Biden’s $2 Trillion Climate Plan Foolishness
You can’t say I didn’t warn you.
In April I pointed out that Joe Biden had outsourced his policy positions to the radical leftwing of the Democratic Party, the Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez crowd. That move is coming home to roost: Biden’s $2 trillion Climate Plan Foolishness.
Intended to motivate the radical environmentalist wing of his party, Biden’s “plan” is little more than a wish list that even the most ardent anti-fossil fuel advocates realize is completely unattainable. Instead, it’s a political ploy, not a viable or useful course for the nation. He offers no new climate insights or policy, just encouragement to spend money and lots of it.
Take a look at the plan’s salient features.
His plan moves up the date by which all electric power in this country would be generated by renewable sources to 2035, years earlier than even the widely-discredited “Green New Deal.” Problem for radical environmentalists: this would be achieved by including nuclear power and fracking in the mix.
Nuclear power has been opposed and dismissed by the environmental left for decades; allowing fracking is another environmentalist taboo. Evidently, in their zeal to elect a pliable candidate as our next president, the environmental left is willing to overlook the nuclear and fracking stains on Biden’s proposal.
Or at least they are until November 4th. Expect rapid Biden backtracking on both nuclear power and fracking if he’s elected. Should any other public official be so foolish as to actually support a nuclear power plant in their jurisdiction, expect an avalanche of lawsuits?
On another front, Biden one-ups Obama’s unachievable 54.5 miles per gallon fleet standard for U.S. autos. He claims he’ll eliminate gas-powered cars entirely, starting the process with an executive order issued “on day one in office.”
Two percent of all cars sold in the U. S. in 2019 were plug-in electrics. He provides no details on how he’ll sweep away the entire gasoline-powered automobile industry and infrastructure and at what cost.
Refusing to learn from experience, Biden revives the old Democratic call for high-speed rail projects. In 2011, Biden himself announced a six-year plan to build a “national high-speed rail network.”
The administration’s efforts were a disaster. Even the People’s Democratic Republic of California drastically scaled back its fiasco after spending billions of federal and state funds. Its rump rail line will now link Bakersfield with Merced by 2029, the equivalent in Utah of spending hundreds of millions to link Beaver with Scipio.
Democratic environmental tactics have changed. They’ve discovered that calling for taxes to attack environmental issues is a loser with voters. For example, a proposed oil tax disappeared from Obama’s campaign website when it drew Republican fire. It was replaced by so-called “green investments,” government grants and loans that led to the Solyndra bankruptcy scandal and just this past week, another $200 million taxpayer loss when Tonopah Solar Energy filed for bankruptcy.
Undeterred, Biden and the Democratic Party continue to champion pork-barrel projects using climate change as a justification. Handouts, disguised as “investments,” are a much easier sell. As a result, the climate movement has been co-opted by corporate promoters looking for government pork barrel funding.
Progressive darling Michael Moore describes the “corporatization” of the climate movement in his documentary “Planet of the Humans.” He finds that much of what’s currently promoted as renewable energy is ineffectual, wasteful, and far from “clean.” He singles out Al Gore as a corporate shill.
The New York Times – a Democratic Party in-house publication – claims Biden’s plan simultaneously addresses climate change and pandemic job recovery while fighting racism. Huh? This unfathomable combination confirms that Biden’s plan lacks substance and is pure election-year politics.
It’s true that Biden claims his plan will create millions of green jobs. And not just any jobs, union jobs. But at least one union leader isn’t buying it.
Shawn Steffe, a business agent for Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh says, “Biden needs to steer his car out of the far-left ditch back to the middle if he wants us to support him. It’s not happening. I don’t see my members voting for someone who will take away their jobs and pensions over something that has a lot of half-truths in it.”
Joe Biden seems to have forgotten why he’s the presumptive Democratic nominee. He’s there because he was the only viable alternative to Bernie Sanders’ radical socialist policies. Yet Sanders never rose above winning only a third or so of Democratic voters in the primaries.
Party leaders recognized that Sanders would never connect with the rest of the electorate. But having invited the radical leftists to define his policies, Biden’s sounding more and more like warmed-over Bernie without the passion.
My prediction: releasing this climate monstrosity early in the campaign will allow Biden to avoid the subject for the next three months. And if we’re lucky, he’ll issue a toothless executive order in January and move on.
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