During his campaign, President-elect Joe Biden declared climate change the ânumber one issue facing humanityâ and vowed a national transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy that he said would create millions of jobs. Now the question is â will he follow through?
The last Democratic president, Barack Obama, had a mixed environmental record. He signed the Paris climate accords, and gave a modest boost to clean energy production. His administration gets credit for issuing higher standards for automobile fuel emissions, and to reduce electricity in appliances, from dishwashers to walk-in freezers. But the Obama EPA dragged its feet against imposing carbon dioxide standards for power plants and oil refineries, and wasted precious time pushing an ineffective cap-and-trade system, rather than a badly needed carbon tax.