Biden has taken more action on climate than any president. His pitch? It creates

Joe Biden has one line he loves to repeat about climate change.

“When I think of climate…I think of jobs,” Biden said at an event with union members just before Earth Day this year.

It’s a line that draws applause from a union audience. But it also sums up how Biden has approached his work on climate change – as an economic opportunity as well as an environmental problem.

It’s a strategy born, in part, of the moment when Biden was elected, says Gina McCarthy, Biden’s former White House National Climate Advisor.

“Four years ago, millions of people across the country were sheltering in place. Thousands of Americans were sick and dying from COVID,” McCarthy says. “There was a need to really jump-start the ability for people to feel hopeful and excited again about the future.”

Focusing on climate as a jobs strategy accomplished another Biden goal of boosting the country’s manufacturing sector and the economy, McCarthy says.

Almost four years later, Biden has arguably done more than any other American president to start moving the country away from burning fossil fuels, the main drivers of climate change.

In 2022, he worked with Democrats in Congress to pass the most ambitious climate legislation in U.S. history, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The law directs hundreds of billions of dollars to boost renewable energy, electric cars, and cleaner manufacturing. His administration has also drafted sweeping new rules to clean up pollution from cars and power plants.

Those efforts are projected to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions up to 42% by 2030, compared to peak 2005 levels, according to the research firm Rhodium Group. Biden has pledged to essentially zero out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

These policies have been cheered by many environmentalists.

“President Biden is the greatest climate president we’ve ever had, by far,” says Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters.

But so far, Biden hasn’t made his climate record a centerpiece of his bid for reelection. His campaign is more focused on reproductive rights, the economy and protecting democracy. The campaign did not make anyone available for an interview for this story.

It’s one of a series of seeming contradictions on climate change that mark Biden’s first term in office.

While his administration has done more to address the warming planet than any previous one, few voters say they’re aware of those accomplishments. Even as his policies aim to replace fossil fuels with cleaner energy, the oil and gas industry is booming. And many of the places that have benefited from Biden’s policies are unlikely to vote for him.

Addressing climate change and rebuilding manufacturing

To see Biden’s climate agenda in action, a good place to visit is a factory in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

This North Central Pennsylvania city is best known for hosting the Little League World Series each summer. But it also has a long history of manufacturing. The Italian multinational firm Prysmian, which produces electrical cables for power lines, just completed a new addition nearly the size of a football field – funded in part by subsidies for clean energy infrastructure in the IRA.

A key aim of the climate legislation is to transition the U.S. away from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, while expanding cleaner options like wind and solar power.

That will require a much bigger power grid and a lot more of Prysmian’s products. After years of declining demand, manufacturers like Prysmian are boosting production and developing new technologies.

“We’re now in a new era for the power grid,” says David Horton, Prysmian’s plant director. “We need to rebuild the manufacturing capabilities to be able to keep up with the demand.”

The expanded facility will supply more efficient overhead lines for a major transmission project planned for the Midwest. The Grain Belt Express project is designed to move renewable power from where it’s generated on wind and solar farms in rural…