President Biden’s environmental record
Last week, Joe Biden deftly avoided a fiscal default in the US and managed to save a lot of environmental funding from the Lower Inflation Act. If the U.S. defaults, the economic turmoil will delay the transition to an economy based on renewable resources, as the money needed to fund the transition will fall back into the types of assets you can stash under your mattress. To get the bill passed, he had to streamline the environmental review process for energy projects based on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and expedite construction of the Valley Pipeline. A president’s ability to manipulate politics is limited when his political opponents control both Congress and one chamber of the Supreme Court. Projects like the Valley Pipeline or drilling for fossil fuels in the Arctic are stupid. Someday, these projects will be seen as the last breath of the dying fossil fuel industry. But while fossil fuels are on the verge of being phased out, it will be a generation away, and in the meantime, I’m writing this on a fossil fuel-powered computer. Almost all of us still need fossil fuels, so let’s abandon the illusion that all fossil fuel burning should stop immediately. The budget deal’s streamlined environmental scrutiny isn’t just good for fossil fuel projects. Renewable energy projects and modernizing energy transmission lines have also been delayed by the same process used to block fossil fuel projects. I’m glad all these lawyers and environmental interest groups are able to raise money and make a living off of these constant appeals, but an endless process without a final decision does no one any good.
In fact, almost everything we humans and our way of life do damages the environment.choice always revolves around degree damage. We need to be more mindful of the tradeoffs we are making and be more realistic about our actual choices. We should also focus more on the record of achievement and what is happening in the real world rather than the symbolic world. Instead of focusing on goals and symbols, look at performance: How far have we made the transition to an environmentally sustainable economy? How much renewable energy is being used now compared to last year? How many electric cars are sold compared to last year? How does this year’s pollution record compare to last year’s? Joe Biden’s administration has the worst environmental record of any American leader since the creation of the EPA in 1970. Donald Trump and his cronies are doing everything they can to undermine U.S. environmental protection policy. They cancel rules, stop enforcement, question fixed science, and always put private interests above public health.
Let’s look at the EPA itself. When the agency was established in 1970, it had a staff of 4,084. By the time President Nixon left office in disgrace in 1974, it had grown to about 10,000. At its peak in fiscal 1999, the EPA had 18,110 employees (thanks Bill Clinton). Under President Obama (yes, Obama) it fell from about 17,000 to 15,000, and under Trump it bottomed out at 14,172. During Trump’s tenure, many of the agency’s top scientists have fled amid political interference in their work. In FY 2023, EPA’s headcount returns to 15,115 and growing.it is Budget Since Biden took office, it has increased by $1 billion to more than $10 billion. The agency under Donald Trump is run first by an incompetent, corrupt ideologue and then by a more skilled but still ideological bureaucrat. Under Biden, the EPA is led by the experienced and dedicated Michael Regan. Just as Bill Ruckelshaus had to rebuild the EPA after the disastrous reign of Anne Gorsuch (later Burford), so Regan was doing the same after Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler destroyed the agency and its morale. Unlike Trump, Ronald Reagan knew his re-election in 1984 would benefit from a viable EPA; he could not and would not allow the EPA to collapse.
In addition to beginning to rebuild the EPA, Biden also led the enactment of the largest environmental funding law ever enacted by the US government. Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill for 2021 includes more than $300 billion in public green investments. The Lower Inflation Act includes an additional $400 billion in renewable energy subsidies. These public investments have spurred billions of dollars in private investment in electric vehicles, charging stations and batteries.
Given the country’s political polarization and his own pragmatic leanings, Biden decided he could achieve more greenhouse gas reductions by lowering the price of renewable energy rather than raising the price of fossil fuels. He recognizes our current dependence on fossil fuels and wants to keep prices low by allowing for a continuous supply. He knew that energy was a higher percentage of a low-income household’s budget than a high-income household’s. The price of gasoline at the fuel pump has dropped by about $1 a gallon in the last year. Biden bets that I believe the market will eventually move away from fossil fuels as renewables continue to fall in price and increase in reliability and convenience. But Biden is not simply using subsidies and infrastructure to speed up the transition to a green economy. The president has not given up on using regulatory tools. Three provisions showed his commitment and savvy. The first is proposed regulations to gradually increase fuel consumption requirements for motor fleets so that the only way to meet them over time is through the sale of electric vehicles. The second is power plant-specific regulations on greenhouse gas emissions—a direction enforced by the court’s rejection of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. The third is proposed US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations requiring public companies to disclose their carbon emissions and environmental risks. This SEC rule will have a huge impact on the behavior of the private sector. It is as important as the development of generally accepted accounting practices beginning in the 1930s. It will strengthen the role of the Chief Sustainability Officer in the same way that financial disclosure led to the development of a company’s CFO.
The Biden administration is also using the vast purchasing power of the federal government to decarbonize our energy system. The post office has reversed course and is buying electric vehicles. Additionally, each federal agency is creating a Chief Sustainability Officer, per executive order, to oversee and reduce the agency’s environmental footprint.
All in all, the environmental funding, practices, and policies of the Biden administration are an astonishing example of environmental progress and leadership. Despite such a stellar record, Biden and his team have come under fire from environmental interest groups for “selling out” and linking their support for the Fiscal Responsibility Act to its ties to the fossil fuel industry. I think this is part of the monetization of the political polarization that now characterizes American interest group politics. While fundraising for interest groups has always involved a fear element — pointing out the potential harm that political opponents can cause — there have also been calls to support a positive agenda. Many environmental interest groups today are more concerned with fear, even painting allies like Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer as enemies.In a press release from the Climate Justice Coalition, its co-executive director Albert Ozawa Bincy, Commenting on the environmental elements of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, it was observed that:
“By allowing these provisions to be brought up and through the legislative process, President Biden, Senator Schumer (the second-largest donor is the company behind the Valley Pipeline), and House Minority Leader Jeffreys emboldened corporate-backed politicians who have issued Signaling this victory brings more harmful bills and bills. This is not climate leadership, and this is not justice.”
I know these views are real and represent a real disappointment with our political process. But compromise is not corruption. People who disagree with you are not evil and corrupt, they just see the world differently. In the polarized political environment we live in, we are fortunate to have leaders who work hard to find common ground. Additionally, President Biden clearly believes in environmental justice and building a green economy. Maybe attacking him could help raise money from people who think all politicians are corrupt and selfish. But think of alternatives. The American right may not care much about environmental protection and environmental justice. I suspect Biden doesn’t mind being attacked from the left, which combined with constant attacks from the right makes him appear more moderate and centrist.
Joe Biden and his team have had spectacular environmental success. They navigate a political environment characterized by an extreme and often strident constituency. Our success in environmental policy has always come from bipartisan dialogue and agreement. In the 1970s, Democrats and Republicans worked together to enact landmark environmental laws. Today, there is a quiet consensus about the need to rebuild our energy infrastructure and wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Companies are responding to pressure from employees and investors to clean up their operations. President Biden has been able to win significant environmental funding for energy, water and other critical programs because he understands that incentives to build a green economy are easier to sell than penalties for pollution.No elected official has a perfect environmental record, but Biden has the best environmental record of any president in U.S. history.
