Congress is set to consider a mandatory government funding bill that offers a mixed bag for U.S. climate action, Jael Holzman writes.
Why it matters: The bill represents the best Democrats might get with Senate Republicans before the GOP takes control of the House and starts aggressively targeting environmental programs.
Driving the news: Lawmakers yesterday unveiled a 4,155-page funding package that’ll keep the government ticking for another year, but it comes with some lumps of coal for climate activists.
Democrats failed to secure ample new funding for international climate finance, something Biden promised the world he’d get at the recent COP27 summit in Egypt.
Climate finance funding was boosted by only $900,000. Given inflation this represents “a reduction in real terms,” said Joe Thwaites, an advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
There’s also a rider to block the government from making a new rule protecting North American right whales, a carbon-storing species in peril from warming oceans.
Yes, but: There are some small climate gains in the funding bill, like a new voluntary Agriculture Department program to verify carbon sequestration credits for farmers (Agri-Pulse).
The bill would also give hundreds of millions more in annual funding to agencies like EPA and the Interior Department, though the increase may be muted by high inflation.
