Happy Nice Mall

ARVADA, Col. —President Biden warned on Tuesday that the United States has only a decade left to face a global climate crisis, and he used his second day to try to rally the public and congressional Democrats in a bushfire-ravaged West to support the measures. He said he hoped his administration would reduce the burning of fossil fuels.

Mr. Biden’s stops in Colorado this week; Boise, Idaho; and the Long Beach and Sacramento area in California, draw attention to serious destruction Forest fires and other natural disasters exacerbated by climate change. The visits were a final opportunity to explain the importance of the targeted measures. reduce climate change, some appear to be increasingly at risk in their spending packages.

“Drought or fire doesn’t see a property line,” Mr. Biden said in a speech at a federal renewable energy lab. “I don’t care which party you belong to. Disasters will not end. This is the nature of the climate threat. But we know what to do. We just need to muster the courage and creativity to do it.”

“We don’t have more than 10 years,” Biden said, underscoring the urgency.

Democratic leaders drafting a $3.5 trillion spending bill are struggling to meet the urgency of Mr. Biden’s pleas, with backlash from energy lobbyists and some key Democrats who want a far less comprehensive effort than Mr. Biden had in mind.

Mr. Biden seemed to have noticed this during a visit to the Emergency Department in Sacramento, California, on Monday. Before getting a briefing on bushfire damage, he reminded the dozens of emergency workers in the conference room that he couldn’t include all of his proposed investments in tackling climate change in one period. bilateral agreement He said he reached the infrastructure this summer. He said he’s focused on including them in the broader $3.5 trillion package, but acknowledges that this may fall short of his ambitions.

“Will it pass or not, I don’t know exactly how much. But we will make it pass,” said Mr. Biden.

Tax writers in the legislature have already made some kind of concession on the climate. A bill released earlier this week bypasses any tax on carbon emissions, even though that kind of revenue could help pay for the huge package Democrats plan to pass along party lines and without Republican support. Many Senate Democrats have pushed to include an indirect tax, such as a direct tax on emissions or a tariff on goods imported from high-emissions countries like China. But the party isn’t aligned, and given the weak majority in the House and Senate, such a plan would likely have trouble getting the 50 needed votes in the Senate.

Centrist concerns over the size and scope of some proposed tax increases may force party leaders to cut incentives for low-carbon energy distribution in the plan. So could influential Democrats who resisted the party’s previous climate legislation, such as Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.

Manchin, a coal-state moderate, is chair of the committee tasked with drafting the Senate version of the bill’s biggest effort to reduce emissions: the carrot-and-stick approach to forcing electricity utilities to pull more power from low-carbon resources over the next decade.

“The transition is happening,” Mr. Manchin said in a speech on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “Now they want to pay companies to do what they are already doing. It just doesn’t make sense to me that we’re getting billions of dollars and paying utilities for what they’re going to do in market transitions.”

He declined to comment further on Tuesday and told reporters he preferred a private meeting. Senate Democrats used a weekly group luncheon to provide an update on their efforts to put the pieces of legislation together during the annual summer break, though it was unclear how quickly they would reconcile the differences within and between both houses.

Mr. Biden used the western orientation to highlight what his aides hope is a call for climate action for those not committed to a more aggressive plan. During the trip, Mr. Biden was briefed on the urgent need to address natural disasters from emergency officials and governors, including those who have disagreements with the administration over the pandemic and other issues. Biden told emergency workers in California that he had recently spoken to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, about emergency response.

“Some of my more conservative –” said Mr. Biden, before stopping himself and continuing, “some of my friends who are less convinced of the concept of global warming are suddenly calling for an altar.”

“They see the Lord,” Mr. Biden said.

When Mr. Biden later received the fire briefing from Emergency Department officials, a woman who presented him with a map of the bushfires was heard saying, “This is why this is so important.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden watched a wind turbine demonstration at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Flatirons Campus in Arvada, Colo, and then described the damage from hurricanes and wildfires he had seen on his trips to the United States this month. He called for tax credits to accelerate the deployment of solar and electric vehicles, and the creation of a Civilian Climate Alliance to protect public lands and make them more resilient to climate change.

Mr. Biden’s economics team did not clarify whether the president would adopt an emissions tax as part of the package. He refused to accept a Republican proposal to increase the federal gasoline tax to help pay for infrastructure, citing a commitment not to raise income taxes for anyone earning less than $400,000. His administration, however, did not object to a tax increase on cigarettes that Congress included in its tax plan, which would disproportionately hit low-income earners.

Administration officials also did not say how far a final agreement on emissions reductions would have to go before Mr. When asked by a reporter at Arvada whether he would sign the $3.5 trillion spending package if it included reduced measures to address climate change, Mr. Biden raised his fist. “I’m ready to take more climate action,” he said.

Mr Biden is strongly committed to the climate components of the bill, Karine Jean-Pierre, deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Air Force One. However, “Biden’s climate agenda is not just tied to a compromise or infrastructure package,” he said.

“We’re looking at every sector of the economy for opportunities to grow clean energy businesses and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he said, “especially in this decisive decade.”

Emily Cochrane contributing reporting.