For climate progressives, Biden’s $ 2.25 trillion is not enough

Photographer: Bing Guan / Bloomberg

As a candidate, Joe Biden garnered almost unanimous support from environmentalists, progressives and clean energy advocates for his promise to reconfigure the U.S. economy to fight climate change.

But as president, his $ 2.25 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan – released Wednesday and supposed to fulfill much of that campaign pledge – has received a much less harmonious reception.

“Today I find myself caught between two truths,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of the youth climate activist group, the Sunrise Movement. “This infrastructure plan is a historic step forward that would not have been possible without us,” she said, referring to other young protesters and supporters of the Green New Deal. And yet, “it takes so much more to reach the scale of what is needed to truly transform this country to stop the climate crisis.”

Renewable energy industries, for the most part, should see their wishes come true. “It sounds like a once in a lifetime moment,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, in an interview with Bloomberg Green. “It sounds like a generational opportunity.”

But the dissonance with the left-wing climate is just a sign of the challenges Biden will face in pushing his bill through.

Even before as the details became public, it was clear that the U.S. jobs plan would have a tough road ahead in Congress, not least because it addresses so many of the left’s long-standing priorities. The bill includes money for public transport, for the development and redevelopment of green housing, for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and – perhaps crucially – proposes to raise the rate of highest corporate tax of 21% to 28% to cover the cost. Enforcement will be key, the White House said in its notes on the bill, a possible nod to one of progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren’s favorite themes.

Those who spoke against the proposal mainly questioned its size. In one Tweeter Shortly after the details were made public, Green New Deal sponsor Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew an unflattering contrast between the infrastructure plan and the recently passed stimulus bill, which provided almost that much funding for 2021 alone. Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, also expressed her disappointment. “While President Biden’s proposal is a welcome first step,” she said in a public statement, “more needs to be done to improve this initial framework to meet the challenges we face.”

Others were more circumspect in their criticism, even though they used some of the same language. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island and a member of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, for example, called Biden’s plan a “good place to start” for Congress to begin work on infrastructure. . “I like that it’s focused on upgrading infrastructure, which we need to do more in Rhode Island ”. he said.

But for the solar industry, the plan “exceeds expectations,” said Michael Weinstein, analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. “It’s a great day. It is clear that a large part of the infrastructure bill will focus on renewable energy. “

Federal tax credits have helped make solar and wind power more affordable in the United States, and the plan proposes to extend those tax credits for another decade – longer, even, than many companies do. ‘had planned. “It’s a pleasant surprise,” said John Berger, CEO of residential solar company Sunnova Energy International Inc. A potential decade-long extension would give solar companies greater certainty, especially as Biden looks to the sector to help green the country’s networks. Clean energy stocks such as Sunnova surged on Wednesday after details were released.