Joe Biden offers himself a sumptuous setting on Tuesday, that of the Grand Canyon, to pose as a champion in the fight against climate change and, campaign requires, to thus distinguish himself from the Republican right.
The American president, beginning in Arizona a three-day tour of the southwestern United States, has created a new “national monument”, a protected area around this natural wonder.
Facing the Grand Canyon, the 80-year-old Democrat, protected from the sun by his cap and dark glasses, signed the birth certificate of this protected area in a landscape of brush and rock formations facing the Grand Canyon.
“Preserving these lands isn’t just good for Arizona and the planet. It’s good for the economy. It’s good for the soul of our nation,” he said.
A “national monument” designates an area whose natural richness, or historical significance, or both, merit special protection by the federal state.
The territory created on Tuesday, of more than 400,000 hectares, will bear the name of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni. Baaj Nwaavjo, in the language of the Havasupai Indians, means “the land of the tribes”, while I’tah Kukveni, in the Hopi language, means: “In the footsteps of our ancestors”.
The local tribes, for whom these lands have great spiritual importance, demanded that they be protected from any future uranium mining. It will therefore be done, even if the White House has specified that the existing exploitation rights will not be withdrawn.
The Sierra Club, an influential conservation organization, hailed a “historic decision”, which “ensures that these lands will be protected for future generations.”
Joe Biden then planned to offer himself a moment of contemplation of the Grand Canyon itself on Tuesday, this gorge plunging more than 1,500 meters, dug by the Colorado River in strata of rock with changing colors. This world tourist attraction is already protected by its national park status, formalized in 1919.
“We still have a lot of work to do to combat the existential threat of climate change,” said the Democrat, referring to the episodes of extreme heat, fires and drought that are hitting several places in the United States.
Joe Biden, who will run for a second term in the 2024 presidential election, also uses this trip to distinguish himself from the Republican opposition.
Referring to the Indian tribes driven from their lands, he for example castigated, without naming them, the officials of certain conservative states who “seek to ban books and bury history.”
He also criticized the most radical elected members of the Republican Party for wanting to “undo” the centerpiece of his mandate, the “Inflation Reduction Act”.
This text, so named because at the time the country was experiencing soaring prices, was signed on August 16, 2022.
The White House wants to mark the anniversary of this huge plan of subsidies and incentives for the energy transition, which Joe Biden once again called Tuesday “the biggest climate law not only in the history of the United States- United, but of the history of the world.”
The US executive promises to halve the country’s CO2 emissions by 2030. “We are on the right track,” proclaimed Joe Biden on Tuesday, even if many experts, while applauding the initiatives of the Democrat, believe that the account will not be quite there.
The “Inflation Reduction Act” promises 370 billion dollars of investment in the energy transition, in particular for the manufacture of batteries for electric cars or solar panels.
As the creation of factories accumulates in the United States, it is on this economic aspect that Joe Biden will insist during his trip to New Mexico on Wednesday.
“Americans do not believe Biden’s messages on Bidenomics”, the name given by the White House to the Democrat’s economic reforms, tackled the Republican Party in a press release on Tuesday, promising to “continue to offer voters a clear choice to next autumn: that of reason in the face of madness”.
08/08/2023 21:52:03 – Grand Canyon (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP