President Joe Biden boards Air Force One on Monday, August 7 in Washington (AFP/Mandel NGAN)
Joe Biden will put the brakes on uranium mining in a vast area around the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, the first announcement of a trip to the west of the United States intended to convince the Americans, not very enthusiastic, of the benefits of its climate policy.
This area, which will have the status of “national monument”, will cover an area of more than 400,000 hectares, announced Ali Zaidi, climate adviser to the 80-year-old Democrat, on the plane which took him to Arizona on Monday.
Local Indian tribes have been calling for the move for some time to curb mining activity around the natural wonder of the Grand Canyon.
This status will prohibit the launch of new uranium mining projects on the site, without affecting existing exploitation rights, Ali Zaidi further indicated. The creation of this new protected area is both a tribute to the “vibrant history” of these tribes, and the protection of an “incredibly important ecosystem” around the Colorado River.
Joe Biden has chosen for this announcement a state, Arizona, where temperatures have been close to 50°C for several weeks, and where the particularly low flow of the Colorado is jeopardizing the supply of agglomerations as well as the agricultural sector.
– “Existential threat” –
The Grand Canyon, Arizona, in February 2017 (AFP/RHONA WISE)
Joe Biden will then travel to New Mexico, then to Utah, where he will discuss his programs for veterans.
The date of this trip was not chosen by chance: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the centerpiece of its mandate, will celebrate its first anniversary on August 16, and the White House wants to mark the occasion.
Baptized in this way to succeed in having it adopted by Congress – inflation at the time reached its highest level in 40 years – this plan in reality attacks CO2 emissions, which it aims to reduce by 40% by by 2030 compared to 2005.
For this, he promises 370 billion dollars of investment in the energy transition, in particular for the manufacture of batteries for electric cars or solar panels.
All this with a bang of subsidies and with an unapologetic strategy of industrial patriotism that shakes up the major economic partners of the United States, Europeans in the lead.
Joe Biden regularly calls climate change an “existential threat”, criticizing those who, in the Republican opposition, question it.
With Arizona, he also chooses a field which promises to be very disputed during the next presidential election, in a little over a year.
– 10,000 votes –
In 2020, the Democrat had outstripped Donald Trump by barely 10,000 votes.
“The president has transformed the greatest risk facing us”, namely climate change, “into a very great economic opportunity”, assured Ali Zaidi.
But he is struggling to get his message across, especially to independent voters.
More than half of Americans (57%) disapprove of the Democratic president’s handling of climate change, but admit they don’t really know what’s in the plan, according to a Washington Post and University of Maryland poll released Monday.
And this, despite the multiple announcements of investments made by companies in the United States.
The polls “do not tell the whole story”, assured, still on the plane, the spokeswoman for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre, for whom the opinion polls are “snapshots” not translating necessarily underlying trends.
“We will continue to talk” about the economic and environmental successes of Joe Biden, she added, and “we hope the message will get through.”
© 2023 AFP
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