The Senate Climate Deal Promises a Safer Future for Birds鈥擨f It Passes

Experts and advocates are optimistic, for the first time in ages, about what would be the biggest-ever U.S. investment in climate action.
A Horned Lark鈥攁 light brown grassland bird with striking black and white streaks on its face鈥攕tands on the ground in front of tall grass.
This Horned Lark forages in grassland habitat on a Colorado ranch certified by 约炮视频's Conservation Ranching Initiative. The program is one example of how to make agricultural lands climate-resilient and wildlife-friendly鈥攁 key goal of the new legislation. Photo: Evan Barrientos/约炮视频 Rockies

Update: President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law on August 16.

And just like that, hope springs when you least expect it. After many months of crushing setbacks in federal climate policy鈥攆rom the slow dismantling and then collapse of President Joe Biden鈥檚 Build Back Better legislative behemoth, to the Supreme Court disarming the Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 authority to regulate greenhouse gases in June鈥攅xperts are optimistic about the potential impact and success of a landmark bill announced late last week.

The bill, called the , includes $369 billion in climate and clean energy spending, which would make it by far the nation鈥檚 largest-ever investment in ratcheting down planet-heating emissions. To pay for it, the government would raise taxes on corporations, close tax loopholes and boost enforcement, and allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug costs.

Crucially, the legislation has the vocal support of Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who brokered the surprise deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. To date Manchin has been the thorn in Biden鈥檚 side, toppling his efforts to move climate policy through Congress.

It鈥檚 not yet a done deal, however. The bill will almost certainly need the support of every Senate Democrat, but Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, like Manchin a party-line-straddler, has yet to indicate how she鈥檒l vote. Its language will also have to survive a review from the Senate parliamentarian. But if it clears those hurdles, the legislation is expected to pass the House and head to Biden鈥檚 desk for his signature. Schumer could bring it to a vote as soon as this week.

Climate experts are nearly united in their support for the bill, which would reduce emissions by 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, according to Senate Democrats. That projection squares with a from the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm, which puts the potential cuts at 31 to 44 percent. Those emission reductions would get the United States close to hitting Biden鈥檚 target of bringing emissions down by 50 percent by the end of the decade鈥攁 lofty goal that would keep the country on track to prevent global temperature rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius, which scientists say is needed to avoid the most disruptive societal and ecological transformations.

To accomplish this, the legislation would invest in clean energy and electric vehicles, and build resilience into landscapes such as forests, farmlands, and coastal habitats. 鈥淭he ability for the United States to make good on our promises to reduce our carbon emissions and meet the Paris climate goals is not possible without this level of investment, and that鈥檚 really important for birds,鈥 says Sarah Rose, vice president of 约炮视频鈥檚 climate initiative. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting, and it creates a sense of optimism that we didn鈥檛 have before.鈥

The bill would reduce emissions largely through investing in renewable energy, primarily by extending tax credits that encourage the solar and wind industries to build new utility-scale projects. Most exciting to Garry George, director of 约炮视频鈥檚 clean energy initiative, is the bill鈥檚 investment in transmission lines. Capturing energy from the wind and sun at massive scale is only meaningful if we have the means to deliver the electricity where it鈥檚 needed. 鈥淲ell-funded transmission is the key that unlocks a number of projects because everybody then can distribute their energy,鈥 he says鈥攆or example, from the windiest places like Wyoming to other states in the west.

The potential new build-out of wind, solar, and transmission presents some risks to birds. Raptors and other birds can collide with transmission lines, while wind and solar projects can displace habitat. George鈥檚 team, with other collaborators, has already been working with federal agencies and renewable developers to identify locations where clean energy can be constructed quickly with the fewest impacts to birds and wildlife. Research into technologies to detect and prevent harm to birds is evolving as the clean energy industries mature. For example, the need to carry energy produced by offshore wind turbines under the seafloor and to terrestrial power stations has created 鈥渁 whole new industry of underground cables,鈥 George says, which if implemented on land could avoid the issue of bird collisions with power lines. 鈥淎s this big build out happens, I'm expecting to see more development and implementation of these kinds of technologies.鈥

Some birds will inevitably be harmed by the new projects, but the consequences will be worse if we don鈥檛 transition to clean energy, Rose says. 鈥淲e know from that the most significant warming scenarios are fatal for a lot of bird species and really detrimental to a lot of our most vulnerable communities.鈥

To help preserve a livable climate for people and birds, the bill makes significant investments in ecosystems that both absorb carbon emissions and support wildlife. Birds could see significant benefits on the nation鈥檚 working lands through $20 billion in funding for 鈥渃limate-smart agriculture.鈥 That broad term refers to helping farmlands store more carbon and making them more resilient to climate change through practices such as planting cover crops, changing how livestock graze, or irrigating more efficiently. The bill steers that money to federal farm bill programs that improve the sustainability of farming operations, often by conserving grasslands and other bird habitat. More farmers in those programs than current funding allows. If approved, the bill would be 鈥渁 historic investment into programs that we know are popular and are effective,鈥 says Aviva Glaser, senior director of agriculture policy at the National Wildlife Federation. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a huge deal and we鈥檙e very excited about it.鈥 

Particularly exciting, Glaser says, is the potential to protect birds and fight climate change by preventing grasslands from being plowed under for crops or bulldozed for development. 鈥淲e鈥檙e losing millions of acres of grasslands every year to conversion to cropland and development and other uses,鈥 she says. As a result, grassland birds are among the most imperiled in North America, where populations have plummeted by more than 40 percent since 1966. That habitat loss also contributes to climate change, because grasslands hold huge amounts of carbon. And they鈥檙e , scientists say, because they store the carbon safely in the soil, unlike forests, which release it to the atmosphere when wildfire hits. 

The bill holds equally exciting potential for forests and the birds that live there, says Jad Daley, president and CEO of American Forests. 鈥淲e are ecstatic,鈥 he tells 约炮视频, about the $5 billion in spending on forests. 鈥淣ot only is it important for the scale of funding provided, but it鈥檚 what the funding is being provided for.鈥

Among the notable investments is the $700 million in grants through the , which will use conservation easements and purchases of private land to make sure forest habitat remains habitat. The program has conserved 2.8 million acres to date, and Daley calls it 鈥渂y far the federal government鈥檚 most important tool for helping to conserve private forests that might otherwise be converted for development.鈥 

The bill also provides $450 million to help private landowners manage forests to store more carbon and be more resilient to climate change鈥攑ractices that often come with benefits for birds, Daley says. And it carves out $1.5 billion in grants for cities and towns to plant trees, which has potential to address long-standing inequities. 鈥淎 map of trees in virtually any city in America is a map of income and it鈥檚 a map of race in ways that transcend income,鈥 he says. 鈥淪ome people not only don鈥檛 get the cooling effect of trees鈥攊t can be more than 20 degrees hotter in some neighborhoods that don鈥檛 have trees鈥攂ut they also don鈥檛 get things like getting to see birds come into their neighborhoods.鈥 

The bill isn鈥檛 without its compromises. Among the concessions to Manchin, who represents a coal-heavy state and has personally reaped millions from selling fossil fuels, are mandates that the federal government continue to offer up its lands and waters for fossil fuel production, essentially killing Biden鈥檚 earlier pledge to end that program. The deal would require the Interior Department to conduct previously canceled offshore lease sales in Alaska鈥檚 Cook Inlet and in the Gulf of Mexico, including the largest offshore auction in the nation鈥檚 history. For 10 years after the bill is enacted, Interior can sell leases for renewable energy only if it also offers acres for fossil fuels. And this fall, in a separate bill, congressional Democrats will lead an effort to , potentially benefiting both clean and fossil energy, while also expediting a gas pipeline in the Senator鈥檚 home state. Still, experts think these compromises are worth the tradeoff. 鈥淭he poison pill is overwhelmed by the good parts of it,鈥 George says.

At the same time, the deal includes major reforms to the oil and gas program that environmental groups have sought for years. The changes include increasing royalty rates the government charges for oil and gas produced on federal property, raising the minimum per-acre bid for onshore leases to $10 from $2, and charging companies $5 per acre for nominating parcels for the auction block, which today they can do for free. If adopted, those changes would address the current problem of companies that might be more valuable for wildlife than for energy production, says Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities. That could boost efforts to save the sagebrush ecosystem, which the fast-declining Greater Sage-Grouse and hundreds of others species rely on, and which has been under strain from oil and gas development. 鈥淭hese reforms are a huge, huge deal,鈥 Weiss says. 鈥淭o see these in a bill that appears to be headed toward passage鈥攚e鈥檙e not popping any champagne yet, but it鈥檚 certainly encouraging.鈥

If the bill makes it past roadblocks and becomes law, the work will have only just begun. There will be opportunities for individuals, organizations, and companies to get involved at the state and local levels, since once the federal funding comes down these will be tangible energy and conservation projects that need to be built across the country鈥攁nd correctly, with the greatest benefits and the fewest negative impacts on the ground.

鈥淎s always we need our members to be a voice for birds and communities in all of these decisions, and also recognize that we鈥檙e all in this together,鈥 Rose says. 鈥淭his is a really big deal. There鈥檚 a lot here that we should be excited about. But we have a lot of work ahead of us to get it done.鈥