As a candidate, Joe Biden garnered nearly unanimous support from environmentalists, progressives, and clean energy advocates for his promise to reconfigure the U.S. economy for the fight against climate change.
But as president, his $2.25 trillion jobs-and-infrastructure blueprint—released Wednesday and meant to fulfill much of that campaign pledge—received a much less harmonious welcome.
“Today I find myself caught between two truths,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of the youth climate activist group the Sunrise Movement. “This infrastructure plan is a historic step forward that would not have been possible without us,” she said, referring to fellow young protesters and advocates of the Green New Deal. And yet, “so much more is needed to reach the scale of what is necessary to truly transform this country to stop the climate crisis.”
Renewables industries, for the most part, stand to have many of their wishes fulfilled. “It feels like a unique moment in history,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, chief executive officer of the Solar Energy Industries Association, in an interview with Bloomberg Green. “It feels like a generational opportunity.”
But the dissonance with the climate left is just one sign of the challenges Biden will face getting his bill passed.
Even before details became public, it was clear the American Jobs Plan would have a difficult road ahead in Congress, not least because it accommodates so many of the left’s long-held priorities. The bill includes money for mass transportation, for green housing development and redevelopment, for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and—perhaps crucially—proposes to raise the top corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% to cover the cost. Enforcement will be key, the White House said in its notes on the bill, a possible nod to one of progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren’s favorite themes.
Those who came out swinging against the proposal took issue primarily with its size. In a tweet soon after details were made public, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a sponsor of the Green New Deal, drew an unflattering contrast between the infrastructure plan and the recently passed stimulus bill, which provided nearly as much funding for 2021 alone. “I am encouraged by the vision laid down by the Biden infrastructure plan,” she said at a town hall, “but I'm concerned that the numbers that they've allocated won't get us to that vision that they themselves have agreed to.”
Representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was quick to express her disappointment, as well. “While President Biden’s proposal is a welcome first step,” she said in a public statement, “more must be done to improve on this initial framework to meet the challenges we face.”