Here’s how Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan addresses climate change – CNBC

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The president is calling on Congress to invest $35 billion in research and development for projects on technologies to mitigate climate change and create jobs, such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, offshore wind and electric vehicles.

In an effort to help fossil fuel workers transition to new jobs, the plan also includes $16 billion to employ those workers to cap oil and gas wells and reclaim old coal mines to curb methane leaks. Another $10 billion would establish a “Civilian Climate Corps” to employ people to restore land.

Some environmental advocates and liberal Democrats criticized the proposal as insufficient to tackle climate change, pointing to Biden’s vows to spend $2 trillion over four years to transition the economy to net-zero emissions.

“This is not nearly enough,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote in a tweet about the infrastructure plan.

Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said Biden’s plan is “industry-friendly” and falls short on the president’s promise to cut emissions and decarbonize the electricity sector.

Other environmental groups praised Biden’s plan as boosting clean energy and confronting the threats of worsening climate disasters.

“President Biden is demonstrating today that he is committed to building a better society for all people,” Mitchell Bernard, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.

“Congress must now work expeditiously to turn this vision into reality by passing legislation to invest in clean energy, safe drinking water, public transit, affordable housing — and much, much more,” Bernard said.

The administration would fund part of the spending by eliminating tax credits and subsidies for fossil fuel producers. Biden plans to fund a bulk of the plan by raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, after the Trump administration cut the levy to 21% from 35% as part of a tax law in 2017.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/31/biden-infrastructure-plan-spending-on-climate-change-clean-energy.html

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