Assessing the Legacy: President Biden and his Policy Response to Climate Change and Global Warming
For many, the decision for Joe Biden to end his 2024 presidential campaign came with mixed emotions. On one hand, his age was beginning to show, and the prospect of a dynamic, younger nominee injected the weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention with a sense of tentative excitement. However, Joe Biden garnered the likes of both party members and constituents throughout his decades-long career in politics, making his announcement a somber one. No matter how the American public feels about it, former President Trump will be sworn in come January 2025. What better time to take a step back and look at the legacy of the Biden Administration?
Breaking down the highs and lows of the Biden Administration during the last four years is difficult. Politically, so much has happened domestically and internationally from 2020 to now. Within a two-week period from the end of September to the beginning of October 2024, Florida, and much of the Southeastern coast of the United States, was hit by Hurricane Helene. Just as it seemed like the victims of the first storm had begun to recover, Hurricane Milton brought on even more destruction and devastation. It’s not hard to remember the last time two major storms inflicted so much damage in such a short period of time. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma made landfall within two weeks of one another (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017). Evidently, climate change and extreme weather is worsening, so addressing these issues should be every politician's top priority. Due to its gravity, the climate crisis is a lens through which to assess the legacy of the Biden Administration.
The biggest achievement of the Biden Administration in the realm of climate policy was the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Passed in August 2022, it was the biggest piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. While the bill is long and multifaceted, there are three main implications of the Inflation Reduction Act: It expanded on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to include a wide variety of clean energy incentives, including numerous tax incentives for electric vehicles, direct air capture, and clean energy manufacturing practices; it provides billions of dollars in grants and loans to support clean energy projects and climate action, while also seeking to ensure that the benefits reach disadvantaged communities (Lashof 2024); it includes guidelines to reduce methane emissions and cut harmful air pollutants in addition to the stimulus aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act was a big win for the Biden Administration. It implements both mitigation and adaptation practices to deal with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the clean energy sector for the American economy (Lashof 2024).
The accomplishments of the Biden Administration did not end with the Inflation Reduction Act. On the international stage, the United States rejoined the Paris Agreement on the first day of Biden’s Term. The agreement aims to reduce global warming temperatures from 2.4 degrees Celsius to 1.7 degrees, close to the 1.5 degree stabilization benchmark. Additionally, the Biden Administration worked to strengthen the agreement and pushed for a unanimous agreement by all countries to transition away from fossil fuels (Higgins, Chang, and Lespier 2024). Domestically, the Biden Administration established the White House Office of Environmental Justice, which aims to coordinate federal efforts to help communities disproportionately affected by climate change. Similarly, the America the Beautiful initiative, building upon years of measurable impact, ensures the conservation and protection of 30% of public land and water across the United States by 2030. Recent estimates indicate that 18 billion dollars have already been invested to help achieve this goal (Higgins, Chang, and Lespier 2024).
While these are only a few of the policies implemented by the Biden Administration, as a whole, they address climate change from many directions. The Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes investment in clean energy sources and solutions, The Paris Agreement addresses fossil fuel emissions, the White House Office of Environmental Justice tackles the social justice issue, and the America the Beautiful initiative prioritizes environmental conservation. All in all, the Biden Administration has taken a very holistic approach to tackling climate change and global warming over the past four years.
As mentioned above, Biden did deliver transformative climate policy packages, but these policies raised valid concerns for the American economy, and the Biden Administration took further action contradictory to the intent of these policies. One main economic concern with Biden’s clean energy policies regards the job market; transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean energy sources means fewer jobs available in the oil, coal, and gas industries (Isaac 2024). This is mainly because the skill sets required for occupations in the clean energy sector share few overlaps with the existing jobs in the fossil fuel industry (Saha, Shrestha, and Jordan 2022). Traditionally, the fossil fuel industry has been an integral part of the American economy, so the prospect of the industry shrinking to make room for a growing clean energy sector is a tough pill to swallow for politicians and fossil fuel workers alike.
However, this does not mean that the fossil fuel industry will quickly become obsolete. In fact, in 2023, the Biden Administration approved the Willow Project in Northern Alaska, a project to drill over 600 million barrels of oil over the next 30 years. Similarly, oil and natural gas exports hit a new high during Biden’s tenure (Irfan 2024). For a president so focused on expanding the clean energy sector and doubling down on reducing our nation's reliability on fossil fuels, this decision definitely taints his accomplishments. At the same time, the United States cannot immediately cut off reliance on fossil fuels overnight. After all, transitioning to clean energy is a long process, so perhaps this concession was necessary to appeal to constituents across the aisle and to quell concerns of potentially wary Americans.
Another economic concern of Biden’s clean energy policies lies in manufacturing parts required for solar panels and other clean energy projects. As outlined in the Inflation Reduction Act, for companies to receive provisions such as carbon credits, the parts manufacturing process must take place within the United States. This is certainly not ideal for European companies who want to sell cleantech to the United States. On the other hand, it does mean that American corporations that outsource parts from China and other countries will be forced to find U.S. manufacturers instead (Irfan 2024). While it’s not all bad news, requiring companies undertaking clean energy projects to jump through additional hoops to benefit from the IRA’s policies is certainly counterintuitive. If the Biden Administration wants to deliver on the intended goals that the Inflation Reduction Act was meant to accomplish, they should make it easy for companies to receive the outlined benefits.
So, what do we make of the Biden Administration’s climate policy legacy? Rejoining the Paris Agreement on his first day in office set the tone for Biden’s presidency and his dedication to creating a cleaner world for generations to come. Without a doubt, the Inflation Reduction Act will be the lasting legacy of the Biden Administration. Despite Republicans attempting to repeal the provisions of the bill 31 times, the Inflation Reduction Act certainly gives Americans a reason to be hopeful (Higgins, Chang, and Lespier 2024). Additionally, Biden’s dedication to environmental conservation and climate justice throughout certainly helps. Unfortunately, since the American economy still relies on fossil fuels, the Biden Administration made policy decisions accordingly, undermining that progress. In spite of this, Biden and his Administration’s climate policy legacy is an overall positive one. However, his legacy is dependent on how the Inflation Reduction Act and his other policies age. Promising something is one thing, but delivering on it is completely different. Right now, it seems like Biden gave Americcans a reason to be hopeful, but time will determine if that hope will last.
References
Lashof, Dan. "Tracking the Progress of the Biden Administration's Climate Action." World Resources Institute. September 22, 2023. https://www.wri.org/insights/biden-administration-tracking-climate-action-progress.
Irfan, Umair. "Joe Biden’s Enormous, Contradictory, and Fragile Climate Legacy." Vox, July 23, 2024. https://www.vox.com/climate/362478/joe-biden-climate-change-legacy.
Higgins, Chang, and Lespier. "The Biden Administration Has Taken More Climate Action Than Any Other in History." Center for American Progress, April 20, 2023. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-biden-administration-has-taken-more-climate-action-than-any-other-in-history/.
Isaac, Jason. “Biden’s Green Energy Economy Is Failing America.” The Hill, March 8, 2024. https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/4510044-bidens-green-energy-economy-is-failing-america/.
Saha, Devashree, et al. “How a Clean Energy Economy Can Create Millions of Jobs in the US.” World Resource Institute, 14 September 2022. Accessed 3 December 2024. https://www.wri.org/insights/us-jobs-clean-energy-growth.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Hurricanes Harvey and Irma: Effects on Employment and Hours." Current Employment Statistics (CES) Program Notices, 2017, https://www.bls.gov/ces/notices/2017/hurricane-harvey-irma-effects.htm. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.