President Biden’s announced details of his American Jobs Plan yesterday, outlining the new administration’s strategy to reinvest in U.S. infrastructure. The new plan will see massive amounts of expenditure allocated to key sustainable investment areas including clean energy, electrification, climate resilience and emissions reduction technologies.
Key sustainable investment areas under the new plan include:
- Climate tools and technologies. $35 billion for solutions to achieve technology breakthroughs that address the climate crisis, including the launch of an Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop new methods for reducing emissions and building climate resilience, as well as expanding across-the-board funding for climate research. Climate R&D priorities under the plan include utility-scale energy storage, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, advanced nuclear, rare earth element separations, floating offshore wind, biofuel/bioproducts, quantum computing, and electric vehicles.
- Electric vehicles. $174 billion in vehicle electrification investments including point of sale rebates and tax incentives to buy American-made EVs, grant and incentive programs for state and local governments and the private sector to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030, replacing diesel transit and school buses with clean vehicles, and electrifying the federal fleet, including the USPS.
- Public transit modernization and rail investments. $85 billion to modernize existing transit and help agencies expand their systems to meet rider demand. $80 billion to improve and provide reliable and fast inter-city train service.
The plan has been praised by several climate-focused organizations and sustainable investment groups.
Amy Davidsen, Executive Director, North America of international non-profit, the Climate Group, said:
“The President’s decision to fulfill one of his biggest campaign commitments to act swiftly and decisively on the climate crisis and build back greener for all, comes at a critical time for the country and the world. The American Jobs Plan will be an essential element to halve emissions by 2030 and US action on climate cannot be understated. This plan is an encouraging step towards creating a cleaner, more equitable future for all.”
Mindy Lubber, Ceres CEO and President, said:
“From day one, the Biden-Harris administration has demonstrated just how serious it is about raising the country’s ambition to tackle the climate crisis and rectify long-standing environmentalEnvironmental criteria consider how a company performs as a steward of nature. More injustices. Today was no different. The President’s infrastructure plan would not only rebuild our highways, bridges and water systems to be more sustainable and resilient, it would foster new innovation in clean energy technologies, expand clean transportation options, and power a recovery that lifts up those who are most affected by climate change.”
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