Biden Climate Watch: Carbonomics

There are more than 190 countries in the world — the number varies depending on who you ask. Another statistic, more widely agreed upon, is that the United States has, cumulatively, emitted more than 28 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions since 1750, a hefty share.

On Wednesday, President Biden stepped up to take responsibility for the huge share of carbon the country contributes to global warming. In an executive order, he announced that the U.S. aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, joining the European Union and more than 110 other countries, according to the United Nations; China has pledged do so before 2060, India by 2070. This comes on the heels of a promise made by 21 countries — including the U.S. — at the Glasgow climate conference to no longer support international fossil fuel projects.

The idea both nationally and internationally is to direct the money saved on fossil fuel production toward clean energy, with a focus in Biden’s executive order on moving U.S. government operations toward clean energy, fueled by sources like wind and solar, by 2030. The federal government will “lead by example” until the country’s entire economy is carbon neutral 20 years later.

The order “doesn’t tell the private sector entities what to do, but to some extent it will demand a certain kind of good and service so companies can shift what’s being made,” Sarah Bloom Raskin, a Duke University law professor who served as treasury deputy secretary under President Barack Obama, told The Washington Post.

With the U.S. response to the climate crisis, Biden said in the executive order that “we have a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity to create and sustain jobs, including well-paying union jobs; support a just transition to a more sustainable economy for American workers; strengthen America’s communities; protect public health; and advance environmental justice.”

This translates into a plan that includes buying only electric cars for the federal fleet; instituting what Biden calls a “Buy Clean” policy that would promote the use of construction materials made and transported with low emissions; and ensuring that federal buildings are upgraded to run on clean energy.

“The actions and investment required to achieve these goals will protect the environment, drive innovation, spur private sector investment, improve public infrastructure, and create new economic opportunity,” Biden said.

But as with everything in the country, big government changes are both dependent on economics, and politics. There is a weighty financial cost attached to all these plans, and unclear funding paths. And before the order was even issued, five Republican governors — from Mississippi, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Arkansas — said they would oppose any move to reduce carbon emissions. With powerful fossil fuel industries in these states, the governors don’t want to give an inch.

The governor of Wyoming, Mark Gordon, told Reuters last week that he would oppose any plan that would “hamstring Wyoming’s efforts to produce energy from all her existing natural resources.”

Despite Republican opposition, Wyoming and a number of red states have burgeoning clean energy industries regardless, with companies across the country moving away from pricey, old coal plants and toward renewable sources. So it’s possible that progress toward saving the planet, whether done for financial or humanitarian reasons, may just come anyway.