WASHINGTON (Nexstar) — At a virtual climate summit with 40 world leaders, President Biden announced the US goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030. Experts in the field agree reaching that goal will depend on what happens in the near future, including whether Biden’s infrastructure plan is passed.
To achieve that ambitious goal of cutting US emissions in half over the 2005 levels, the US must make big changes and the infrastructure proposal would lead the country down that road by investing in a federal electric vehicle fleet, a network of nationwide charging stations and moving the country toward a cleaner power grid.
“Those that do take action and make bold investments in their people, in a clean energy future, will win the good jobs of tomorrow and make their economies more resilient and more competitive,” Biden said.
Republicans are not on board.
“Their plan would thrust the West Coast obsession with electric vehicles on to the entire nation,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
GOP lawmakers have their own idea what an infrastructure package should look like. They propose a plan that would cost $568 billion instead of the nearly $2 trillion in Biden’s proposal. The plan would stick to more traditional infrastructure.
“Roads and bridges, public transit systems, rail which could be cargo and passenger rail,” said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
But not including green energy projects would make it quite difficult for the US to reach Biden’s newly announced climate goals.
The White House said Biden is willing to look at the Republican infrastructure plan but it remains to be seen if the president would cut his clean energy projects out of this infrastructure package to get a bipartisan deal done.