President Biden unveiled a plan on Wednesday to make the federal government carbon neutral, ordering federal agencies to buy electric vehicles, to power facilities with wind, solar and nuclear energy, and to use sustainable building materials.
Mr. Biden called on the government to transform 300,000 buildings, 600,000 cars and trucks, and use its annual purchases of $650 billion in goods and services to meet his goal of a federal government that stops adding carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2050.
There is an ongoing crisis and tons of news. Our newsletter keeps you up to date. It will be sent to your inbox.
Mr. Biden said he wanted to use the federal government as a model for green energy. The executive orders were signed Wednesday.
Mr. Biden wants the federal government to purchase electricity from sources that do not emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Biden administration wants to cut emissions by half by 2032.
The Washington Post reported on the executive action.
The moves could give a boost to the clean energy market.
Joshua Freed, senior vice president for climate and energy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic research group, said that it was similar to what China was doing.
Mr. Freed said that the government spends $5 billion annually on concrete. He said that setting standards for more sustainable products would have a huge influence on the private sector.
Mr. Biden has pledged to cut US emissions in half by the end of the decade. A major climate and social spending bill moving through Congress includes hundreds of billions of dollars in tax incentives that analysts said could get the United States about half way to that goal but the rest will require significant executive action.
