To combat climate change, Biden's ambitious clean energy plan would pour $2 trillion into a set of research and development goals throughout his first term, with his principal objective being to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Biden wants to modernize American infrastructure, invest in clean energy and make climate-focused advances in both the auto and transportation industries to cut emissions and increase job opportunities. Notably, he says that his plan for the auto industry will create 1 million new jobs with the option to be part of a union.
Biden pledges to rid the power sector of carbon pollution by 2035. He also calls for energy upgrades to 4 million buildings, weatherizing 2 million homes across the country and building 1.5 million "sustainable homes and housing units."
Biden also specifically addresses environmental justice, pledging to allocate 40% of his clean energy plan's investments toward minority and lower-income communities more often affected by climate change and pollution. The plan would create a division within the Justice Department that would regulate and penalize corporations for their environmental effects on communities.
Biden would also seek to rejoin the Paris climate accords.
Trump says his priorities are clean water and air, but he's also sought to boost U.S. production of oil and natural gas — objectives that often work against each other.
Sponsor MessageThe president has touted the country's record clean air, but that's part of a longer-term trend.
Trump has supported legislation that removes garbage from oceans, allocated additional funding for national parks and public lands, and put $38 billion toward "clean water infrastructure."
The president has denied the scientific consensus on climate change, and his administration has worked to scrub mentions of climate change from government websites and reversed many of the climate policies put in place during the Obama administration. Trump has attempted to push policies that back the coal industry, though that sector has continued to its longer-term decline.
He also pulled the U.S. out of the international Paris climate deal.
NPR White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe and political correspondent Asma Khalid contributed to this report.
