Climate State of the Union: Biden Administration’s Wins and Misses

"No more drilling on federal lands, period." This was one of the many promises made by President Biden during the 2020 elections to address the climate crisis. As President Biden begins the last year of his first term with the 2020 State of the Union, let’s see how many of those promises he could keep.

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Big wins

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Pass a major climate stimulus package (a.k.a. The Inflation Reduction Act)

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, the most significant U.S. climate law, provides clean energy incentives such as tax credits for electric vehicles. This, along with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, has triggered green energy projects, significant investment, and employment. Tax benefits for energy-efficient appliances and clean energy technology are now accessible. Clean hydrogen production tax credits were introduced in 2023, supporting decarbonization and clean energy conversion.

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A fee on methane emissions

We often associate greenhouse gases with carbon dioxide, but more potent gases like methane also exist. At COP 28 in 2023, the Biden administration set standards to cut methane emissions. In 2024, the EPA proposed a methane fee for large oil and gas manufacturers. They would pay $900 per ton for excess emissions from 2024, rising to $1,200 in 2025 and $1,500 from 2026 onwards.

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Phase down hydrofluorocarbons

In 2022, the Senate ratified the international Kigali Amendment that will phase down global production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), super-polluting chemicals that are hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The EPA also issued regulations to phase down HFCs, as directed by the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act enacted in 2020.

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Near misses

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Help accelerate the country’s shift to electric vehicles

In 2023, U.S. EV sales surpassed 1.4 million, a 50% increase from 2022 due to various initiatives. President Biden's 2021 goal for half of the new cars to be zero-emission by 2030, the EPA's standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2023-2026 models, and the Department of Transportation's EV charging network plan, coupled with the Inflation Reduction Act's EV tax credits, significantly contributed to this rise.

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Reducing emissions by removing carbon dioxide

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act have made significant investments in reducing emissions. These investments include wildfire risk reduction, ecosystem restoration, the establishment of hubs for direct air capture technology demonstration, and funds for climate-smart agriculture and carbon sequestration in urban forests and national public lands. The legislation also enhances tax credits for carbon dioxide sequestration.

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Needs more work

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Reach 100% clean electricity by 2035

To reach the goal of having 100% clean electricity by 2035, President Biden signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to procure 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030. Although significant progress has been made in clean electricity generation, there has been a lag in adding more electricity transmission capacity.

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Reducing emissions from building materials

Cement, steel, and plastics are emission-intensive sectors. To combat their emissions, a 2021 executive order directed federal agencies to buy low-carbon building materials. In 2022, the Biden administration also asked the federal government suppliers to set science-based emission-reduction targets. While these are great initiatives, they have to be extended to all the purchases of these products across the entire nation.

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A federal ban on fossil fuel appliances

While the Inflation Reduction Act provides incentives like a $2,000 tax credit for new heat pumps and a 30% tax credit for residential solar systems and batteries, there haven’t been many talks about completely banning fossil fuel appliances. We have seen some progress at the state level, with New York banning fossil fuels in all new buildings no later than 2027 and California’s building code update requiring new buildings to be wired for all-electric operation, but nothing significant at the federal level.

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Failures

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No more drilling on federal lands

As of mid-2023, the Biden administration has approved 6,430 permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands, even more than the Trump administration. They also approved the Mountain Valley Pipeline, an over 300-mile fossil fuel pipeline slated to run through parts of West Virginia and Virginia, and the Willow Project in Alaska, which is expected to produce around 600 million barrels of oil.

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Charging a fee on carbon emissions

Although the government has introduced numerous acts over the past four years to levy charges on American companies for carbon emissions and to introduce carbon border tariffs on imported products with higher emission intensity than domestic alternatives, these acts have not received the deserved attention. These enforceable emission caps and fees are necessary to reduce emissions.