Democratic National Committee Climate Panel Pressures Biden To Back Aggressive Climate Plan
Last week, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Climate Council offered presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden an aggressive climate plan that they would like Biden to adopt, which goes much further than his own climate plan.
The 12 person DNC Climate Council was created last year by the DNC to form progressive climate policies in response to not having a democratic primary debate on climate change.
The panel recommends that Biden spend between $10 trillion and $16 trillion dollars in federal funding over the next 10 years to combat climate change, whereas Biden’s current plan only calls for up to $2 trillion in federal spending on climate issues.
The proposal also calls for denying new federal permits for fossil fuel infrastructure projects like pipelines, 100 percent clean renewable energy by 2030 in electricity generation, buildings, and transportation, and eliminating gas-fired heat and other fossil fuels in new buildings by 2025.
The plan also calls for ending fossil fuel and other resource development on 30 percent of public lands by 2030 and half of the world’s oceans by 2050.
In contrast, Biden’s current plan calls for achieving net-zero emissions and reaching a 100 percent clean energy economy by 2050 and cutting in half the carbon footprints of buildings by 2035.
Although it is unknown if Biden will adopt some of the council’s policies, many democratic experts fear that this aggressive climate plan would alienate the moderate voters of the party in battleground states that Biden will need to beat President Trump in November.
Even if Biden decides to adopt some of these policies, it will still be difficult to implement them as most of these issues will require Congress’s approval.
