- Biden signed far-reaching orders on climate change on Wednesday. He halted all oil and gas sales on public lands, told his agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, and called for a new Civilian Climate Corps — reprising the Depression-era program that put people to work planting trees, building trails, and protecting towns from wildfires.
- Climate change is now central to foreign policy and national security. Biden asked federal workers to plan for future natural disasters, climate refugees, and resource wars. Finally, he said that the United States would set deeper emissions reductions targets under the Paris climate agreement.
- The president set a goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. land and oceans by 2030, and created a system to make agencies do all this in a way that redresses the injustice of those who have suffered from pollution, while providing new jobs to areas dominated by the fossil fuel industry.
The Big Number
The percentage of the ‘overall benefits’ of investments in clean energy, transit, housing, job training, water, and environmental cleanup that Biden aims to direct to disadvantaged communities.
Extra Credit
“Biden’s Climate Day confronts a tricky question: What should we do about mining?”Alexander C. Kaufman, HuffPost
Read more “Biden is canceling fossil fuel subsidies. But he can’t end them all.”
Shannon Osaka, Grist
Read more “Democrats flipped the Senate. So why is a Green New Deal still unlikely?”
Zoya Teirstein and Shannon Osaka, Grist
Read more “How Biden’s climate ambitions could shift America’s global footprint”
Somini Sengupta, New York Times
Read more “These flashcards will help you memorize Biden’s climate team”
Alexandria Herr, Grist
Read more
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The First 100 – Biden’s Sky-High Stack of Executive Orders on Jan 29, 2021.