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Climate One

What the Infrastructure Deal Means for Climate

Climate One

Climate One

News, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science, News Commentary

4.7585 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Biden recently signed the biggest piece of climate legislation in U.S. history into law. To be sure, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act got pared down significantly from what was first put on the table, but the final measure still contains five times more money for projects aimed at mitigating the climate crisis than the best legislation the Obama administration could get through. What did it take to get 19 Republican senators (not to mention Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) to vote with the Democrats? And with the states being given great latitude over how to spend the money, will the billions available for highways negate any positive climate impacts? For transcripts and other information, visit: https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts  Guests: Carla Frisch, Principal Deputy Director, Office of Policy, U.S. Department of Energy  Sasha Mackler, Executive Director, The Energy Project, Bipartisan Policy Center Beth Osborne, Director, Transportation for America Michael Grunwald, journalist, author, The New New Deal Support our work: climateone.org/donate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:31.1

This is Climate One. I'm Greg Dalton. Congress recently passed the biggest piece of climate

0:36.9

legislation ever, the Infrastructure Investment in Jobs Act.

0:40.3

It makes the largest federal investment in public transit in history and the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak and really significant investments in EV.

0:55.1

But while the numbers may be big, cars and highways still get the biggest share of the pie.

1:00.5

The climate gods will not care that this was a historic amount of transit funding if the

1:04.7

historic amount of highway funding results in greater emissions.

1:07.4

Since the infrastructure deal is bipartisan, does that mean more federal investment in climate

1:12.9

action will follow?

1:15.0

Climate is becoming more mainstream and more politically acceptable as a policy matter at the

1:22.3

federal government.

1:23.7

How significant will the new infrastructure law be for addressing climate?

1:35.2

After months of negotiations, Congress finally passed President Biden's Infrastructure Act and he signed it into law.

1:45.9

Though cut back from the original proposal, the law will pour billions of dollars into highways, roads and bridges, public transit, rail and EV infrastructure, as well as water supplies and broadband internet. It's a massive piece of legislation and makes big investments

1:51.2

toward climate priorities. I invited three guests to dig into the law's strengths and flaws.

1:57.4

Carla Frisch is Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Policy at the U.S. Department

2:01.9

of Energy. Beth Osborne is Director of Transportation for America. Up first, Sasha

2:08.0

Mackler, executive director of the Energy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

2:13.7

This is a really big deal, not only for energy and climate, but for the infrastructure system and for the larger, for the economy generally here in the U.S.

2:24.4

We've been waiting for, I would say, more than 20 years for an infrastructure bill.

...

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