Biden's lofty climate goals run into political, economic reality
President Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to restore U.S. leadership in the global fight against climate change and followed up with a dizzying number of executive orders and lofty targets to slash emissions.
But nine months into his presidency, political, legal, and economic obstacles have forced his administration to make several moves in support of fossil fuels development at home and abroad, and raised questions about whether the Democrat will be able to meet his commitments to clean energy.
Setbacks include a judge overturning the administration's effort to block new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, forcing it to offer millions of new acres for drilling, and rising retail gas prices that have led the White House to publicly ask the global oil cartel, OPEC, to boost production.
Most importantly, heavy political opposition has forced the administration to put its centerpiece climate proposals that would help deliver an April pledge to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 into a budget reconciliation bill that has an uncertain future in the closely-divided U.S. Congress.
Democrats, who hope to pass the bill by the end of September, are already talking about paring back investments and targets.
The stakes couldn't be higher. If Washington fails to deliver ahead of a climate summit in November in Glasgow, Scotland, other global powers, including the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, China, will be reluctant to commit to slashing their own emissions.
"If that (climate-related legislation) went down before Glasgow, it would be a big mess for Biden and his administration," said Bill Hare, chief executive of non-profit Climate Analytics.
A Biden administration official said legal and economic realities have compelled certain administration moves and touted Biden’s progress so far.
"We can do two things at once: Achieve our climate goals while ensuring the energy transition is one that takes into account the interests of the middle class, who experience changes in energy prices very directly, and meet global energy needs as the economy recovers from the pandemic," the official said, asking not to be named in order to be able to speak freely.
Biden's mission is uniquely challenging in the United States, where some voters and even some senior leaders in the opposition Republican party are skeptical that climate change is caused by human activity.
Congress “is where the main theater of activity is taking place. And that is where I would pin the fate of the Biden administration’s climate legacy,” said Sam Ricketts, a co-founder of Evergreen Action, a group aiming to advance climate policy at the federal level.
HARD TO QUIT
Biden has reengaged the United States in the Paris international agreement to fight climate change, canceled the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project from Canada, paused new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, and suspended drilling rights in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
His administration also aimed to decarbonize the power sector by 2035 - a key marker on the U.S. path to its Paris agreement goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
In addition, the United States and Europe have agreed to big voluntary cuts to methane emissions this decade, Reuters reported earlier this week.
At the same time, however, the administration has backed lesser-known oil and gas infrastructure projects like Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline from Canada and sped up processing of oil and gas drilling permits. Government data show the administration has approved more than 2,600 drilling permits on onshore leases, a faster pace than during the Trump administration.
In August, the White House also urged the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to lift production to help the global economy recover from the impacts of the coronavirus crisis and keep retail pump prices in check for U.S. motorists.
After a federal judge in Louisiana in June blocked Biden's signature attempt to pause new leasing, the Interior Department plans to open millions of acres for oil and gas exploration, including some 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to be auctioned later this year.
“What started as a set of ambitious campaign promises is quickly devolving into a disappointing milieu of fossil fuel development," said Taylor McKinnon, a senior campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group opposed to oil and gas development.
ALL EYES ON CONGRESS
Climate Analytics' Hare said much now depends on the legislation making its way through Congress, which includes provisions to reduce carbon emissions from the power and transport sectors, tax credits for clean energy technologies, fees on methane releases from oil and gas, more investments in electric vehicle deployment, and a fund to funnel climate investments to low-income communities.
Many of the proposals were initially in a smaller infrastructure package but have since been either weakened or wedged into the $3.5 trillion budget bill that only requires a simple majority in the 100-member Senate rather than 60 votes as usual under the chamber's rules.
Even that will require the backing of every single Democratic senator, a big ask given that both Joe Manchin, a moderate from coal-producing West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they will not vote for a bill of that size.
Neither Manchin nor Sinema's offices responded to requests for comment.
Ahead of the Glasgow summit, international observers are not optimistic about the prospects. "It is not too hard for China to be cynical about U.S. climate action,” said Li Shuo, a senior climate policy officer at environmental group Greenpeace East Asia, who is in regular contact with government officials in China.
Even America's partners are worried, according to Pete Betts, a former lead European Union and United Kingdom climate negotiator who now works at think tank Chatham House.
"The international climate community has had to become expert over the years on U.S. domestic politics and legislative processes, and the challenges of delivering are well understood by allies and competitors of the U.S. alike," he said.
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Czech Republic, home of Skoda, to fight EU’s petrol car ban
The Czech Republic – home to Volkswagen-subsidiary Skoda, as well as a collection of Toyota and Hyundai factories – is lobbying to axe a proposed 2035 petrol engine ban in the European Union.
Automotive manufacturing makes up approximately 35 per cent of the Central European nation’s total GDP, and employs 120,000 citizens. In 2020, almost 1,000,000 cars were built locally.
“We will not agree with the ban on selling fossil fuel-powered cars,” Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš, told local news outlet iDnes over the weekend. “It’s not possible – we can’t dictate here what green fanatics devised in the European Parliament.”
The country is scheduled to take over the EU’s rotating presidency in July 2022, and, according to Mr Babis, fighting new bloc-wide electric vehicle mandates will be a top priority.
The move has prompted speculation the Volkswagen Group is looking to prolong internal-combustion production via its Skoda marque, despite promising an all-electric future for principle brands Volkswagen, Audi, and Bentley.
However, the current Czech administration faces a competitive election next month, and it's unclear if the latest rhetoric comes at the directive of Skoda, or is instead political posturing for an anti-establishment voter base.
A spokesperson for Skoda in Australia said: “There are currently no plans [for the brand] to go all electric, but if it does happen here it will be a while after Europe decides.”
“However, we’re interested in bringing the Enyaq [electric SUV] in for the local market and hopefully will have more to announce on that front in 2022.”
Earlier this year Skoda confirmed it will launch "at least" three new electric vehicles by 2030, all of which will be smaller and more affordable than the Enyaq – with a circa-€20,000 ($AU32,000) electric city hatchback or SUV confirmed for the second half of the decade. In Europe, the brand is targeting 50 to 70 per cent electric car sales by 2030.
https://www.drive.com.au/news/czech-republic-home-of-skoda-to-fight-eus-petrol-car-ban
*****************************************Biden's EPA Nominee Has Tweeted #ResistCapitalism, Called for Reparations
A black numbskull
Another one of President Joe Biden's nominees went before Senate committee on Wednesday, and he looks to be just as problematic as the rest. As Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the Ranking Member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, raised concerns over, Carlton Waterhouse has tweeted #ResistCapitalism. Waterhouse is being considered for assistant administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management at the Environmental Protection Agency, The Hill reported.
The tweet from April 25, 2015 was in response to a tweet which has since been deleted.
"You tweeted in 2015 when you said, ‘The ugly truth about energy. The ends don’t justify the means.’ And then you hashtagged a bunch of things, one of which was #ResistCapitalism. This came to my attention and also sort of raised my ears a little bit because you are going to be dealing in your position with a lot of private entities," Sen. Capito pointed out.
"So I guess what does ‘resist capitalism’ mean to you and how would that interplay with what you would be doing? What does it mean when you say energy ends don’t justify the means," she asked.
Waterhouse did not recall that tweet or the context, and pointed out he is not active on Twitter. When pressed further by Sen. Capito about "#ResistCapitalism," as Waterhouse reiterated he did not remember the tweet or its context, he also spoke to his view on capitalism.
"I recognize the value of capitalism as a way of making sure that goods and services are made available to people, and I think reasonable and responsible regulation allows us to make sure that people can be safe and protected in the environment in their daily lives," he responded.
There's more questionable aspects to his past, though. Considering that President Biden himself has pointed out that he insists from his nominees a commitment to "racial equity," this is hardly surprising.
In an opinion page updated May 16, 2016, Waterhouse penned a piece for The New York Times titled "Reparations Would Hit at the Core of Racial Inequality." It read in part:
With all due respect to candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, racially neutral policies to help the poor miss the point. Until we confront white racial dominance as a society we will not eliminate racial inequality.
Reparations would not solve all our racial ills but they do strike at their core. Meaningful reparations would acknowledge that victims of racial injustice were worthy of equal regard and that whites gained immense and unfair advantages by denying that through centuries of mistreatment and discrimination. This would challenge the narrative that whites "deserve" the group-based advantages and privileges they enjoy.
In a December 10, 2015 for Indianapolis Recorder, "When white makes right," he wrote:
White racial dominance means and has always meant that, irrespective of the experiences of any white or Black individual, as a group whites have a disproportionate share of the things positively valued in society: wealth, education, political power, quality housing, leisure, security and abundant and quality food.
African-Americans conversely have a disproportionate share of the things negatively valued in society: substandard housing, disease, underemployment, dangerous and distasteful work, disproportionate punishment, stigmatization and vilification.
This reality is as firmly in place today as it was when the Declaration of Independence was signed. White racial dominance meant white men were authorized to use force to capture and return enslaved Black men or women who were off their plantations without permission. Likewise, white racial dominance enabled white mobs to lynch Black women and men with impunity and send pictures of the perpetrators and bystanders to friends and relatives as postcards.
White racial dominance empowered two white men in Money, Mississippi, to kill 14-year-old Emmett Till without fear of legal repercussions in 1955, and it empowers police today.
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Australian mine to produce 'new economy' element
Julia Creek is well and truly in the outback so Greenies are unlikely to find anything "endangered" there
An element used in the manufacture of large-scale renewable batteries that can be "charged thousands of times without degrading" will be mined in remote Queensland for the first time.
Vanadium is used in high strength, low alloy steel and is emerging as a "critical battery storage commodity" for its use in large-scale electricity grids.
Saint Elmo is the first mine approved in what the Queensland government describes as a "potential vanadium hub" in the far northwest, with several companies investigating the area.
In giving the project the green light, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described vanadium as a "new economy mineral" that is also important in the manufacture of specialty steel.
She said the $250 million Saint Elmo mine near Julia Creek was the "first cab off the rank" for a new era in Queensland resources.
"This also lays the foundation for a potential next level new industry in Queensland manufacturing vanadium redox flow batteries," Ms Palaszczuk said in a statement on Wednesday.
First production from the mine is expected in late 2023 with an initial output of up to 5000 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide per year predicted.
Queensland exploration and mining company Multicom, which owns the mine, has forecast production to increase to 20,000 tonnes annually as the project expands.
Ore processing will occur on site with product to be shipped from the Port of Townsville, chief executive officer Shaun McCarthy said.
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My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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