The Democrat-controlled Senate on Sunday passed a historic package of subsidy and environmental measures aimed at transforming American agriculture. With this, President Joe Biden intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the US by about 40 percent over eight years, in order to stay within the Paris Climate Agreement.
The $740 billion package represents a dramatic increase in the subsidy funds intended to encourage farmers to adopt climate-related agricultural practices. President Biden has previously said that he especially wants American agriculture to ‘store’ CO2 and that ‘farmers will become the greatest climate protectors.’
Measures are also included to promote greater use of low-carbon biofuels for the trucking and aviation industries. The final package allocates more than $370 billion to climate and energy policies, including cleaner technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles.
For a long time, it appeared that Senator Joe Manchin (West Virginia) would block his party colleague Joe Biden’s large environmental and climate plan: in the Senate, the Democrats have exactly half of the votes with 50 Senators. Because the Republicans reject environmental laws, Biden needed the support of all Democrats.
“This bill will change America for decades,” said Majority Leader Charles Schumer after Vice President Kamala Harris cast her decisive vote, following more than a year of behind-the-scenes negotiations.
At the last moment in negotiations, new agricultural subsidies were added to the package: $5.3 billion for debt relief and $4 billion for drought mitigation.
Senator Manchin ultimately agreed to a combined proposal which also included subsidies for constructing natural gas pipelines for fossil fuels in his home state.
The House of Representatives will briefly reconvene from its summer recess on Friday to discuss the bill, which would represent a major victory for President Joe Biden.