From Sea Change to Sea Levels Rising: What a Unified Democratic Government Means for Climate Change Action
With Democrats now in control of both houses of Congress, environmental and climate change issues will play a more prominent role in legislative deliberations in the United States over the next two years and beyond. The Georgia Senate results enable Congressional Democrats to facilitate President Biden’s ambitious path toward a lofty aspiration of a “100% clean energy” economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As the new government takes shape,
the number of overlapping environmental and climate plans offered by Democrats over the last several years will receive renewed attention, including most prominently Biden’s $2 trillion dollar climate plan.
Still, any ambitious landmark climate change legislation will face a steep uphill battle in light of Democrats’ thinnest of margins vote counts in both houses of Congress (particularly in the Senate). Absent the elimination of the Senate filibuster or the use of budget reconciliation, comprehensive reform through a singular bill is unlikely. Instead, Democrats may learn from their failed attempt to pass economy-wide cap-and-trade legislation through a unified Congress in 2009. They may consider eschewing a single, major legislative proposal and, instead, embedding climate
change provisions in myriad pieces of legislation to implement a comprehensive climate strategy in a more bottom-up approach. It is not anticipated that in 2021 Congress passes the Green New Deal, a fracking ban, or a full repeal of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to fund an ambitious environmental agenda. Nor is it expected that there will be a climate-focused overhaul of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
