By PRFSU Writers 2023-2024 Nick Ilvento
For the past decade, public concern for climate change has gradually increased, with about 65% of Americans “worried about global warming” to some extent (Marlon, et al., 2023). Climate change can concern Americans for a variety of reasons from potential rising sea levels, increased severity of hurricanes, higher frequency of wildfires across the world, among other factors. The Trump administration had made efforts to combat climate change, such as cutting down greenhouse gasses “more than 9% from 2019 to about the same level as it was in 1983, according to a BloombergNEF study” (Dwyer and Herndon, 2020). Many experts, including Dr. Mann, a climatologist and geophysicist at Penn State University conveys that the progress made was not satisfactory enough. He has said that “we need to bring carbon emissions down to net zero within a couple of decades, and we need to bring them halfway [to net zero] within the next decade” (Dwyer and Herndon, 2020).
But the United States can’t be the only country focused on creating a sustainable future. Currently, nations like China produce double the amount of global greenhouse gasses as the United States with little to no consequences creating worries for the global community (BBC, 2021). President Biden and his administration have announced that “climate change is the number one issue facing humanity” and has executed policies to help fix the issue (Newburger, 2020). However, many experts are still questioning if Biden’s climate change policies have been effective enough to truly combat global warming.
The Biden administration has had a rough start with their initial plans of achieving all they had hoped to regarding the goal of American carbon being net zero. This is due to a variety of factors including a turbulent economy with rising inflation, conflict in Europe between Ukraine and Russia, and an overall staunchly politically divided country (Lashof, 2023). Despite these hurdles, Biden’s administration has successfully achieved and made significant progress towards three milestones. The first one was an official commitment towards “cutting the total greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030” from what it was in 2005 (Fischler, 2022). While this is an achievement, it is merely just a statement and the actual issue of global warming has not been altered.
Another goal the Biden Administration achieved was getting the Inflation Reduction Act passed by congress, which essentially enacts a “methane emissions fee for certain oil and gas facilities that will kick in in 2024 and increase to $1,500 per metric ton of methane in 2026” (Lashof, 2023). While this achievement may help lower methane gas emissions in the United States, the question is will this policy be enough to make an impact? Current policy may not make a noticeable impact as it is currently implemented on a state-by-state basis, and most states do not currently have any carbon emission tax (World Economic Forum, 2022). Making a federal policy towards emission taxes could be a good next step as companies will be forced to comply with stricter policies, but it may backfire in other ways. For example, it may cause companies to leave the United States and go to countries that do not have these emission fees/taxes (Holden, 2023). However, we won’t know the true effects of this new policy until its effects are already upon us.
One policy area that already seems to be a major success for the Biden administration is that relating to electric vehicles. The President signed an executive order to “direct federal agencies to purchase 100% zero-emission light-duty vehicles by 2027” (Lashof, 2023). Furthermore, under the Biden administration, and with the support of Republicans “50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico are to build a national electric vehicle (EV) charging network, supported by $5 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” (The White House, 2023). This policy may be the most impactful of Biden’s economic strategies as 41% of carbon emissions come from passenger cars. If the country were to transition to hybrid or electric vehicles, it would lower carbon emissions dramatically (Statista, 2020). The greater challenge will be getting the American population to switch over to the more expensive electric vehicles, and then getting the rest of the world, including China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, to follow suit.
While these new programs are a good start, we have a long way to go to reach carbon neutrality and to provide the necessary environmental protections. Our country is currently facing several obstacles that make reaching these goals even more challenging. The war in Ukraine has been a major factor in the rise of gas prices across the world, especially the United States, causing the Biden administration to deprioritize global warming prevention policies in favor of stabilizing the economy/inflation and prices of gas. As part of these desperate measures, the Biden administration attempted to sell “up 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil drillers” (Holden, 2022). Rudolph Contrera, a federal judge, stopped the sale and “ruled that the Biden administration did not properly consider the leases’ impact upon the climate crisis” (Milman, 2022). Devorah Ancel, the leader of the Sierra club, one of the largest environmental organizations based out of California, even stated that “[t]he Biden administration’s failure to adequately evaluate the climate impacts of this massive lease sale wasn’t just out of step with their stated commitment to climate action, it was also illegal” (Milman, 2022).
While Biden’s administration was halted by federal courts, therefore, preventing them from causing increased global warming damage through offshore oil rigs in the Gulf, they were not halted in giving “nearly 900 more permits to drill on public land” in Alaska and the West (Holden, 2022). According to the Center for Biological Diversity, “the Biden administration approved 3,557 permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands in its first year, far outpacing the Trump administration’s first-year total of 2,658.” (McKinnon, 2022). Despite running on a platform that promised strong action on climate change, the Biden administration has faced numerous external challenges that have hindered the implementation of their original plans. The Biden administration established a national goal of reaching carbon net zero by 2030, implemented fees for companies producing high amounts of methane gas for 2024, and began working towards a fully electric vehicle world in the future. At the same time, the administration has approved more oil and gas drilling permits on public lands per month than the Trump administration did during the first three years, despite the current administration’s claims to environmental sustainability (Joselow, 2021).
Will Biden’s climate change policies prove effective in the fight against global warming? Only time will tell. As a nation, have we made strides towards a more sustainable future, or have we dug an even deeper hole for future generations?
References
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Dwyer, D., & Herndon, S. (2020, December 22). US greenhouse gas emissions drop under Trump, but climate experts aren’t celebrating. ABC News. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-drop-trump-climate-experts/story?id=74848440
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McKinnon, T. (2022, January 21). New data: Biden’s first year drilling permitting stomps Trump’s by 34%. Center for Biological Diversity. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/new-data-biden-slays-trumps-first-year-drilling-permitting-by-34-2022-01-21/#:~:text=New%20Data%3A%20Biden’s%20First%20Year,34%25%20%2D%20Center%20for%20Biological%20Diversity&text=WASHINGTON%E2%80%94%20New%20federal%20data%20shows,first%2Dyear%20total%20of%202%2C658.
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