Add this to the list that Democratic Progressives are not happy about…..
They’ll have to live with it…..
Reality bites….
The votes just are not there to advance on promises and hopes President Biden made to them….
Joe Biden elevated climate change to one of the top four issues for his administration, along with battling the pandemic, rebuilding the economy and fighting racism. Yet his most crucial climate proposal is dead in Congress, and the conservative-dominated Supreme Court will take up a case this month that could shred his administration’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from power plants.
His biggest achievements so far have included some symbolic steps like rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, along with passage of an infrastructure bill that includes new federal investments for next generation clean energy projects, expanding the power grid for renewables and installing a charging network for electric vehicles. The legislation also offers tens of billions of dollars to help cities and states become more resilient against the storms, floods and wildfires worsened by climate change, and even to help relocate communities away from vulnerable places, but doesn’t include the type of transformative investments advocates say are needed….
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Setbacks, meanwhile, keep mounting.
A federal court overturned Biden’s pause on oil and gas drilling on federal land last year, and his banking regulators face a maze of obstacles in even beginning to try to force the financial system to prepare for the threats from climate change. And on Friday, a federal judge issued an injunction to block the Biden administration from using its estimate on the economic impact of future carbon emissions when issuing new rules…
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Other regulations that could put teeth in Biden’s climate policies, such as imposing limits on methane pollution from sources like oil and gas wells, are still wending their way through the rulemaking process and are virtually certain to draw legal challenges. The Environmental Protection Agency’s tightened limits on pollution from cars and light trucks will go into effect at the end of this month after suffering a temporary reversal under the Trump administration — although environmental groups have said the effort still will not make up for the reductions that would have happened under targets set by former President Barack Obama.
Perhaps most ominously, EPA’s ability to regulate the carbon emissions from power plants will face a big test this spring, when the Supreme Court hears arguments about the scope of the agency’s power under the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court in 2016 blocked the original Obama-era regulation, while an appellate court last year struck down the Trump administration’s version. An adverse ruling from the Supreme Court — which has moved to the right since it blocked the Obama rule — could hamper EPA’s power to target the sector that emits one-third of the nation’s energy-related greenhouse gases….