Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus pandemic at an event in Wilmington, Del., March 12, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Former vice president Joe Biden on Wednesday suggested passing climate-change legislation as part of economic aid packages amid the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re going to have an opportunity, I believe, in the next round [of economic aid] here to use…my Green Deal to be able to generate both economic growth as consistent with the kind of infusion of monies we need into the system to keep it going,” Biden said in a live-streamed briefing on the coronavirus crisis.

Biden then advocated for investment in infrastructure-related jobs to offset the economic impact of the pandemic.


“We’re going to need new infrastructure going down the road here, and it’s a way to generate economic growth. That’s going to be, I think, the next round we have to be looking at.”


Biden in January released a climate-change plan based in part on the “Green New Deal” floated in 2019 by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Senator Ed Markey (D., Mass.).

Democrats have already attempted to add environmental legislation to the massive $2 trillion economic stimulus meant to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation included measures requiring airlines receiving assistance to fully offset carbon emissions by 2025, as well as requiring airlines to report greenhouse gas emissions in order to display the results in a public database.

On Monday, President Trump criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats for the attempt to add the legislation.

“Nancy Pelosi came and put a lot of things in the deal that had nothing to do with workers — that had to do with an agenda that they have been trying to get passed for 10 years,” Trump said during a Fox News virtual town hall. “[The Democrats said] ‘We want green energy, let’s stop drilling oil’ — they had things in there that were terrible…Windmills all over the place and all sorts of credits for windmills — they kill the birds and ruin the real estate. A lot of problems.”

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