by Casey Harper
President Joe Biden hosted a virtual climate summit with dozens of world leaders Thursday, the same day the White House released a set of aggressive climate goals. Critics say the plan could jeopardize the economy at a time it is recovering from record-breaking unemployment because of the pandemic and governments’ response to it.
First among those priorities is a pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by the year 2030.
“The United States is not waiting, the costs of delay are too great, and our nation is resolved to act now,” the White House said in a statement. “Climate change poses an existential threat, but responding to this threat offers an opportunity to support good-paying, union jobs, strengthen America’s working communities, protect public health, and advance environmental justice.”
That pledge would cut emissions in half from 2005 levels. The White House also pledged to create a “carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035” and reach “net zero emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050.”
Critics point out that because of COVID, U.S. emissions fell 11% in 2020, a year of economic stagnation, job loss and difficulty for millions of Americans, and that Biden’s aggressive plan would cost more jobs.
The nation’s unemployment rate increased by 10.3 percentage points to 14.7% in April 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest month-over-month since at least 1948, when the data was first compiled.
Opponents argue to continue to decrease emissions would push the economic loss much further while competing nations surged ahead.
“This Administration’s zeal for costly climate policy at home is not matched by our biggest competitors,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “China’s share of emissions is nearly double ours. The Paris Agreement is largely toothless. Democrats can kill U.S. jobs & industries with no real impact on global emissions.”
Despite the fears of economic impact, the Biden administration pitched the climate plan as a job creation opportunity.
“When I think of climate change, I think about jobs,” Biden said. “Within our climate response lies an extraordinary engine of job creation ready to be fired up.”
The White House published the plan, which focused as much on job creation as environmental action. They point to jobs in the infrastructure and clean energy sector, which would receive significant federal funding under Biden’s plan.
The White House specifically named jobs to “lay thousands of miles of transmission lines for a clean, modern, resilient grid; workers capping abandoned wells and reclaiming mines and stopping methane leaks; autoworkers building modern, efficient, electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure to support them; engineers and construction workers expanding carbon capture and green hydrogen to forge cleaner steel and cement; and farmers using cutting-edge tools to make American soil the next frontier of carbon innovation.”
The administration stayed on message throughout the day.
“If we do this right, we’re going to grow a lot of jobs,” White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy said during an interview.
Critics point to the loss of fossil fuel jobs, which make up nearly 7 million U.S. jobs. They cast doubt on whether “green” job creation can outpace the losses the fossil fuel industry would take under increased regulation. They also warn of blackouts and a spike in energy and consumer prices and argue the technology is not ready yet for this transition.
“We all want to reduce emissions, but we need to be smart about it,” said Heather Reams, executive director of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions. “We should cut energy prices, not energy choices, reduce our emissions not our economy, and export American innovation, not American jobs. The Biden administration’s proposal does the opposite.”
At a news conference Thursday touting the administration’s plan, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry took a shot at former President Donald Trump for pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords.
“Regrettably, without any facts, without any science, without any rationale that would be considered reasonable, the former president decided to pull out,” Kerry said.
Former president Trump rolled back regulations and undid much of the work by former President Barack Obama. Now, Biden is following in his Democratic predecessor’s footsteps.
“Scientists tell us that this is the decisive decade,” Biden said to kick off the climate summit. “This is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.”
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Casey Harper is a Senior Reporter for the Washington, D.C. Bureau. He previously worked for The Daily Caller, The Hill, and Sinclair Broadcast Group. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Casey’s work has also appeared in Fox News, Fox Business, and USA Today. Harper contributes to The Center Square.
Global warming is a scam that made snake oil salesman Algore very rich!
democrat party = communist party.
marxism in a donkey wrapper
Where to start. Global warming is yet another farce that the UN and the donks are using to destroy our economy, redistribute wealth, and encourage unlimited global migration.. The sun has more control over earth’s climate than humanity does. We are now entering into deep solar minimum, meaning there has been a remarkable lack of sun spots on the suns surface. These deep solar minimums have occurred in past history with global cooling being the result. For as long as scientists have been able to measure the temperature of the upper atmosphere, it has never been colder than it is right now. If we are entering a global cooling period, the last thing we need is to rely on renewable energy.
How stupid can you be? The sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day and the wind doesn’t exits 24 hour a day either. I read an article recently reporting that the German government had to set a schedule as to when people could charge their electric cars as the demand for electricity has now out stripped their supply of renewable energy.
Electric cars may be fine for urban commuting but they are impractical everywhere else. But that doesn’t matter to the democrats. They will continue to raise the price of gasoline with no regard to the economical consequences. Their ultimate goal is to force people to stop driving internal combustion engines.
Then there is the usual liberal hypocrisy. They pontificate to us “consumptive users” about the sacrifices we have to make to save the planet while at the same time flying around the world in their private jets or living the high life in their yachts and expensive cars. At this same “climate summit”, that bozo Kerry stated that we needed to reduce the amount of CO2 by more than 100%. How the heck do you do that? I’m sure he hasn’t a clue. CO2 is one of the building blocks of life, is their intent to completely depopulate the earth?
Now that the Chinese virus has run its course (though many countries continue to milk a dry cow), the next fear we will be forced to listen to non-stop will be GLOBAL WARMING!
biden and his clown associates wont be happy until we can’t afford energy for our homes or vehicles, no jobs exist, and we all sit in the dark waiting for government checks.
all under the guise of preventing ‘climate change’ which is inevitable.
one volcano can undo all our economy destroying efforts.