How The Senate’s 1-Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Bill Fights Climate Change

With climate change being a hot topic in Washington, and around the world, it comes as no surprise that expansive legislation has been passed to combat climate change and create green power that bolsters humanity’s environmentally-friendly efforts going forward. Recently, this expansive legislation has taken the form of a 1-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill with billions of dollars placed aside specifically to deal with these ongoing issues and create a meaningful impact in the fight against climate change. 

Here is a breakdown of the most notable green-friendly parts of the infrastructure bill. 

Public Transportation

Public transportation in the United States has been outdated for decades, and this has led to excessive emissions from the nation’s bus lines and train networks. 

The infrastructure bill has provided $105-billion to correct this issue and move towards public transportation that utilizes clean power. These funds will be used to update existing parts of the public transport system, replace high-emission equipment and vehicles with zero-emission alternatives, and improve the system as a whole. 

An additional $10-billion has been provided to the nation’s school systems to fund the adoption of electric school buses, repair and upgrade existing buses to utilize more efficient clean energy, and ultimately push the sector towards an electrified bus fleet. 

Air and Waterway Transportation and Freight

$42-billion spread across airports and waterways is to be spent on the extensive backlog of repairs to critical infrastructure in these sectors. This includes repairing planes and sea vessels, port technology in disrepair, and other known issues. However, it also funds the adoption and development of clean energy alternatives to lower this sector’s environmental impact. 

Pollution from Abandoned Natural Resources

Rural areas of the United States are dotted with the remnants of old mine shafts, gas wells that are no longer in use, and abandoned brownfields that were never developed. $21-billion will be devoted to reclaiming the brownfields and mining lands to be re-used or repaired, and the gas wells that leak dangerous pollutants into the air will be capped off. 

Civilian Vehicles

Traditional combustion engines are one of the main sources of emissions in the United States, and the infrastructure bill aims to change that. 

The bill provides $7.5-billion to develop a nationwide charging system for electric vehicles. This chain of chargers will make electric vehicles more practical for commuters of all kinds, but it will also have a profound impact on rural communities that have been slow to adopt the technology due to lack of utility. 

Critical Infrastructure Upgrades and Future Planning

Finally, the rest of the green energy portion of the bill will be used to rework the nation’s power grid to make it more resilient against blackouts, utilize clean energy, and maintain consistent output. This equates to a $60-billion investment. 

On top of that, the bill sets the groundwork to continue planning future clean energy plans that will help the nation meet its goal of reaching zero emissions by 2050. 

An Expansive Effort to Correct Climate Change

This $1-trillion infrastructure bill has provided the funding necessary to implement an expansive variety of changes to the nation’s most critical pieces of infrastructure, help Americans adopt new clean energy standards, and push businesses to lower their carbon footprint.