Voice of America
15 Sep 2021, 06:05 GMT+10
ARVADA, COLORADO - President Joe Biden tried to advance his domestic spending plans in Colorado on Tuesday by warning about the dangers of climate change while highlighting how his clean-energy proposals would also create well-paying jobs.
The trip to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Flatirons Campus outside Denver capped the president's two-day swing to the West, and it offered Biden the chance to continue linking the need to pass his spending package to the urgent threat posed by climate change.
"Here's the good news: Something that is caused by humans can be solved by humans," Biden said. He deemed the need for a clean-energy future an "economic imperative and a national security imperative" and said that there was no time to waste as the impact of climate change seems to grow more severe by the year.
Biden said that extreme weather events will cost more than $100 billion in damages this year, and he underscored his goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 while using solely carbon pollution-free power by 2035.
"We can do that. We can do all of this in a way that creates good jobs, lowers costs to consumers and businesses, and makes us global leaders," the president said.
Biden spoke about "more jobs for the economy" on an earlier tour as he checked out a giant windmill blade on the ground outside the lab and got a demonstration of wind turbine technology.
And, keenly aware of the delicate work under way back in Washington to craft details of his infrastructure-plus spending package, he gestured at Democratic legislators along for the tour and said, "They're the ones getting it all through Congress."
'A crisis with ... opportunity'
Biden had spent Monday in Boise, Idaho, and Sacramento, California, receiving briefings on the devastating wildfire season and viewing the damage by the Caldor Fire to communities around Lake Tahoe.
"We can't ignore the reality that these wildfires are being supercharged by climate change," Biden said, noting that catastrophic weather doesn't strike based on partisan ideology. "It isn't about red or blue states. It's about fires. Just fires."
Throughout his trip, Biden held out the wildfires across the region as an argument for his $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and additional $3.5 trillion package of spending. The president said every dollar spent on "resilience" would save $6 in future costs. And he made the case that the rebuilding must go beyond simply restoring damaged systems and instead ensure communities can withstand such crises.
"In the end, it's not about red states or blue states. A drought or a fire doesn't see a property line," Biden said. "It doesn't care, give a damn for what party you belong to. ... Yes, we face a crisis, but we face a crisis with unprecedented opportunity."
The climate provisions in Biden's plans include tax incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, investments to transition the economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources such as wind and solar power, and creation of a civilian climate corps.
Biden has set a goal of eliminating pollution from fossil fuel in the power sector by 2035 and from the U.S. economy overall by 2050.
'We have to think big'
The president's two-day Western swing comes at a critical juncture for a central plank of his legislative agenda. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working to assemble details of the infrastructure-plus plan - and how to pay for it, a concern not just for Republicans.
With unified Republican opposition in Congress, Biden needs to overcome the skepticism of two key centrist Democrats in the closely divided Senate. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have expressed concerns about the size of the $3.5 trillion spending package.
In California, Biden appeared to respond to those concerned about the plan's size, saying the cost "may be" as much as $3.5 trillion and would be spread out over 10 years, a period during which the economy is expected to grow. He also insisted that when it comes to addressing climate change, "we have to think big."
"Thinking small is a prescription for disaster," he said.
The 100-member Senate is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Given solid GOP opposition, Biden's plan cannot pass the Senate without Manchin's or Sinema's support. The legislative push comes at a crucial time for Biden, who had seen his poll numbers tumble after the United States' tumultuous exit from Afghanistan and a rise in COVID-19 cases due to the highly contagious delta variant.
Get a daily dose of Afghanistan Sun news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Afghanistan Sun.
More InformationWASHINGTON, D.C.: Former U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to cut federal funding for colleges that allow what he calls illegal...
CNN - In a recent interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly expressed strong opposition to President...
NEWARK, New Jersey: Over the weekend, a FedEx Boeing 767 cargo plane hit a bird while taking off from Newark Airport. One of its...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Pentagon told its civilian employees that they must provide a list of five bullet points detailing their accomplishments...
MELBOURNE, Australia: An Australian warship rescued Lithuanian adventurer Aurimas Mockus this week after he became stranded in the...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The U.S. is sending about 3,000 more soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border as President Donald Trump pushes to stop...
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 8 (ANI): Maharashtra Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Abu Asim Azmi on Friday accused the media of 'maligning'...
Dublin [Ireland], March 8 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his Irish counterpart, Simon Harris and said both the countries...
Just as discoveries of fossil fuel reserves helped to shape the 20th century, the race for critical minerals is shaping the 21st. These...
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan ordered all documented Afghan migrants on Friday to leave the country by March 31 or risk deportation. The...
(250307) -- KABUL, March 7, 2025 (Xinhua) -- Bahara Salimi, a clothing store saleswoman, showcases a costume at her workplace in Kabul,...
OP Jindal University New Delhi [India], March 7: The Jindal India Institute (JII) of the O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) successfully...