Democrats rushed to shore up federal funding for climate change initiatives on Monday after Sen. Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat and key swing vote, put the kibosh on President Biden’s clean electricity plan.
The extra climate change spending was included in nine annual spending bills released by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy. The bills tackle a variety of items, such as the Pentagon, Environmental Protection Agency spending and setting funding levels for much of the government throughout fiscal 2022.
“These bills make important investments in our nation’s infrastructure, our environment, and the middle class, including historic increases to promote affordable housing, educate our nation’s children, combat climate change, and improve health care,” said Mr. Leahy, Vermont Democrat.
While the bill boosts overall, nondefense domestic spending by 13% from last year, its most ambitious increases are targeted at agencies dealing with climate change.
Senate Democrats have proposed adding $130 million in additional funding for the EPA’s clean air and climate program. The increase is nearly 50% compared to what the EPA received for the initiative in 2020.
Similarly, the EPA’s enforcement division would see a 17% increase in funding. The additional $56 million would go to cracking down on businesses that added to climate change through pollution.
Democrats have also earmarked $54 million for the creation of a Climate Conservation Corps. Based on the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, the program would put young Americans to work on green-energy-related projects.
“These bills demonstrate how we can make smart investments on behalf of the American people,” said Mr. Leahy.
Also earmarked within the appropriations bills is significant funding for the federal government to transition to an all-electric vehicle fleet. Two hundred million would be designated for the General Services Administration “to procure zero-emission and electric vehicles and the associated charging infrastructure on behalf of federal agencies.”
Likewise, the Interior, Transportation and Homeland Security departments would receive $160 million to purchase electric vehicles. A further $132 million is earmarked for a “low and no emission vehicle program” designed to phase out the use of gas-powered cars.
The bills come as the White House is scrambling to cobble together a climate change agenda after one of its key provisions, a clean electricity standard, was killed by Mr. Manchin.
Mr. Biden initially sought to include a $150 billion tax credit plan within his $3.5 trillion expansion of the federal safety net addressing electricity production.
The program would have given federal subsidies to electric utility companies if they switched from coal and natural gas to solar and wind power. Under the plan, utilities that failed to reach a certain carbon reduction threshold annually would face several financial penalties.
Mr. Manchin, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, was initially tasked with writing the new program into law. After months of negotiations, he told the White House he would be unable to support the plan because of its adverse impact on coal and natural gas, two resources vital to West Virginia’s economy.
Since Democrats planned to push the package along party lines within the evenly split Senate, Mr. Manchin’s opposition kills the program.
The reality has left administration officials scouring for another way to meet Mr. Biden’s pledge to curb greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% over the next decade.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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