Biden manages not to offend centrists or climate hawks with ‘B-plus’ plan

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Joe Biden managed to please both climate change hawks and centrists with his $5 trillion “clean energy revolution” plan introduced Tuesday.

Biden assuaged fears from critics to his Left who predicted he’d be too moderate on climate change with the proposal and his pledge to reject campaign contributions from oil, gas, and coal corporations or executives, a key demand of environmental activists.

“Definitely a B-plus grade when we were expecting C-minus,” said R.L. Miller of the voter mobilization group Climate Hawks Vote, in an email to the Washington Examiner. “It’s great to see that he’s more or less embraced the ‘No Fossil Fuel Money’ pledge and the Green New Deal.”

Biden also mollified centrists by proposing a later time frame for the U.S. to achieve net-zero emissions and 100% clean energy — 2050 — while allowing all carbon-free options, rather than only renewable energy sources, to contribute to the goal. Biden’s plan embraces both carbon capture technology for fossil fuel plants and nuclear power, providing a lifeline to threatened industries.

“This is no ‘middle-ground’ proposal,” the centrist think tank Third Way wrote in a Twitter statement. “Biden’s plan tackles the crisis from day one, by re-engaging the US into the Paris climate agreement, re-establishing Obama-era environmental regulations & encouraging global allies to set more ambitious targets.”

Third Way said the plan incorporates the interests of both environmentalists and unions, which generally oppose the Green New Deal because it would harm workers by quickly banning fossil fuel industries.

Biden also scored wins with free trade skeptics in his party. In a notable contrast with fellow candidates, he vowed to crack down on China, describing it as a competitor in the clean energy economy, but one that doesn’t always play by the rules.

He proposes imposing carbon adjustment fees or quotas on carbon-intensive goods from countries that are failing to meet their climate and environmental obligations under the Paris deal, aiming to stop China from “subsidizing coal exports and outsourcing carbon pollution.”

“Biden is taking a page from President Trump’s playbook in utilizing trade policy, but for a progressive goal,” Paul Bledsoe, a former climate change adviser in the Clinton administration, told the Washington Examiner. “That’s a very neat trick because it has the opportunity to appeal to working class voters and climate activists at the same time. This is a very sophisticated plan politically.”

Biden did take some hits with his plan. Rival candidate Jay Inslee, the climate-obsessed Washington governor, said Biden’s proposal waits too long to achieve carbon neutrality, meaning a situation in which the country eliminates as many carbon emissions as are produced.

“I have to express disappointment that the vice president’s proposals really lacked teeth and they lack an ambition that is necessary to defeat the climate crisis,” Inslee said during a campaign stop in Detroit. “We don’t have 30 years to get the job done.”

Other environmental groups shared that critique.

“Biden’s plan is encouraging, but it still lacks specifics and fails to acknowledge that more needs to be done by 2035, not 2050, if we are really serious about averting the worst impacts of climate change,” Brett Hartl, chief political strategist of the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, told the Washington Examiner.

The Sunrise Movement, a group of youth activists that influenced the Green New Deal, took credit for Biden’s “backtrack” on climate change, while chiding him for his support for fossil fuel innovation.

“This is a huge win, but we’re keeping up the pressure,” Sunrise said in a Twitter statement. “While there are lots of good things in the plan, it doesn’t chart a clear course of how Biden would move America off of fossil fuels and towards sustainable energy.”

Biden’s plan also received lukewarm support from centrist Republicans. Former Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., suggested Biden’s proposal to pay for the plan by reversing Trump’s tax cuts could harm the Democrat in the general election.

Curbelo, a carbon tax booster, said Biden should pay for it that way. Biden, like most candidates in the field, has avoided endorsing carbon pricing, viewed by economists as the most efficient way to address climate change, but considered politically toxic.

“Some good ideas in here, however investments in infrastructure and clean energy technologies should be funded by pricing carbon, not by raising taxes on job providers,” Curbelo said in a Twitter post.

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