Progressives Urge Congress to Approve $100 Billion for Biden’s Clean Energy Push

A progressive coalition comprised of nearly three dozen environmental groups and labor unions on Wednesday urged Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress to significantly increase funding for President Joe Biden’s executive orders to ramp up the domestic manufacturing of clean energy under the Defense Production Act.

“Biden’s executive orders on climate can only be meaningful if Congress dedicates the funding to get the job done,” Food & Water Watch policy director Jim Walsh said in a statement.

Last month, Biden invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA), which enables the president to reorient U.S. manufacturing policy, to strengthen the domestic production of solar panels, heat pumps, and other green technologies. Thanks in large part to the leadership of first-term Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), the House Appropriations Committee has appropriated $100 million toward this effort, which has been endorsed by more than 1,000 groups, including the People vs. Fossil Fuels Coalition.

Although the funding still needs to be approved, senators from both major parties “have also called on Biden to use the DPA to support green technology manufacturing,” The Intercept reported recently, “making passage into law, once the appropriations bill passes the House and is amended in the Senate, more likely.”

While applauding this as a “positive first step,” the coalition noted that “estimates show more than $100 billion is needed” to meet the Biden administration’s objective of halving U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 2030—a goal that scientists and activists have argued is inadequate to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis.

The Energy Security and Independence Act that Bush introduced in April alongside Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would direct $100 billion—a small fraction of the nation’s annual military budget—to facilitate a wholesale transformation of the nation’s energy system through the DPA. The bill has more than 50 co-sponsors and is supported by more than 80 organizations.

In letters addressed to high-ranking Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate, the coalition wrote that “it is imperative” for members of Congress to approve the maximum amount of funding possible for Biden’s DPA clean energy orders in the fiscal year 2023 appropriations package.

“1/1000th of the funding in [the Energy Security and Independence Act] will not be sufficient,” the coalition stressed.

Dominic Frongillo, executive director and co-founder of Elected Officials to Protect America, said that “Biden can leverage DPA funds and the federal procurement budget of $650 billion per year to scale up clean energy technologies deployment.”

Originally published at Commondreams.org, written by Kenny Stancil.