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Climate Experts Game Out Biden’s 2035 Goal in a Split Senate

A national clean power standard wouldn’t be the simplest move in the world but nobody said climate change was easy.

McConnell and Schumer at the joint session of Congress certifying the electoral college votes of the 2020 presidential election on January 7.

McConnell and Schumer at the joint session of Congress certifying the electoral college votes of the 2020 presidential election on January 7.

Photographer: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images
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The election of Democrat Jon Ossoff to the U.S. Senate from Georgia conjures a scenario absent from the U.S. for more than a decade: Senate control by a party motivated to enact climate policy.

President-elect Joe Biden campaigned aggressively on climate change and racial justice. In mid-July he announced his intention to make the U.S. power sector carbon-free by 2035 and invest $2 trillion over four years to help achieve it. Forty percent of that sum would be directed to areas historically neglected by energy and infrastructure programs.