• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20 March 20, 2023
Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action March 20, 2023
Window for 1.5°C ‘Rapidly Closing’, IPCC Warns March 20, 2023
Swift Action, Inclusive Resilience Vital in Face of Overlapping Climate Hazards March 20, 2023
Shift from Fossils to Renewables is Quickest, Cheapest Path to Cut Emissions, IPCC Report Shows March 20, 2023
Next
Prev

Biden Cancelled Keystone XL Pipeline, Rejoined Paris Agreement as ‘10-Day Blitz’ of Executive Actions Kicked Off

December 27, 2021
Reading time: 6 minutes
Primary Author: Compiled by The Energy Mix staff

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

 

January 18, 2021: Incoming U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled plans to rescind the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and bring his country back into the Paris climate agreement on his first day in office, CBC reported, kicking off a 10-day blitz of executive actions intended as a first step in shifting the country’s direction after four years under the influence of Donald Trump.

The announcements will be among a flurry of executive orders Biden is expected to sign after he’s inaugurated in just over 48 hours, and part of “a raft of environmental policies to be enacted on the first day of his presidency,” CBC reports.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
Subscribe

“A purported briefing note from the Biden transition team mentioning the plan was widely circulated over the weekend after being shared by the incoming president’s team with U.S. stakeholders,” the national broadcaster adds. An earlier list of action items attributed to incoming chief of staff Ron Klain mentioned the Paris deal but not the pipeline, “but cautioned that the memo was not a complete list of planned actions.” But the words “Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit” appear on a more recent Day One to-do list.

Biden is also likely to rescind Trump’s restrictions on immigration from some Muslim-majority countries, set a COVID-19 mask mandate for U.S. government buildings and interstate travel, put a pause on student loan repayments, and take steps to prevent evictions and foreclosures during the pandemic, The Associated Press reports, citing the earlier memo.

“These executive actions will deliver relief to the millions of Americans that are struggling in the face of these crises,” Klain wrote. “President-elect Biden will take action—not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration, but also to start moving our country forward.”

Next Thursday, “Klain said Biden will sign orders related to the COVID-19 outbreak aimed at reopening schools and businesses and expanding COVID-19 testing. The following day will see action on providing economic relief to those suffering the economic costs of the pandemic,” the news agency adds. “In the following week, Klain said, Biden plans to take additional action relating to criminal justice reform, climate change, and immigration—including a directive to speed the reuniting of families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under Trump’s policies. More actions will be added, Klain said, once they clear legal review.”

While AP says incoming presidents traditionally begin their terms by moving quickly through executive orders, Biden’s ability to deliver on his full agenda—on climate, and in multiple other areas—will depend on a divided U.S. Congress. The New York Times says the new administration is already focused in that direction. “The blueprint of executive action comes after Mr. Biden announced that he will push Congress to pass a US$1.9 trillion package of economic stimulus and pandemic relief, signaling a willingness to be aggressive on policy issues and confronting Republicans from the start to take their lead from him.”

There are early signs the new administration is also planning an aggressive push on climate and green recovery.

The Times has more on the “armed camp” and “political polarization on steroids” that will greet Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, observing that the new administration “cannot count on much of a honeymoon” as it starts work. Nowhere is that more obvious than on climate and energy, where American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers is vowing to fight Biden’s agenda on oil and gas drilling and tax policy.

U.S. fossils “are bracing themselves for a new president focused on climate change, a Congress controlled by Democrats who increasingly shun their financial support, and a world beginning to look past fossil fuels towards a cleaner energy future in which they will become smaller players, if not obsolete,” Inside Climate News reports. In his annual address last week, Sommers “said his industry was confident about its future and prepared to fight back against policies that President-elect Joe Biden had promised as a candidate, including a halt to new drilling on public lands and the elimination of billions of dollars in industry tax breaks.”

The fossil CEO’s “point-by-point rebuttal” of the policies Biden has promised foreshadowed “the looming fights they are likely to face as they try to enact a new agenda phasing out fossil fuels,” Inside Climate writes. “A prominent part of that platform is Biden’s pledge to halt new oil and gas development on federal lands by ending new leasing or permitting for such projects. Sommers said API would do all it could to fight such a move, including leaning on members of Congress and potentially challenging a ban in court.”

Reporter Nicholas Kusnetz has details on the economic arguments the fossil lobby will be bringing forward—including front-line concerns about lost oil and gas royalties in New Mexico, home of Biden’s nominee for interior secretary, Rep. Deb Haaland.

But if Sommers plans to take the fight to Biden, he’ll be doing it without one of his more prominent members, after French colossal fossil Total SA severed ties with the API over its policies on climate change. 

“In a press release, Total named several of API’s positions that diverged from its own, citing the group’s opposition to electric vehicle subsidies and its support for weaker methane emissions regulations,” Grist writes. “It also admonished the group for supporting candidates in November’s election ‘who argued against the United States’ participation in the Paris Agreement’.”

“As part of our climate ambition made public in May 2020, we are committed to ensuring, in a transparent manner, that the industry associations of which we are a member adopt positions and messages that are aligned with those of the Group in the fight against climate change,” said CEO Patrick Pouyanné.

That position “puts pressure on Total’s European rivals BP and Royal Dutch Shell to follow suit after resisting the move in recent years,” Reuters adds. “It also highlights a widening rift between Europe’s top [fossil] energy companies, which over the past year accelerated plans to cut emissions and build large renewable energy businesses, and their U.S. rivals Exxon Mobil and Chevron that have largely resisted growing investor pressure to diversify.”

The other looming question in Biden-Harris’ first 100 days is whether a Buy American directive from the new administration will have an impact on Canadian exports. “Depending on what happens, this could be large or it could not be large,” Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told CBC. “We have to get a bit of a better idea as to how this policy will be implemented.”

So far, “I think the Biden administration and our government have an enormous amount of policy alignment,” she added in an interview that aired yesterday. “And I think also that we are going to find a more predictable government to deal with and a bit more traditional relations in terms of how we deal with them.”

If Buy American policies did become an issue, Canada would respond “by underlining the degree to which rules-based, predictable trade was in the interest of Americans,” she added. Particularly in the midst of the pandemic, “we will recover faster, in a more resilient way, and better from this economic downturn by working together.”



in Canada, COP Conferences, Ending Emissions, Energy Politics, Fossil Fuels, Jurisdictions, Oil & Gas, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

EUMETSAT/wikimedia commons
Severe Storms & Flooding

Cyclone Freddy Leaves Over 500 Dead on Africa’s Southeast Coast

March 23, 2023
26
Kern River Valley Fire Info/Facebook
International Agencies & Studies

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20

March 20, 2023
280
IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter
International Agencies & Studies

Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 21, 2023
855

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

IFRC Intl. Federation:Twitter

Devastating Impacts, Affordable Climate Solutions Drive IPCC’s Urgent Call for Action

March 21, 2023
855
U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement/flickr

Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts

March 19, 2023
583
EUMETSAT/wikimedia commons

Cyclone Freddy Leaves Over 500 Dead on Africa’s Southeast Coast

March 23, 2023
26
Kern River Valley Fire Info/Facebook

SPECIAL REPORT: ‘Defuse the Climate Time Bomb’ with Net-Zero by 2040, Guterres Urges G20

March 20, 2023
280
EcoFlight

Historic Deal Reopens B.C. Indigenous Territory to Fracking, Promises Land Restoration

March 19, 2023
466
Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine/Wikimedia Commons

IPCC Report Charts a Course for Ottawa’s ‘Clean Technology’ Budget

March 23, 2023
161

Recent Posts

U.S. National Park Service/rawpixel

Window for 1.5°C ‘Rapidly Closing’, IPCC Warns

March 20, 2023
79
FMSC/Flickr

Swift Action, Inclusive Resilience Vital in Face of Overlapping Climate Hazards

March 20, 2023
72
Kenuoene/pixabay

Shift from Fossils to Renewables is Quickest, Cheapest Path to Cut Emissions, IPCC Report Shows

March 20, 2023
225
Kiara Worth, UNClimateChange/flickr

Gap Between IPCC’s Science, National Actions Sets Challenge for COP 28

March 21, 2023
83
Photo by IISD/ENB

IPCC Sees Deeper Risk in Overshooting 1.5°C Warming Threshold

March 20, 2023
51
Wikimedia Commons/Humans of Vanuatu

Six Countries Call for Fossil-Free Pacific

March 19, 2023
60
Next Post
Walter Siegmund/Wikimedia Commons

Study Showed Governments’ Oil and Gas Revenue Crashing as Decarbonization Takes Hold

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}