Defending the Planet Ep1: The Biden Reset

Hours after taking the oath of office, President Joe Biden signed executive orders to return the United States to the Paris climate agreement and kill the Keystone XL pipeline. He has since revoked many of the Trump administration’s climate policies while launching an aggressive regulatory program of his own. His goals include cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions by 2050. He also wants to put the U.S. back into a position of international leadership on climate issues. But are these goals realistic with a Congress that hasn’t passed major environmental legislation since 1990? Former top EPA official Catherine McCabe ’77 and William S. Beinecke Professor of Law Jedediah S. Purdy join Michael B. Gerrard to explore how the partisan divide holds back the fight against global warming and whether executive action can break the long drought of climate legislation.https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/defending_the_planet/1001/thumbnail.jp