The White House’s climate czar slammed Republican efforts to repeal portions of its signature climate law, as President Joe Biden prepares to make the historic measure central to his expected reelection bid.
(Bloomberg) — The White House’s climate czar slammed Republican efforts to repeal portions of its signature climate law, as President Joe Biden prepares to make the historic measure central to his expected reelection bid.
“There is no question of where congressional Republicans want to drive our country, and that’s back to the sidelines on the clean energy transformation that’s taking place around the world,” Ali Zaidi, Biden’s national climate advisor, said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Zaidi’s remarks come just weeks after House Republicans voted to spike major portions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided at least $370 billion to fight climate change and propel clean energy — with additional repeal efforts expected to come.
Read More: House Votes to Curtail Biden’s Climate Law With First Major Bill
The Biden administration has sought to reorient the climate conversation from “gloom and doom” to the “massive economic opportunity for the American people that we have the tools to seize,” said Zaidi, who stressed he was not speaking about any campaign matter.
The administration is focused on places “that have been turned off” and “left behind,” with the goal to convert these locations back into “hubs of economic activity.” Incentives and grants are designed to ensure benefits flow not just to former coal towns and other so-called energy communities, but also to organized labor and minorities, Zaidi added.
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