Biden has taken more action on climate than any president. But you might not know it
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
How might Donald Trump and Joe Biden act on climate change in a second term as president? We can get a sense by examining their actions in their first terms. Tomorrow, we'll explore what's at stake if Trump wins in November, but first, Joe Biden's record - his administration has made climate change a priority, and Biden talks about it in a very specific way.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: When I think climate - not a joke - I think jobs. I think jobs.
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MARTÍNEZ: And the subject of jobs is where Jeff Brady from NPR's Climate Desk begins our story.
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: To understand President Biden's climate agenda, a good place to visit is a factory in Williamsport, Penn.
DAVID HORTON: So this is the new entrance to the facility.
BRADY: David Horton is showing off a new addition that's nearly the size of a football field.
It even smells new in here.
HORTON: Yeah, so you're probably smelling the 600 gallons of white paint that we just coated the new facility with.
BRADY: Horton is the plant director for the company Prysmian, which makes electrical cables, like the power lines that hang between utility poles or those big towers you see next to a freeway.
HORTON: It's taking the steel cable and wrapping aluminum wires around it.
BRADY: A key piece of Biden's climate plan aims to transition the U.S. away from fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas that contribute to climate change and expand cleaner options like wind and solar. That'll require a much bigger power grid and a lot more of Prysmian's products, which is why they're expanding.
HORTON: We need to kind of rebuild the manufacturing capabilities to be able to keep up.
BRADY: Prysmian will hire 27 new workers for the expansion. To help pay for it, the company got a nearly $4 million tax credit as part of Biden's landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
They're not alone. This is just one of more than 300 new clean energy projects announced since the sweeping climate law passed nearly two years ago. That's created over 100,000 new jobs, according to the Environmental business group E2. This is all part of a larger Biden administration strategy to address climate change and rebuild the country's manufacturing sector. It's been cheered by environmentalists.
TIERNAN SITTENFELD: President Biden is the greatest climate president we've ever had by far.
BRADY: Tiernan Sittenfeld is with the League of Conservation Voters. Biden has pledged to zero out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To do that, his big climate law includes major subsidies for renewable energy, electric cars, removing fossil fuels from buildings and cleaner manufacturing, and his administration has drafted sweeping new rules to clean up pollution from cars and power plants. Not everyone is happy with this push for cleaner energy, especially the oil and gas industry.
ANNE BRADBURY: We have huge concerns with the way President Biden has gone about it.
BRADY: Anne Bradbury heads the American Exploration & Production Council. She says Biden's policies are hurting the domestic oil business. But the reality is more complicated. Oil and gas production is actually booming. The U.S. now produces more oil each year than any country in history. That needs to change if the U.S. is going to meet its climate targets, says former Biden climate advisor Gina McCarthy.
GINA MCCARTHY: I think that transition from fossil fuel to clean energy, given how beneficial it would be for us and our health and our economy, is really the challenge of the next administration.
BRADY: Environmentalists hope that would be more of a focus in a Biden second term, and his first-term climate efforts are so far-reaching that it'll take years to fully implement them, something that could stall under a second Trump term.
Young climate activists who helped elect Biden four years ago aren't as enthusiastic this time around. They wanted him to do more to limit drilling. But they say Trump would be much worse, and he's pledged to expand drilling. Stevie O'Hanlon is communications director for the climate and youth-focused Sunrise Movement.
STEVIE OHANLON: Look, we don't agree with everything Joe Biden has done, everything he's saying, but our best shot at winning the things we're fighting for, at securing a livable future for millions of people, is to defeat Donald Trump.
BRADY: In a second term, she wants Biden to do more, like declare a climate emergency. That's because despite all of Biden's climate accomplishments, the country is not yet on track to meet its climate targets and limit warming below what scientists say could be catastrophic levels, Jeff Brady, NPR News.
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