Reading the Biden administration’s “plan to build a modern, sustainable infrastructure and an equitable clean energy future,” one is easily impressed. Indeed, Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan endorses many of the ideas put forward by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in their plan for a “Green New Deal.”  For example, the Biden Administration seems to have embraced the idea that a strong federal government can and should serve as a mechanism to protect, serve, and provide for those living in the United States (and of course, curb the global effects of climate change). Importantly, the plan aims to improve the country’s aging transit infrastructure, including updating our public transportation options. The plan seemingly recognizes that need to move the country away from “dirty energy” towards “clean energy,” creating millions of jobs and training opportunities in the process. And most impressively (at least to us) the administration begins to acknowledge the socially unjust public health consequences of pollution and climate change (Biden Campaign 2021) – something social scientists have been stressing for decades, which has been at the heart of the recent wave of Green New Deal proposals, illustrating the need for an interlocking policy agenda emphasizing social justice and climate justice.

O’Neill, Brian F. and Matthew Jerome Schneider. 2021. “Fracking, Public Health, and Biden’s Green New Deal.” The Society Pages. https://thesocietypages.org/specials/fracking-public-health-and-bidens-green-new-deal/