Climate change law included in the Corona Virus relief package
December 21, 2020
WASHINGTON — The lawmakers in the 116th congress managed to insert a bipartisan climate change measure in the Corona Virus relief package to cut down the use of harmful planet-warming chemicals in refrigerators and air-conditioners. This legislation will be the first significant climate change law to pass Congress since 2009.
The congress has authorized $35 billion in spending on wind, solar, battery storage, carbon capture and other clean power sources while cutting down the use of harmful chemicals in refrigerators and air-conditioners that are driving global warming. Both these measures were back by some of the senate’s most powerful republicans.
This will cut the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are powerful chemicals used in air conditioners and refrigerators that drive global warming and are hundreds of times worse for the climate than carbon dioxide. Additionally, new research and development programs will be started for solar, wind and energy storage while energy efficiency projects and upgrades to the electric grid will be funded. Research on removing carbon from the atmosphere will also be funded.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, hailed this effort and called it “the single biggest victory in the fight against climate change to pass this body in a decade.”