Biden’s border goes green with zero-emission crossings

The Biden administration is resisting wall construction, but it has found a border project it will support: a billion-dollar effort to make the entry points more environmentally friendly.

The General Services Administration announced plans Thursday to upgrade 38 ports of entry along the northern and southern borders using money from Democrats’ 2022 budget-climate bill and a 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

That means converting buildings to all-electric energy, updating water systems and windows, and repaving “low-embodied carbon materials” with a smaller emissions footprint than traditional paving.

“By incorporating clean construction materials and clean energy technologies into these projects, we’re not only supporting bringing these border stations into the 21st century, we’re also supporting the clean energy industries that will lead our economy in the future,” said Robin Carnahan, GSA administrator.

She said the upgrades would “help strengthen security while creating good-paying jobs, reducing harmful emissions and boosting domestic manufacturing.”

GSA predicted that the money would support 11,500 jobs.

The agency said the 2021 and 2022 laws charged it with helping build America’s green industrial base.

The border crossings were picked based on their ages and the needs of the Department of Homeland Security.

When the upgrades are complete, 23 border crossings will be fully electric for standard operations, GSA said.

That includes the Bridge of the Americas port in El Paso, Texas, which will get all electric energy, instant electric water heaters, electric vehicle charging, and onsite water collection for reuse. That project will cost $200 million.

The San Luis border crossing in Arizona will become the first net-zero emissions port of entry with an all-electric design, solar panels and batteries to power the facility around the clock. That project is earmarked for $100 million.

Thirteen ports will receive low-carbon paving.

GSA said the budget-climate law included $3.4 billion to use federal facilities as sustainability demonstration projects. The infrastructure law, meanwhile, included $3.4 billion specifically intended to improve the ports of entry.

Congress has also earmarked billions of dollars for building more border wall, much of it still unspent after President Trump left office.

President Biden has resisted spending that money as he tries to make good on his pledge not to construct “another foot” of wall.

A federal judge this month ruled that the administration was breaking the law by trying to spend wall-building money on other projects such as environmental remediation.

Judge Drew B. Tipton said Congress decides how money is spent. When Congress wrote its spending bills for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, it allocated nearly $1.4 billion each year for wall-building. The president trampled on that when he decided to spend wall-building money on his own priorities.

“The central question in this case, then, is this: Has the Government obligated FY 2020 and FY 2021 funds for the ‘construction of [a] barrier system’? The answer is largely no,” the judge concluded.

The administration announced in the fall that it would attempt some wall construction. Mr. Biden had delayed the construction for nearly three years but said his hands were tied by the way Congress wrote the law.

The president insisted the walls don’t work.

On that, he is at odds with Border Patrol agents, who say the wall system Mr. Trump constructed is effective in shaping the flow of illegal immigrants. Judge Tipton agreed in his ruling last week.

In his latest budget, Mr. Biden has requested more money for Border Patrol agents, immigration judges and upgrades to drug detection equipment.

Congressional negotiators are expected to reveal their Homeland Security Department spending bill for fiscal year 2024 any day.