Biden’s Big Promises and Big Let Downs for the Climate
Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign trail was rife with promises surrounding climate change and rhetoric about the climate crisis to swing hesitant voters who were likely to vote for candidates with environmental policies higher up on their list of political priorities. Two years into Biden’s presidency, the difference between his campaign promises and his actions as President are beginning to emerge, and climate activists who previously supported Biden are now critical of his climate change policy. While Biden’s ambitious plans for climate action were meant to bring about positive change—such as a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050—, in practice, they have fallen short and have left constituents questioning if he will be able to fulfill his campaign promises, and the implications that his commitment or lack of commitment to his proposed climate policy will have on the climate crisis.
Despite President Biden’s strong campaign message that climate change is the most pressing issue humans currently face, his practices in office fall short of what’s necessary to change the course of the environmental crisis. In commentary for The World Resources Institute, Dan Lashof identifies several ways in which Biden’s current policies fall short of reaching his campaign’s goals for the environment. For example, a key goal that Biden identified to lower fossil fuel usage was to ensure the United States worked on 100% clean electricity by 2035. Lashof, however, finds Biden’s actions towards accomplishing this goal severely inadequate: he explains how Biden has yet to introduce any legislation to set building standards to only run on electricity, instead allowing for construction to be done on new buildings that will still run on natural gas.
Furthermore, while Biden has introduced legislation that aims to lower greenhouse gas emissions in hopes of meeting his goal of 50% less greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, it often lacks enforcement mechanisms. Lashof explains how Biden uses tax breaks and government funding to encourage the lowering of emissions but fails to penalise those who fail to reduce emissions to acceptable amounts—an element activists are calling for Biden to enforce. Biden, so far, has failed to implement an emission or carbon tax to ensure corporations prioritise lowering emissions, or pay the price.
Another way activists are disappointed in Biden’s actions is in regards to the mining of fossil fuels in the U.S. and the construction of pipelines to transport them. While democrats succeeded in passing a bill that allotted $369 billion towards reducing emissions and investing in clean energy, the bill is much smaller than what Biden promised, due to congressional gridlock requiring several elements to be removed. Thus, Biden agreed to allow more drilling and allow the creation of another gas pipeline for the bill to be passed. Additionally, Biden has approved gas and oil lease grants in Wyoming, oil drilling in Alaska, permitted the creation of another oil pipeline through indigenous land, and auctioned off 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil drilling. For Biden to state how pressing the climate crisis is to the survival of our country, only to then approve concessions during his presidency that will further exasperate the climate crisis, environmentally conscious people are questioning if they voted for the right candidate.
While Climate activists backed Biden for President in 2020, his campaign promises have fallen short and made people realise that Biden is not as climate focused as they once thought of him to be. Despite dire warnings from climate experts, the Biden administration has yet to follow through with their promises in order to revert the course of the climate crisis, leaving the warming planet and environment to pay the price.
Image courtesy of The White House via Wikimedia, ©2021, some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team
