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By: Grace Burbo Summary. As Joe Biden stepped into office January 20th 2021, we have seen since the beginning especially during the debates that he feels strongly for healing our planet and has promised more sustainability since the beginning. Specifically having a goal of cutting carbon emissions by replacing fossil fuels with more sustainable forms of renewable energy. Biden has been investing money into geoengineering which is why most of the solutions are still in the works while research is still being conducted. He has announced though that he has set a goal for all electricity to be carbon free by 2035 and for the nation to get to net-zero emissions and 100% clean energy by increasing the use of wind and solar power by 2050. Some of the actions that we can suspect during his presidency include upgrading millions of homes to be more energy efficient, plug abandoned oil and gas wells, reclaim mines and make environmental justice a key consideration. By 2030 he has planned for the production and use of billions of gallons of sustainable fuel that will enable aviation emissions to drop by 20%. He did this by proposing a sustainable aviation fuel tax credit, this will help cut costs and rapidly scale domestic production of sustainable fuels for aviation. This tax credit should at least reduce 50% in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions offering increased incentives for greater reductions. Also he wants to reduce greenhouse gases as much as possible, he plans on doing this by decreasing the aging utility plants and reducing coal use, while carrying out these plans he also wants to increase the support of regenerative agriculture practices to help farmers and sequester some of the burden from carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore I think there is a lot planned to help heal our environment that we have to look forward to in the near future thanks to the Biden administration, it is just a matter of time before his team puts all the pieces together so that all these plans can go into action and be carried out in the best way possible. Why we should care? We need to care about these things to make changes for the families who are consistently going homeless from natural disasters and losing everything they have and for the future generations.  Image credit: Dinah Pulver/ publisher at USA Today/https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/01/18/biden-climate-plan-carbon-emission-cuts-new-jobs-lots-questions/4176058001/ Example Article(s). https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/01/18/biden-climate-plan-carbon-emission-cuts-new-jobs-lots-questions/4176058001/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/09/fact-sheet-biden-administration-advances-the-future-of-sustainable-fuels-in-american-aviation/ I found this particular article to be interesting because it highlighted some of the stuff I was not aware of that the Biden administration has planned for our planets future and because the article is about current changes for our environment something which I am passionate about it was not hard at all to get interested in. I find it important for someone such as myself, a environmental science major, to keep updated on current events pertaining to my major so that I am educated on what is going on currently in the world of environmental science while also learning about the past events in class and through reading my textbook. This also gives me the ability to make real world connections while applying both what I learn in class and the day to day basis of real world current environmental problems especially since these topics are gaining more attention in the current politically climate. Science in Action.
Dan Costa Sc.D., DABT recently retired as the National Program Director (NPD) for the Air Climate & Energy Research Program (ACE). Daniel Costa has done field research for many of years he a great scientist graduating from four different prestigious colleges and has had five key publications. Now he is retired from field work and works as an adjunct professor teaching environment sciences and engineering. The reason he is relevant to my topic is because he is a retired National Research Program Director for Air, Climate and Energy Research Program US Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Research Triangle Park (RTP) meaning he worked for the government researching issues pertaining to the same environmental actions that Biden is putting in place currently.
9 Comments
11/18/2021 10:36:28
It was nice to learn about Biden's big plans for sustainability that I had never specifically knew. It will be interesting to see if his goals, such as all electricity to be carbon free by 2035, will actually be achieved and how the US population and environment will react. I'm curious what actions the administration will take and if they will actually stick through with these actions (like decreasing the aging utility plants and reducing coal use), because I feel like not everyone is going to have a positive reaction.
Lindsey Wheaton
11/18/2021 13:09:58
I think the work Biden is doing is very important. We should listen to our planet and believe the scientists telling us our actions are killing it. I hope Biden and whoever is in office next take environmental issues seriously. I think focusing on things like clean energy is very smart because we have things like solar and wind energy that could replace our reliance on coal and oil.
Ben Feld
11/18/2021 13:56:50
I like electric vehicles but we also need to overhaul the electric generation in our country. Otherwise we’re just pushing off the problem. Electric cars also need to become more economical and made with more fair labor. Many hurdles to jump through for such an incredible price of technology, let’s hope it gets done!
Alexandria simpkins
11/18/2021 20:25:00
I think it’s great that we have these plans and that we hope to complete them between the next 14-29years however I am interested in knowing how we ensure these don’t get derailed or changed once he is out of office.
Ireland Betzold
11/22/2021 12:31:43
This article was super interesting to read! Although I knew Biden had a plan to better our environment, I had no idea that he plans on implementing more sustainable practices into people’s homes. I have to wonder how he would go about this practice of making these homes more energy efficient, because it seems very difficult.
Abby Plonka
11/22/2021 14:22:30
I think it’s great that Biden has a well versed plan to help reduce climate change and pollution. It’s good too see that he’s trying to tackle pollution from a variety of the different sources. However I think he should implement more policies to limit all the pollution that’s being contributed by big corporations, because they seem to be the biggest problem. I really hope that he’ll continue to push for these goals that we’ll be able to achieve them.
Jacob Philip
11/22/2021 15:02:24
Great article choice, Grace! While things such as emissions cuts and the introduction of more sustainable energy options are great, I personally think that the Biden administration could be doing a lot more in terms of actually fighting the global climate catastrophe. In my opinion, gradual, distant changes such as these are not intended to be solutions at all, but rather to give the illusion of a solution so that the corporate powers who have caused this crisis are not held responsible.
Thomas Cisney
11/22/2021 16:41:32
Hopefully he sticks the the plan of decreasing plants and reducing coal use. IF he does sustainable energy is going to be the way of the future, especially paired with alternative fuel sources like nuclear energy. Wind and solar power by 2050 is in our lifetime and I cannot wait.
Loren Solomon
11/22/2021 22:21:31
Great Discussion post!! I love what the Biden administration is doing to help save and protect our planet. I think its super fascinating how things like this are rarely talked about, even though he's paving the way for the future with sustainable energy and decreased CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases. I also am very fond of the idea and initiative to create sustainable aviation fuel tax credit, and limit coal use as well as energy from utility plants. Leave a Reply. |
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