Biden Goes Big on Climate to Appeal to Progressives

August 4, 2020

Joe Biden released his aggressive $2 trillion climate plan last month in hopes to appeal to the young voters and environmental activists in his party who weren’t satisfied with his original climate plan. The new proposal goes even further than the one he rolled out during the primaries – a $1.7 trillion plan aimed at making the nation carbon neutral by 2050 – that activists in his party disapproved of.

The Washington Post reports:

So the Biden campaign set out to demonstrate to the liberal wing of the party — including skeptical environmental activists — he was their guy, that he understood the urgency of the problem and would craft a transformative plan to meet the moment.

The result was a more aggressive and extensive plan that called for the elimination of carbon pollution from the electric sector by 2035, for the U.S. to rejoin the international Paris climate accord and spend $2 trillion over four years to boost renewables and create incentives for more energy-efficient cars, homes and commercial buildings.

This far-left proposal marks the first-time global warming has emerged as a central plank in the Democratic Party’s presidential campaign. Shocking, considering the current environment with the coronavirus pandemic and the struggling economy crippling American households.

Biden has time and time again allowed the eco-extremists in his party to influence and ultimately decide his policies. Varshini Prakash, the executive director of the Sunrise Movement, who Biden appointed as a member of his climate-focused unity task force, previously joked that Biden and progressives are in a “semi-codependent relationship right now.” We couldn’t agree more, and his revised climate plan is the ultimate example of being heavily influenced by those progressives.

Prakash told The Washington Post, “What I’ve seen in the last six to eight weeks is a pretty big transition in upping his ambition and centering environmental justice.”

Biden’s plan is disconnected from the interests of the American people who are desperate for economic relief. The U.S. needs a president who looks out for the interests of the country as a whole, not just the select few influential people who hold weight in his party.