Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is pitching a USD 5 trillion-plus climate proposal that he says would lead the US to net zero emission of carbon pollution by 2050.
The former vice president calls for USD 1.7 trillion in federal spending over 10 years, with the rest of the investments coming from the private sector. Biden proposes covering the taxpayer costs by repealing the corporate tax cuts that President Donald Trump signed in 2017, while eliminating existing subsidies to the fossil fuel companies.
Biden's plan a mix of tax incentives, federal spending, new regulation and more aggressive foreign policy on climate issues comes as he pushes back on rivals' assertions that his environmental agenda isn't bold enough.
Climate activists largely praised his pitch Tuesday, although some said the Democrats' 2020 front-runner still hasn't gone far enough to challenge the fossil fuel industry.
His proposal calls the Green New Deal pushed by some Democrats on Capitol Hill "a crucial outline" but stops short of some of its timelines for weaning the U.S. economy off power from fossil fuels, even as he promises a "clean energy revolution" nationwide and internationally.
"I will lead America and the world, not only to confront the crisis in front us but to seize the opportunity it presents," Biden says in a campaign video posted online, warning that failure to act threatens "the livability of our planet" and will accelerate natural disasters that are "already happening."
But the release of Biden's plan was not without controversy. The campaign was forced to amend the proposal because a handful of passages did not credit some of its sources. The Biden campaign said "several citations" had been "inadvertently left out."
League of Conservation Voters lobbying executive Tiernan Sittenfeld applauded Biden for "committing to ambitious goals." Greenpeace, which recently released a scorecard ranking Biden second to last among Democratic candidates, called the outline "a critical step forward," but spokesman John Noel added that if Biden "wants to become a leader on climate, he needs to outline a plan to phase out fossil fuels."
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