Biden’s next move on climate change could be a huge roll of the electoral dice

The president’s plan to take on Big Electricity is a massive risk, writes David Callaway. But it is necessary to signal to the youth vote the key differences between himself and Trump when it comes to global warming

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Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, in a bid to grab the youth vote by highlighting his vast divide with former president Donald Trump on the issue of the climate crisis, is set to take on its biggest opponent yet next week – Big Electricity. 

After attacking the oil and gas industries last month with unprecedented new emissions rules, the Biden team will raise the stakes this coming week by unveiling a controversial plan to bring the nation’s three independent electric grids together to pay to rebuild the ageing, clogged US system of delivering electricity.

The plan, which in ambition is as big as president Dwight D Eisenhower’s campaign, decades ago, to build a national highway system, is an enormous bet that young people’s passion for fighting global warming will cause them to overlook their criticisms of Biden in relation to inflation, Gaza, immigration – and, of course, his age.