A year later, take a quiz and see what has been accomplished in a hectic first year…

BIDEN’S CLIMATE PLAN

BIDEN’S CLIMATE PLAN

From coastal towns and rural farms to urban centers, climate change poses an existential threat – not just to our environment, but to our health, our communities, our national security, and our economic well-being. It also damages our communities with storms that wreak havoc on our towns and cities, and our homes and schools. It puts our national security at risk by leading to regional instability that will require U.S military-supported relief activities and could make areas more vulnerable to terrorist activities.

Joe Biden knows there is no greater challenge facing our country and our world. That’s why he is outlining a bold plan – a Clean Energy Revolution – to address this grave threat and lead the world in addressing the climate emergency.

Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. It powerfully captures two basic truths, which are at the core of his plan: (1) the United States urgently needs to embrace greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of this challenge, and (2) our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected.

SOURCE: JOEBIDEN.COM/CLIMATE-PLAN

Please go to LAWS & LITIGATION on this website where the three branches of government are covered. You will find information there –within LEGISLATIONEXECUTIVE and JUDICIAL on the CABINET he has assembled, the EXECUTIVE ORDERS he has issued, and more specific actions relating to both the outgoing Trump administration and the incoming Biden administration.

The Washington Post, much as it did for the Trump Administration, is keeping track of Biden’s environmental actions here.

Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution & Environmental Justice | Joe Biden for President

CURRENT NEWS

EIA: U.S. carbon emissions set to drop, but miss Biden goals

By Zack Colman 03/20/23
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are expected to drop sharply by the end of the decade but are likely to fall short of President Joe Biden’s goals for the power sector, the U.S. Energy Information Administration…
Read more

Biden budget includes $24 billion for conservation and climate disasters

By Emma Newburger 03/09/23
President Joe Biden’s budget proposal for 2024 includes billions of dollars spread across federal agencies to combat climate change, with a bulk of the investment going toward boosting conservation and disaster resilience, cutting pollution and…
Read more

Same message, bigger audience: Sen. Whitehouse flags climate costs

By Coral Davenport 03/07/23
For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch....
Read more

The promise and peril of Biden’s climate policy

By Paul Krugman 03/02/23
In 2010, at the signing ceremony for the Affordable Care Act, Joe Biden, the vice president at the time, could be overheard telling President Barack Obama that “this is a big something deal.” OK, that’s…
Read more

State of the Union: How climate and energy have featured since 1989

By Rosamund Pearce 02/07/23
Climate change hit the mainstream in the US after NASA scientist James Hansen told Congress in 1988 that the world was warmer and mankind was to blame.
Read more

With money on the table, states identify 120,000 leak-prone oil wells

By Maxine Joselow 12/02/22
Across the country, fossil fuel companies have walked away from thousands of oil and gas wells, leaving them unplugged and idle even as many of these drill sites leak greenhouse gas emissions and pose direct…
Read more

Dismal polls have Dems split over how hard to push Biden agenda

By Alexander Bolton 04/28/22
Democrats are divided over how hard to push President Biden’s agenda in the months remaining until Election Day, uncertain about how much risk to take on at a time when Biden’s approval rating is stuck…
Read more

As Gas Prices Soar, Biden’s Climate Ambitions Sputter

By Coral Davenport 04/02/22
A year after he entered the White House with a vow that fighting global warming would be a driving priority for his administration, President Biden finds his climate agenda is mired in delay and faces…
Read more

The Man Who Gobbed Up Earth

By Bill McKibben 03/29/22
Just as the Oscars were getting underway last night, the New York Times published a truly remarkable exposé that helps us understand the end of our planet’s climate system in helpful detail. Receipt-laden, it shows…
Read more

Inside Biden’s $5.8 trillion wish list

By Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jason Karaian, Stephen Gandel, Michael J. de la Merced, Lauren Hirsch and Ephrat Livni 03/29/22
President Biden proposed a $5.8 trillion annual budget yesterday, a request that reflects growing security and economic concerns at home and abroad. There are billions set aside to invest in police departments and the military,…
Read more

Sen. Jon Tester, one of the Senate’s only farmers, is an unlikely champion for climate action

By Maxine Joselow 03/24/22
President Biden and European leaders are expected to announce a major initiative to direct shipments of liquefied natural gas to Europe, our colleagues scooped last night. More on that below. But first:
Read more

Largest federal utility chooses gas, undermining Biden’s climate goals

By Lisa Friedman 03/17/22
President Biden wants electricity generated from wind, solar and other clean sources. The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to invest in fossil fuels instead.
Read more

KEY RESOURCES

FACT SHEET: Biden Administration Releases Agency Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plans from Across Federal Government

10/07/21
The Biden-Harris Administration released plans developed by more than 20 federal agencies that outline the steps each agency will take to ensure their facilities and operations adapt to and are increasingly resilient to climate change…

FACT SHEET: Biden Administration Advances the Future of Sustainable Fuels in American Aviation

09/09/21
President Biden is taking steps to coordinate leadership and innovation across the federal government, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, fuel producers, airports, and non-governmental organizations to advance the use of cleaner and more sustainable fuels in American…

Tracking Biden’s environmental actions

02/05/21
After less than a month in office, President Biden has already made climate change a priority across the federal government and started working to overturn more than 100 environmental actions taken by the Trump administration.

MEMORANDUM: on Restoring Trust in Government Through Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking

01/27/21
Scientific and technological information, data, and evidence are central to the development and iterative improvement of sound policies, and to the delivery of equitable programs, across every area of government.  

EXECUTIVE ORDER: on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology

01/27/21
As directed in the Presidential Memorandum of January 27, 2021 (Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking), it is the policy of my Administration to make evidence-based decisions guided by the best available science and data.  

EXECUTIVE ORDER: on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad

01/27/21
The United States and the world face a profound climate crisis.  We have a narrow moment to pursue action at home and abroad in order to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of that crisis and…

Fact Sheet: President Biden Takes Executive Actions To Tackle The Climate Crisis At Home And Abroad

01/27/21
Today, President Biden will take executive action to tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad while creating good-paying union jobs and equitable clean energy future, building modern and sustainable infrastructure, restoring scientific integrity and…

THE BIDEN PLAN: For a Clean Energy Revolution And Environmental Justice

01/21/21
Joe Biden knows there is no greater challenge facing our country and our world. That’s why he is outlining a bold plan – a Clean Energy Revolution – to address this grave threat and lead…

EXECUTIVE ORDER: Protecting Public Health and Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle Climate Crisis

01/20/21
Our Nation has an abiding commitment to empower our workers and communities; promote and protect our public health and the environment; and conserve our national treasures and monuments, places that secure our national memory.

FACT SHEET: Listing Agency Actions for Review, in accordance with the following Executive Order: “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.”

01/20/21
This is a non-exclusive list of agency actions that heads of the relevant agencies will review in accordance with the Executive Order: “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate…

STATEMENT: Accepting, on Behalf of the United States of America, the Paris Climate Agreement

01/20/21
I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the Paris Agreement, done at Paris on December 12, 2015, do hereby accept the said Agreement and every article…

MORE NEWS

Biden imposes flood standard after stumbling the first time

By Thomas Frank   05/24/21  
It was an innocuous error that President Biden made on his first day in office — and that he has now corrected, to the relief of climate advocates. When Biden issued an expansive day one…
Read more

It’s Crunch Time and Biden’s Climate Gambit Faces Steep Hurdles

By Lisa Friedman   05/22/21  
He wants to require power companies to replace fossil fuels with clean energy. It’s a broadly popular idea but its path in Congress is perilous.
Read more

Biden Executive Order Targets Climate Financial Risks

By Avery Ellfeldt   05/21/21  
The directive charges federal agencies with assessing the potential economic toll of warming and urging regulators to it
Read more

Biden orders U.S. agencies to assess, mitigate risks of climate change

By Andrea Shalal and Jeff Mason   05/20/21  
President Joe Biden on Thursday directed federal agencies to assess and mitigate the increasing and serious risks that climate change poses to individuals, businesses, the federal government and the U.S. financial system, the White House…
Read more

Greens: Divided on ‘clean’ energy? Or closer than they appear?

By Dana Nuccitelli   05/18/21  
Several media outlets over the past week or so have run stories about environmental groups setting up a “circular firing squad” because more than 600 such organizations sent a letter to Congress opposing the clean…
Read more

SEC Chairman Re-Affirms Focus on Climate Change Disclosures

By Jacob H. Hupart   05/14/21  
Yesterday, SEC Chairman Gensler re-affirmed the focus of the SEC on regulations concerning climate change risk disclosures. Specifically, he identified this issue as one of his "top priorities."
Read more

USPS mail trucks to get more EV funding from Congress

By Sean Szymkowski   05/14/21  
Following snags in the new USPS mail truck contract, which awards Wisconsin-based Oshkosh the production of up to 165,000 new vehicles, the postal service is in for more funding to make good on an EV…
Read more

The green schism threatening Biden’s climate plan

By Michael Grunwald   05/13/21  
President Joe Biden’s ambitious proposal to wean the U.S. electric grid off fossil fuels, already a non-starter with congressional Republicans, has run into a new band of politically inconvenient enemies: Left-wing climate and environmental justice…
Read more

EPA rescinds Trump rule expected to make air pollution regulation harder

By Rachel Frazin   05/13/21  
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is rescinding a Trump-era rule that was expected to make it harder to regulate air pollution, the agency announced on Thursday.  The agency issued an interim rule to rescind the…
Read more

U.S. Conservation and Restoration Plan a Blueprint for Nature

By Lynn Scarlett   05/06/21  
The White House today released its “America the Beautiful” initiative for a locally led and voluntary effort to reach the U.S. goal to conserve 30 percent of the country’s lands and waters by 2030. In…
Read more

Biden’s First 100 days: A Climate Resilience Appraisal

By Laurie Schoeman   05/06/21  
How has President Biden’s first 100 days in office helped us as we continue through this resilience decade? What’s the very early scorecard on climate change risk disclosures and the financial markets?
Read more

Granholm backs wind and solar in Biden bid to decarbonize electricity

By Rachel Frazin   05/06/21  
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm backed wind and solar energy as likely to give the biggest “bang for your buck” as part of the Biden administration’s bid to decarbonize the electric sector during a House hearing…
Read more

Most newspaper editorials mum on Biden 50% by 2030 pledge

By Michael Svoboda, Ph.D.   05/05/21  
On Earth Day, Thursday, April 22nd, at the start of the virtual global summit he had convened on climate change, President Biden confirmed the rumors: The U.S. would reduce global warming pollutants by half by…
Read more

Biden administration offers $8.25 billion in loans for power grid

By Timothy Gardner   04/27/21  
The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it is offering up to $8.25 billion in loans for companies to boost the power grid as part of the Biden administration’s goal to set the country on…
Read more

Live Updates: Biden, Kicking Off Summit, Says U.S. ‘Has Resolved to Take Action’ on Climate Change

The New York Times   04/22/21  
President Biden committed the United States to cutting emissions by half by the end of the decade at a virtual Earth Day summit.
Read more

Deb Haaland Scraps A Slew Of Fossil Fuel-Friendly Trump Orders

By Chris D’Angelo   04/16/21  
With the stroke of a pen on Friday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland dismantled a sizable chunk of her predecessors’ legacies, revoking a dozen Trump-era secretarial orders that sought to boost fossil fuel and other extraction…
Read more

Opinion: Biden’s climate plan is a risky bet for the planet

04/15/21  
Environmentalists have tried many approaches to promote climate-change legislation: a big cap-and-trade proposal; small amendments to must-pass bills; tiny changes to the tax code. Their success has been limited. Now Democrats are trying a new…
Read more

Biden insists he’s willing to negotiate with Republicans on infrastructure

By Seung Min Kim and Tony Romm   04/13/21  
President Biden vowed Monday that the size and scope of his $2.25 trillion jobs plan — as well as how to pay for it — is up for negotiation, setting the stage for what is…
Read more

We Don’t Need More Life-Crushing Steel and Concrete

By Paul Greenberg and Carl Safina   04/13/21  
We were driving through Long Island’s sprawling road system in a borrowed electric car when we heard the news about President Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure package. All around us the bric-a-brac of a fast-vanishing…
Read more

Trump Abandoned the Climate. This Is Biden’s Moment.

04/12/21  
On April 22, Earth Day, the leaders of more than three dozen countries, among them 17 nations responsible for four-fifths of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases, will convene at a virtual summit. The purpose…
Read more

‘Green’ jobs in Biden’s infrastructure bill: What they could pay and how to be eligible

By Catherine Clifford   04/12/21  
A priority of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure and climate change bill, called “The American Jobs Plan,” is to “tackle climate change with American jobs and American ingenuity,” Biden said when he promoted his…
Read more

Joe Biden wants to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure and jobs

By Javier Zarracina and Joey Garrison   04/07/21  
President Joe Biden on Wednesday introduced a sweeping $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs package that looks to reshape the American economy and make the most significant domestic U.S. investments in generations. His far-reaching American Jobs Plan…
Read more

What’s Crucial in Biden’s Infrastructure Bill: Water Investments

By Kate Zerrenner   04/06/21  
Last week, the White House announced the American Jobs Plan, a far-reaching, economy-wide infrastructure and jobs investment proposal.
Read more

John Kerry to Push India on Net Zero Target Ahead of Global Meeting

By Archana Chaudhary   04/06/21  
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry is in New Delhi this week to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to boost its climate ambitions as it considers announcing a net zero target ahead of a virtual…
Read more

Citing his ‘leverage,’ Manchin says White House tax plan must change

By Jeff Stein and Tony Romm   04/06/21  
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said on Monday he opposes a key part of the White House infrastructure plan, as early objections across the political aisle threatened to cloud the fate of the $2 trillion…
Read more

US, UAE say they’ll invest in Middle East decarbonization

By Rachel Frazin   04/05/21  
The U.S. and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Monday that they would help finance decarbonization in the Middle East region and the global community at large.
Read more

What Americans will get from Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan

By Jennifer Rubin   04/04/21  
Since President Biden unveiled his $2 trillion infrastructure plan, he and his advisers have been making the case that this “once in a generation” bill will be “transformational.” They have embraced the size of the…
Read more

John Kerry says Biden’s ambitious climate plan is ‘not a counter to China’

By Natasha Turak   04/04/21  
No single country can solve the climate crisis — and the American pursuit of greater research and development on climate change is not a counter to China, the Biden administration’s climate envoy John Kerry told…
Read more

Kerry: U.S. ‘hopeful’ it can work with China to tackle climate change

By Reuters Staff   04/03/21  
U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said the United States was hopeful it could work with China to tackle climate change, despite longstanding disagreements that have affected the bilateral relationship. “Our hope is…
Read more

Why Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Is a Green Jobs Plan

By Gernot Wagner   04/02/21  
“Once you put capital money to work, jobs are created.” These are not the words of President Joe Biden, announcing his administration’s infrastructure plan in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Nor were they the words of Transportation Secretary…
Read more

The coolest parts of Biden’s expansive infrastructure plan

By David Roberts   04/02/21  
The eight-year "American Jobs Plan" would spend $2.25 trillion on a huge range of initiatives, from highways to the energy grid, water systems, airports, transit systems, broadband, energy R&D, and — paging a Sen. Joe…
Read more

EPA dismisses dozens of key science advisers picked under Trump

By Dino Grandoni   04/01/21  
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan will purge more than 40 outside experts appointed under President Donald Trump from two key advisory panels, a move he says will help restore the role of science at the agency…
Read more

Opinion: Biden might just understand public opinion better than his critics

By Jennifer Rubin   04/01/21  
News pundits have been predicting a reckoning for President Biden: He’s risking his agenda with a big tax plan! Paying for infrastructure is politically perilous.
Read more

Biden $2 trillion infrastructure proposal includes billions in spending on transmission, clean energy

By Catherine Morehouse   04/01/21  
Biden's proposed plan would spend more on climate and clean energy than any other administration in U.S. history, according to experts, and is the next step in the president's campaign trail promise to bring the…
Read more
WSJ

Biden’s Big Infrastructure Plan Would Further Boost Renewable Energy

By Russell Gold and Katherine Blunt   04/01/21  
President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan would supercharge an already booming clean-power sector by expanding subsidies and addressing key bottlenecks impeding the shift to a greener grid. The plan, unveiled Wednesday, calls for the creation…
Read more

White House unveils $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan

By Jeff Stein , Juliet Eilperin , Michael Laris and Tony Romm   04/01/21  
The White House’s unveiling of a $2 trillion jobs, infrastructure and green energy proposal to reshape the U.S. economy met a chorus of opposition late Wednesday, with Republicans panning it as a partisan wish-list, some…
Read more

White House plan calls for large expansion of federal government’s role in transportation

By Michael Laris and Ian Duncan   04/01/21  
President Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for the federal government to take on a vast new role in funding the nation’s transportation networks, seeking to rebuild roadways and transit while battling climate change, racial injustice and…
Read more
VOX

Biden’s most important climate promise hinges on how his next big bill gets through Congress

By David Roberts   04/01/21  
America’s hopes of seriously putting a dent in greenhouse gas emissions have a lot to do with how climate legislation fares in Congress this year.President Joe Biden campaigned on a climate policy plan that included,…
Read more

‘Every step of the way’: McConnell pledges battle over Biden infrastructure plan

By David Morgan   04/01/21  
President Joe Biden on Thursday faced the prospect of all-out political war with Republicans over his $2 trillion blueprint to revitalize America’s infrastructure, with a top Democrat also offering only partial support over how to…
Read more

Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Would Make Electricity Carbon-Free by 2035

By Scott Waldman   04/01/21  
The backbone of President Biden's plan to use infrastructure spending to advance climate policy is a clean electricity standard for the power sector that has the potential to be the most aggressive ever enacted by…
Read more

Biden’s infrastructure plan aims to turbocharge U.S. shift from fossil fuels

By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin   04/01/21  
President Biden’s infrastructure plan would turbocharge the country’s transition from fossil fuels, using the muscle and vast resources of the federal government to intervene in electricity markets, speed the growth of solar and wind energy,…
Read more
NPR

Here’s What’s In President Biden’s $2 Trillion Infrastructure Proposal

By Scott Detrow and Tamara Keith   03/31/21  
President Biden on Wednesday will unveil a sprawling, ambitious infrastructure proposal that, if enacted, would overhaul how Americans get from Point A to Point B, how their electricity is generated, the speed of their Internet…
Read more

Biden Envisions Thousands of Wind Turbines Spinning at Sea

By Jennifer A Dlouhy and Josh Saul   03/29/21  
The Biden administration is outlining ambitions to dramatically boost offshore wind power in the U.S. by 2030, pushing to drive construction of projects at sea capable of generating enough electricity for more than 10 million…
Read more

Joe Biden invites 40 world leaders to virtual summit on climate crisis

By Agence France-Presse   03/27/21  
Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders to a virtual summit on the climate crisis, the White House said in a statement on Friday. Heads of state, including Xi Jinping of China and Russia’s Vladimir…
Read more

A Biden Administration Strategy: Send In the Scientists

By John Schwartz   03/26/21  
More than a decade ago, a woman at a bar near the Columbia University campus turned to Gavin Schmidt and asked if he knew the main component of air. “Yes, nitrogen,” he replied. His answer…
Read more

Rolling back a rollback: Buttigieg deletes some Trump-era limits on regulation

By Michael Laris   03/25/21  
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg moved Wednesday to undo key deregulatory actions by the Trump administration, an overhaul that department officials said was necessary to address challenges that include climate change, racial injustices, the coronavirus pandemic…
Read more

Biden Team Prepares $3 Trillion in New Spending for the Economy

By Jim Tankersley   03/22/21  
President Biden’s economic advisers are pulling together a sweeping $3 trillion package to boost the economy, reduce carbon emissions and narrow economic inequality, beginning with a giant infrastructure plan that may be financed in part…
Read more

Biden’s over-under for Paris climate goal: 50 percent

By Josh Lederman   03/20/21  
How low can U.S. emissions go? Under President Joe Biden, the number to watch for may be 50 percent. As he prepares for a global climate summit next month, a vigorous influence campaign is underway…
Read more

‘Climate facts are back’: EPA brings science back to website after Trump purge

By Richard Luscombe   03/20/21  
Canceled four years ago by a president who considered global warming a hoax, climate crisis information has returned to the website of the US government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of Joe Biden’s promise…
Read more

Marine ecologist Lubchenco to lead climate in White House science office

By Timothy Gardner   03/20/21  
Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist with wide federal government experience, has joined the Biden administration to lead climate and environment efforts at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the White House said on Friday.
Read more