Joe Biden will curb uranium mining in a large area around the Grand Canyon. This is the first announcement by the President of the United States, who is embarking on a trip to the western United States, during which he will endeavor to convince his fellow citizens – hardly enthusiastic – of the benefits of his policy on the climate. This area, which will have the status of “national monument”, will cover an area of ​​more than 400,000 hectares, Ali Zaidi, climate adviser to the Head of State, announced on Monday August 7 on the plane. who took the latter to Arizona on Monday.

Local Indian tribes were calling for this decision to curb mining activity around the Grand Canyon site. This status will prohibit the launch of new uranium mining projects on the site, without affecting the existing exploitation rights, Ali Zaidi further announced. 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 around 50 ° C for several weeks, and where the particularly low flow of Colorado is jeopardizing both agglomerations and the agricultural sector.

370 billion dollars of investments in the energy transition

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, 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 successfully get it passed by Congress – inflation was at its highest level in forty years at the time – this plan actually tackles CO2 emissions, which it aims to reduce by 40% by by 2030 compared to 2005. For this, he promises 370 billion dollars (336 billion euros) of investment in the energy transition sector, especially for the manufacture of batteries for electric cars or for solar panels . All this, with great 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”, and criticizes those in the Republican opposition who 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. In 2020, the Democrat was ahead of Donald Trump by just 10,000 votes.

“The president has turned the biggest risk facing us”, namely climate change, “into a very big economic opportunity”, assured Ali Zaidi. But he has a hard time getting 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 spokesperson for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre, for whom the opinion polls are “snapshots” not translating necessarily underlying trends.

“We’re going to keep talking” about Joe Biden’s economic and environmental achievements, she added, and “we hope the message gets through.” »