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President Biden's Year 1 Climate Progress Report [1]

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Date: 2023-08

Overview

President Biden’s first year in office resulted in some victories for our communities and the climate, but there is work that remains unfinished and most initiatives lack the ambition to meet the demands of science and justice. Widely popular policies, like investments in clean energy and protections for vulnerable ecosystems, could become a reality if Congress passes the Build Back Better Act (BBB) without allowing fossil fuel interests to weaken it any further. The Act remains the biggest opportunity for President Biden and Congress to secure key climate policies. Unfortunately, the Act is currently stalled in the Senate.

The combined Build Back Better Act – if passed in its current state – and bipartisan infrastructure packages contain more than $600 billion in proposed climate investments as well as removal of some taxpayer-funded international fossil fuel subsidies. These are necessary steps to set the U.S. on a path to fulfill its climate commitments. However, neither bill does enough to address the out of control fossil fuel industry that continues to pollute our communities and drive us towards climate catastrophe. Key tools in phasing out fossil fuels such as eliminating the $15 billion in taxpayer-funded domestic subsidies that go to fossil fuel companies every year and establishing a Clean Energy Standard are notably absent from both bills.

It is true that President Biden’s climate plan is more ambitious than any other president. Enacting that plan is where he is falling short. We are not on track to meet the global climate goal of limiting warming to under 1.5 degrees C that science says will prevent the worst effects of climate change. President Biden has delivered on only a few promises to communities that have suffered the most from fossil fuel pollution and exploitation.

The current gridlock in Congress has proven to be a major hurdle for President Biden to enact his climate plan, but he needs to do better at using every option available to him to close the gap between what current policies can achieve and what our communities need. So far, President Biden has been unwilling to use his executive powers to declare a climate emergency, which would allow him to reinstate the crude oil export ban and halt federal fossil fuel leasing on public lands.

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[1] Url: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/president-biden-year-1-climate-progress-report/

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