President Joe Biden touted the significant green spending in his multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan as a means to better compete with China on clean energy technologies.
“There is simply no reason why the blades for wind turbines can’t be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing,” Biden said during his first joint address to Congress on Wednesday night.
“There is no reason why American workers can’t lead the world in production of electric vehicles and batteries,” Biden added. “There is no reason. We have the capacity.”
BIDEN INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN INCLUDES MASSIVE SPENDING AND REGULATIONS TO CURB CLIMATE CHANGE
Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, unveiled last month, includes significant funding to electrify transportation, eliminate carbon emissions from the power sector, and build up U.S. capacity to manufacture clean energy technology such as electric car batteries.
The proposal seeks to deliver directly on several of Biden’s pledges on the campaign trail and in early executive orders, including establishing a clean electricity standard to move toward carbon-free power by 2035 and electrifying the entire federal vehicle fleet.
The Biden administration has argued the United States must act to curb its emissions and grow a clean energy industry to match massive investments China and other nations are making in green technologies.
Biden, during his remarks to Congress, boasted his infrastructure plan as a job creator, repeating claims that the clean energy investments in the proposal will create millions of U.S. jobs.
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Republicans, however, have raised alarm at pieces of Biden’s plan that they say would invest too heavily in climate change, which they don’t consider traditional infrastructure. Republican lawmakers have also accused the Biden administration of threatening jobs by taking steps to restrict fossil fuel development in favor of renewable energy.
