anticipate being a priority for the administration right away. However, she thinks the $10 billion Biden calls for spending on it is far too little.

That fight over the scale and scope of what needs to happen in terms of employment, in terms of the scale of investment and the urgency is going to be a terrain of struggle as this plan gets debated and discussed in Congress. The Green New Deal isn't a hard and fast policy proposal. Instead, it's a broad, decidedly liberal call to overhaul the economy while also benefiting the environment. Joe Biden did not embrace it on the campaign trail, but he did call it a, quote, crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. And Ocasio-Cortez thinks that that plan helped open the door to Democrats embracing bigger government investments in fighting climate change. Pre-Green New Deal rollout, a lot of the conversation around climate policy was very scientific and also very capitalist. It was very like, let's nudge the market, tax incentives, things like that, which is not to say all of those things are bad.

But the idea that the market is going to fix a problem that is created by the market, you know, in my view, it's not correct. It's also true that forces well beyond climate activism and the Green New Deal may have given Biden more room to act, says Paul Bledsoe, a former climate advisor to President Bill Clinton. I think the Americans during the pandemic have come to appreciate the role of government in emergencies and are increasingly viewing climate change as our next biggest emergency. But that doesn't mean passing Biden's plan will be easy. And Ocasio-Cortez knows it. There's a very politically hairy task of trying to figure out how we're going to legislate with a 50-50 Senate. And that Senate party,

it's not progressive. Those slim margins on Capitol Hill mean bringing moderates along, which may mean compromising on a bill that some progressives already think is too small. NPR political reporter Danielle Kurtzleben. Too much or too modest, the fact remains trying to combat climate change through infrastructure is an enormous undertaking. We have to do so much so quickly. We have to change our electricity system, our cars, our buildings. Everything that runs on power needs to run on clean power. That's Dr. Leah Stokes. She's a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara,

and she researches energy policy. Stokes says the to-do list can feel overwhelming. But the flip side of that is that it means there's a lot of work to do. There's a lot of jobs that can be created. I spoke with Stokes about how Biden's plan tackles climate change and how it compares to the Green New Deal. Well, the Green New Deal is a framework resolution. It's not really very detailed. This is a very detailed, you know, 25 page document. And the Green New Deal is more of

a framework about, you know, let's take on climate change and let's take on the inequality crisis at the same time. And in that way, I would say, you know, the American Jobs Plan is also very focused on taking on climate change and inequality. Is there anything more specific than just the whole thing can help the climate? Are there any policies that specifically will have impacts based on what we know in terms of research?

When it comes to rebuilding our infrastructure, that's fundamentally about addressing climate change, whether that's reducing our emissions to stop the catastrophic effects of climate change or hardening our infrastructure so that when hurricanes and heat waves and flooding and all these climate impacts continue to hit the United States, we have more resilient infrastructure. A clean electricity standard is a core part of the plan, and a clean electricity standard has the potential to clean up our entire electricity system, which is the second biggest source of emissions. When we clean up our electricity system, which President Biden has said he will try to do by 2035, we can use that clean electricity to power our homes through building electrification, which is also supported by the plan, and our cars through electric vehicles,

which is another core part of the plan. And there's also a focus on cleaning up the industrial sector. And when we add up the emissions from electricity, transportation, buildings, and the industrial sector, we can actually get to between 70 to 80% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Do you see a particular policy as being controversial? Like what will you be looking for in the debate? I don't know if there will be something that's controversial. I think that the most focus that people have been talking about is the size of spending. Some folks on the right, many Republican politicians, they want there to be no spending on this issue. And then many others, including young people who are very concerned about the crisis that's being left to their generation, they want even more spending. They want a bolder vision here. And I think that's really the locus

of the debate at this point. Where in this package do you see the need for more action? Well, I think like many other advocates, I think spending is really important that if we want to, for example, retrofit all the homes in America, getting rid of dirty fossil gas from homes, which is actually quite dangerous to people's health and well-being. You know, we need a bigger plan when it comes to retrofits. Right now, I think the plan is trying to retrofit something like two million homes. That might be the number. And when I talk to advocates, they say we need to be retrofitting 2 million homes every six months to really be on track with our climate goals. And the same thing about electric vehicles. You know, electric vehicles are really a great option for people.

And once you buy one, they're much cheaper to operate. But in order to get people to buy them in the first place, we need a lot of federal support to make them as cheap as a gas-powered car. And so, you know, that's where I think we need to be moving as fast as possible to really be turning over our infrastructure quickly to address our carbon emissions. Dr. Leah Stokes, Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Adi Cornish.