Overnight Energy: Biden unveils $5 trillion climate plan | Plan included passages lifted from green groups | Warren offers $2 trillion green manufacturing plan | Ocasio-Cortez praises Inslee on climate
BIDEN UNVEILS CLIMATE PLAN, THEN UPDATES IT: Democratic 2020 hopeful Joe Biden released his climate policy proposal early Tuesday, targeting net-zero emissions and a 100 percent clean energy economy by 2050.
The “Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution & Environmental Justice” embraces the Green New Deal while setting a longer timeline of achieving net-zero emissions and a 100 percent clean energy economy.
Calling for a “clean energy revolution,” the former vice president lays out a path to invest $5 trillion over 10 years to achieve the renewable energy goals. Nearly $1.7 trillion of that would be federal dollars, which Biden’s campaign says will be paid by undoing the tax cuts enacted by President Trump and congressional Republicans.{mosads}
Investments from state and local governments as well as private companies would push the total to $5 trillion.
“Science tells us that how we act or fail to act in the next 12 years will determine the very livability of our planet,” Biden said in a statement. “That’s why I’m calling for a Clean Energy Revolution to confront this crisis and do what America does best — solve big problems with big ideas.”
As president, Biden would also reenter the Paris climate accord and “lead an effort to get every major country to ramp up the ambition of their domestic climate target,” according to his campaign. The plan leaves the question of an enforcement mechanism to Congress.
He also promised to refuse campaign donations from oil, gas and coal corporations or executives.
As part of the international portion of Biden’s plan, his administration would place “carbon adjustment fees” on carbon-intensive goods from countries that fail “to meet their climate and environmental obligations.”
The plan also targets China’s coal exports, promising to build a bilateral framework that incentivizes Beijing to stop selling the polluting products.
Read more on Biden’s plan here.
But the rollout hit a snag after reports that parts of the plan had been copied from green groups…
The Biden campaign said they inadvertently left citations off of some passages of the report, adding that the proposal was updated to include proper citations.
“Several citations, some from sources cited in other parts of the plan, were inadvertently left out of the final version of the 22 page document. As soon as we were made aware of it, we updated to include the proper citations,” Biden’s campaign told The Hill.
Biden’s campaign had described carbon capture sequestration, a method of trapping carbon emissions from power plants and other polluting industries, as “a rapidly growing technology that has the potential to create economic benefits for multiple industries while significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions.”
The Blue Green Alliance described the process in almost exactly the same way in a letter 2017 letter to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, omitting only the word “the” before “potential.” The group acknowledged in a statement to The Hill on Tuesday that Biden’s campaign used language from documents publicly available on its website.
That example and others were first flagged by Josh Nelson, vice president of Credo Mobile who previously worked for the Climate Reality Project, which was founded by former Vice President Al Gore, and the National Wildlife Federation.
Green groups were largely supportive of Biden’s plan….
Various environmental groups hailed former Vice President Joe Biden’s newly released climate plan as “comprehensive” and a “clear vision” after initially knocking reports the plan would focus on “middle ground.”
The Sunrise Movement on Tuesday called Biden’s proposal “a comprehensive climate plan that cites the Green New Deal and names climate change as the greatest challenge facing America and the world.”
Last month, the youth-led group knocked reported details of the forthcoming plan as being “a death sentence for our generation.”
Greenpeace on Tuesday called the plan, which aims to transition the U.S. to net zero emissions by 2050, “A critical step forward for Biden on the climate crisis.”
Just last week, the group had graded Biden’s climate policies with a D-minus. A Greenpeace spokesperson denounced Biden’s anticipated plan for being “dangerous and irresponsible.”
The transition from hostility to support marks an important achievement for Biden, who is leading polls as the top Democratic presidential candidate.
More on the reaction to Biden’s plan here.
Hoo boy what a Tuesday! And welcome to Overnight Energy, The Hill’s roundup of the latest energy and environment news. We’ll be picking up the newsletter again on Tuesday.
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WARREN ROLLS OUT ANOTHER CLIMATE-FOCUSED PLAN: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) edged closer to releasing a climate plan on Tuesday, rolling out proposals for a green manufacturing sector that the 2020 presidential candidate said would be a first step in implementing the Green New Deal.
Warren released an “economic patriotism” platform that she said would include a $2 trillion investment over the next 10 years in green research, manufacturing and exporting green energy technology.
The senator, who supports the Green New Deal, called for a global response for slashing greenhouse gas emissions.
“Even if we reduce America’s emissions so that they are net-zero by 2030, we will still fall far short of the reduction in global emissions needed to avert a climate crisis,” Warren wrote in a blog post. “To satisfy this global need, we need rapid innovation on par with the space race along with widespread domestic and international adoption of clean, renewable, and emission-free energy technology.”
Keeping up the comparison to the space race, Warren would spend $400 billion over a decade on what she dubbed the “Green Apollo” program, which would focus on clean energy research and development. That would be paired with plans to promote the use of those technologies in the U.S. and abroad.
Warren would help create domestic demand for new American products through $1.5 trillion in federal procurement over a decade.
“The federal government’s World War II-era commitment to purchasing military items led to an enormous surge in American manufacturing capacity and set the stage for decades of sustained economic growth,” Warren wrote, arguing the government should stock its fleet with electric and energy-efficient vehicles and other products. “This will create immediate demand, spurring innovation and investment in the American clean energy sector.”
Companies supplying those goods under a federal contract would need to offer a $15 an hour wage, 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, and guarantee collective bargaining rights.
To help reduce greenhouse gas emissions overseas, Warren calls for $100 billion for a Green Marshall Plan that would create an office dedicated to selling American-made green energy technology abroad.
Read more about Warren’s plan here.
AOC GIVES INSLEE A GOLD STAR: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has chosen a winner among the White House candidates who have proposed a climate policy proposal so far: Jay Inslee.
The Green New Deal champion praised the Washington governor’s climate proposal Tuesday, calling it the “gold standard climate plan.”
“Jay Inslee’s I think is the gold standard climate plan that we have right now,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Hill Tuesday.
“I do think that Jay Inslee’s plan is a phenomenal blueprint and example of where we need to go. It’s got the scale, the jobs and justice.”
Inslee, who is running his presidential campaign almost entirely on the issue of climate, has released multiple climate plans that address different sectors of climate action. The main component of his plan aims for an energy grid that would be zero emissions and zero carbon use by 2030.
The Green New Deal, which aims to transition the United States to a renewable electric grid through the creation of green jobs and economic equality, calls for a similar timeline.
Biden though doesn’t get a gold star: Ocasio-Cortez’s praise for Inslee’s plan follows the release of Joe Biden’s own long-anticipated climate plan Tuesday morning.
The lawmaker criticized the former vice president’s policy for failing to scale as quickly as necessary. Biden’s plan would invest $5 trillion to bring the U.S. to net-zero carbon by 2050– a much slower timeline than the one she backs.
“Scientifically, anything that is less than helping us cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 is going to be too late,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“It’s a start, and I think that what that has shown is a dramatic shift in the right direction, but we need to keep pushing for a plan that is at the scale of the problem.”
Inslee also hit Biden’s proposal Tuesday, telling reporters in Michigan: “This is our last chance. We don’t have 30 years to get this job done… I believe we have to have a President who will look at the CEOs of the oil and gas and coal industry and tell them to stand down.”
Read more on their remarks here.
ON TAP WEDNESDAY:
On the 2020 side, Jay Inslee is expected to roll out another climate proposal, following a busy day of such activity.
Over at EPA, the agency will hold a meeting to review its science and transparency rule which would dictate how much data scientists have to share in order for their studies to be used as evidence in an EPA rule.
In Congress, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology will hold a hearing on ocean exploration, and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources will hold a hearing on Robert Wallace, the nominee to head the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Parks Service at Interior.
OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY:
Texas set to allow the killing of wild boars without a license, we report.
This California neighborhood was built to survive a wildfire. And it worked, KQED reports.
More poop on public lands prompts federal agencies to clamp down on dispersed camping, KUER reports.
Former Michigan governor’s phone seized in Flint water probe, the Associated Press reports.
ICYMI:
Stories from Tuesday…
Biden unveils $5 trillion climate plan
Warren unveils $2T green manufacturing plan
Green groups praise Biden climate plan after pushing back at ‘middle ground’ talk
Poland Spring to sell water in bottles made from recycled plastic
EPA sued for keeping scientists off advisory committees
Biden campaign updates climate plan after lifting passages from green groups
Inslee pushes DNC for climate-focused debate
Ocasio-Cortez calls Jay Inslee’s climate plan the ‘gold standard‘
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