Biden urges Congress to act on climate change by passing spending packages

President Biden on Tuesday pitched his nearly $4 trillion economic agenda by touting it as a solution to climate change.

“Disasters aren’t going to stop,” Mr. Biden said. “That’s the nature of the climate threat. But we know what we have to do. We just need to summon the courage and the creativity to do it.”

The president’s pitch for his massive domestic spending package came after he visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal research station dedicated to discovering clean-energy solutions to climate change.

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The visit capped off Mr. Biden’s two-day trip to the West Coast, his first as president. While visiting Idaho, California and Colorado, the president hammered on his economic agenda by promoting it as a solution to climate change.

Mr. Biden is urging Congress to pass twin spending bills that he says will create jobs and reduce emissions. The second bill, a $3.5 billion package that would expand the social safety net and fulfill such other liberal priorities as an illegal-immigrant amnesty, includes several proposals to stem climate change.

It would include tax credits for clean energy and electric vehicles, spending to transition the economy away from fossil fuels toward wind and solar power, and create a civilian climate corps.

In his remarks, the president stressed the urgency of taking action against climate change.

“We don’t have a lot of time. We don’t have much more than 10 years, and this is a decisive decade,” Mr. Biden said.

“Something that can be caused by humans can be solved by humans,” he continued.

While Mr. Biden touted the benefits of his infrastructure bills, both face big hurdles in Congress.

Republicans and centrists within the president’s own party, including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have balked at the size of the $3.5 trillion spending package.

Skepticism among lawmakers toward his plan is why Mr. Biden used the Western trip to pitch his spending plan directly to the American people.

He also defended the size of his plans during the trip, insisting that “we have to think big” to address issues facing the nation, including rebuilding its infrastructure and creating more jobs.