President Joe Biden agreed with the executive order earlier this week to scale up the buying power of the federal government to lower its carbon emission by 65% by 2030 and transform it into carbon-neutral by mid-century to address the issues pertaining to human-caused climate change.
As per the order, the White House is likely to spend a million dollars to widen its federal fleet of electric vehicles, upscale buildings owned or leased by humans, and also compliments more clean electricity to the power grid of the country.
The new plan is expected to struggle with pushback by some businesses and republicans but will put the government on track to go for carbon zero electricity by 2030 and successfully achieve net-zero carbon emission by 2050.
“The president is building on his whole-of-government effort to tackle the climate crisis in a way that creates well-paying jobs, grows industries, and makes the country more economically competitive,” the Biden administration said in a statement.
The government will also execute the annual buying of $650 billion to leverage efficiency by replacing its fleet of 600,000 trucks and cars with electric vehicles and leverage efficiency at its 300,000 buildings, as per the White House fact sheet.
Biden’s pledge instructs the government to make a transition to 100% zero-emission vehicles by 2035 for its fleet, including all light-duty vehicle purchasing by 2027.
“The executive order will reduce emissions across federal operations, invest in American clean energy industries and manufacturing, and create clean, healthy, and resilient communities,” the administration added.
The White House will further be in line with American vehicle battery and charging equipment manufacturers and suppliers to achieve such goals. Also, the president in November agreed to the law of bipartition infrastructure plan that involves $7.5 billion to develop a national charging station network for electric vehicles.
Also, it was instructed to include ‘buy clean’ initiatives that will help to promote the adoption of products with lower greenhouse gas emissions, which will further widen the market for sustainable and low carbon goods made in the US.
The administration also indicated how some agencies are striving hard to meet the goals of order. For instance, the Pentagon is likely to complete the country’s largest solar panel array project next year on the Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. The project will complement the 520 MW power grid and produce more than 1000 union and construction jobs.
However, the environmental groups have also looked towards the order as a positive step towards achieving net zero-emission and addressing the issues of climate change. The order to move towards zero-emission vehicles will fuel their advancements of America’s industrial capacity and will create sustainable jobs in several sectors, including skilled trades, engineering, and manufacturing.