Friendly fire

During the 2020's presidential campaign and for the first time, Joe Biden publicly discussed his vision to rebuild and remodel the American economy and society. 

"The Build Back Better" is Biden's framework for a massive policy framework to bring historical changes in every sector of the infrastructural system of the USA, from the environment to the social state. This legislative plan includes almost 2000 billion dollars of federal investments in lower classes, education, the health system, and renewable energy for the green transition, financed with higher taxes reserved for the wealthiest American citizens and enterprises.  

The environmental part of the "Build Back Better" is focused on governmental aids and fiscal incentives for the widespread use of renewable energy as well as essential investments in EVs and public transportation services, to reach a necessary amount of decarbonization from the two highest emissive sectors of the country: transportation and electricity. When Biden was elected at the White House, he soon prioritized the fight against climate change of the administrative program, together with the fight against the pandemic, the strengthening of the economy, and the pressure against social and racial inequalities.

Biden has instituted an office for internal climate policy and nominated an international climate envoy, immediately rejoined the Paris Agreement from 2015, and cancelled the permits for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have extended for 1200 miles from Canada to Nebraska. He also held the new leases for oil and gas drilling in public lands and federal waters. He demanded that renewable energy production rise to double offshore wind power production within 2030.  

He also organized a virtual summit in April to convince the world's leaders to put some effort into reducing emissions. During the conference in Glasgow, he promised that the USA (the world's second-largest emitter) would have taken strict accountability in reducing emissions by at least 50% from 2005 levels before the end of the decade. 

After years of Trumpian politics, Americans show a desire for some sort of governmental action that would tackle the two biggest crises of the contemporary world (healthcare and environment). In November 2020, Biden managed to convince the majority of his electors to reduce emissions but still failed to persuade the Parliament.  

After months of complex polemics and negotiations, the legislative framework has been approved by the House of Representatives with a small but significant majority. Right before Christmas, the proposal passed to the Senate, and here where the democrats can't afford to lose any consensus among their members, we saw a setback.  

It was predictable that the republicans would have been against the measures, sustaining that the legislative plan would have further fuelled the inflation and national debt, but some friendly fire for them arrived from a democratic senator, Joe Manchin, who is always doubtful regarding the high costs of the program, especially regarding the investments in renewables. Manchin's family is profiting from the coal industry in West Virginia, voted against the law, the most important federal intervention of the latest 50 years and the highest investment of the country on climate matters; as well as an extraordinary opportunity for an equal future not only for the United States.  

The shocking move of the senator arrived after a year of extreme events that hit hard the American territory: wildfires, extreme heatwaves in the north-west and arctic cold in Texas, floods, hurricanes, and drought have provoked many victims and even more economic difficulties for the disadvantaged social classes, already beaten by the pandemic.  

The definite collapse of the measured framework would have disastrous consequences for the global climate crisis, meaning that the United States would no longer maintain the promises coming from the Paris Agreement and Glasgow's COP26.