Our cover this week looks at plans to overhaul America’s energy markets. President Joe Biden has said he wants fossil-fuel emissions from power generation to end by 2035 and for the economy to be carbon-neutral by 2050. In the next few months his proposals will come before Congress, fresh from a winter storm that has led to blackouts in Texas and revealed grave weaknesses in America’s energy infrastructure. The country is not just the world’s second-largest emitter, but also a source of climate-related rules, technology and, potentially, leadership. What is about to unfold in Washington will set the course in America for the next decade—and quite possibly beyond. Time is pressing. Mr Biden and his successors may not get a second chance to recast policy on such a scale. On Monday we launched “The Jab”, a new podcast reporting on the covid-19 vaccination race. Each week you'll hear a range of voices unpick the complex process that takes vaccines from the lab and into the arms of the people who need them. |