The Atlantic

Biden’s Amazing, Disappointing Climate Triumph

What the president’s deal would mean for the battle against climate change
Source: Avalon / Universal Images Group / Getty

It has to pass, it has to pass, it has to pass. It has to pass! It has to pass. It has to pass. IT HAS TO PASS. Pass, it must. It. Has. To. Pass. Nothing happens if it doesn’t pass! 𝓘𝓽 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓹𝓪𝓼𝓼. Senator Joe Manchin has to vote for it; Senator Kyrsten Sinema has to vote for it; all the Senate Democrats have to vote for it. That’s because … 𝖎𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖘 𝖙𝖔 𝖕𝖆𝖘𝖘. No pass interference allowed. Like the leftmost highway lane, it’s for passing only. Two hundred eighteen House Democrats have to vote for it. It! Has! To! Pass!

In order to mean for climate change, President Joe Biden’s signature spending package has to pass. And, at least right now, no guarantee exists that it will. Earlier today, the White House announced for the ambitious package, which it has been negotiating in some capacity . The framework is composed not of policies that Manchin and Simena, the Senate’s two linchpin, exactly, but of policies that they have yet to reject. Biden has seemingly announced the deal not because of a big breakthrough in negotiations, but because he needed to have something in hand before he flew to Europe to meet with Pope Francis and to speak at the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

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