The match towards a fully-integrated green economy is well and truly underway as U.S president Joe Biden signed an excutive order to tackle climate change.
In his remarks at the White Housem Biden said the executive order was an embodiment of American innovation, American products, American labor.
He said the order would focus on the health of families and cleaner water, cleaner air, and cleaner communities; he noted that national security and America leading the world in a clean energy future were paramount objectives.
“Last year, wildfires burned more than 5,000 acres in the West — as no one knows better than the Vice President, a former Senator from California — an area roughly the size of the entire state of New Jersey. More intense and powerful hurricanes and tropical storms pummeled states across the Gulf Coast and along the East Coast — I can testify to that, from Delaware. Historic floods, severe droughts have ravaged the Midwest. More Americans see and feel the devastation in big cities, small towns, coastlines, and in farmlands, in red states and blue states. And the Defense Department reported that climate change is a direct threat to more than two thirds of the military’s operational critical installations. Two thirds. And so this could — we could — this could well be on the conservative side.”
Joe Biden, U.S President
A key plank of the Build Back Better Recovery Plan is building a modern, resilient climate infrastructure and clean energy future that will create millions of good-paying union jobs — with prevailing wage and benefits.
With renewable energy as the anchor, the Biden administration wants American manufacturing, American workers racing to lead the global market.
The plan would also make American agriculture the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process.
Changes
The executive order- as an effective economic tool – will see workers building 1.5 million eco-friendly homes and installing 500,000 new electric vehicle charging stations across the country.
The executive order, combined with the Buy American executive order signed on Monday, will harness the purchasing power of the federal government to buy clean, zero-emission vehicles that are made and sourced by union workers right here in America.
This is expected to generate at least one million jobs.
” We’re also going to create more than a quarter million jobs to do things like plug the millions of abandoned oil and gas wells that pose an ongoing threat to the health and safety of our communities. They’re abandoned wells that are open now, and we’re going to put people to work. They’re not going to lose jobs in these areas; they’re going to create jobs. They’re going to get prevailing wage to cap those over a million wells. These aren’t pie-in-the-sky dreams. These are concrete, actionable solutions, and we know how to do this. The Obama-Biden administration reduced the auto industry — rescued the auto industry and helped them retool. We need solar energy cost-competitive with traditional energy, weatherizing more — we made them cost-competitive, weatherizing more than a million homes.”
Joe Biden, U.S President
Policy
Biden also announced that the establishment of a White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy to be led by a former Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Director Gina McCarthy.
As the head of the new office andNational Climate Advisor, Gina will chair a National Climate Task Force, made up of many members of the cabinet, to deliver a whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis.
Fossil fears
One of the first decisions taken by Biden immediately after being sworn-in a week ago was to stop the controversial Keystone XL pipeline purseued by the last administration.
Biden also announced new curbs on further oil exploration in the artic region of the country because of the acconpanying environmental hazards.
Many experts saw this as the beginning of the end for the fossil fuel industry led by oil, gas and coal.
But Biden has allayed fears for interest groups in the sector.
“We have to start by creating new, good-paying jobs, capping those abandoned wells, reclaiming mines, turning old brownfield sites into new hubs of economic growth, creating new, good-paying jobs in those communities where those workers live because they helped build this country. We’re never going to forget the men and women who dug the coal and built the nation. We’re going to do right by them and make sure they have opportunities to keep building the nation and their own communities and getting paid well for it. While the whole-of-government approach is necessary, though, it’s not sufficient. We’re going to work with mayors and governors and tribal leaders and business leaders who are stepping up, and the young people organizing and leading the way. My message to those young people is: You have the full capacity and power of the federal government. Your government is going to work with you.”
Joe Biden, U.S President
Joe Biden was elected in November 2020 with a firm promise to address the issue of climate change and other related matters by unveiling a $2 trillion green economic plan.
This executive order is seen as the main kicker.
