By Paul Homewood
Slow Joe has now totally capitulated to the loony left agenda!
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, laid out an ambitious climate plan for America Tuesday which includes overhauling the country’s energy industry to achieve 100 per cent emissions-free power by 2035.
The plan includes a pledge to invest $2 trillion in clean-energy infrastructure if Mr Biden wins the White House in November, along with a promise to build 1.5 million new energy-efficient homes and social housing units.
The expansive climate policy is a nod to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which has been largely unenthusiastic about Mr Biden’s campaign and demanded far more radical approaches to issues such as climate change, immigration and health care..
As a rule of thumb, I reckon on the US economy being about ten times the size of Britain’s, so £2 trillion over four years equates to roughly £40bn a year here. (The NY Times explain that the $2 trillion is to be spent in the next four years).
At least Biden is being honest about the cost, which is more than can be said about our politicians. His full plan can be read here. It is heavily slanted towards the creation of green jobs, rather than saving the planet, which I suspect would not have gone down well with middle America. There are numerous references to “good, unionised jobs”, much as Corbyn’s climate plan had.
Biden even brags about the “five million green jobs”, which he and Obama promised in 2008. I wonder what happened to them!
The main pillars of his plan are:
1) Power Sector
Move ambitiously to generate clean, American-made electricity to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.
Good luck with that.
BP Energy Review
Last year renewables only supplied 11% of US electricity. With no plans to expand nuclear energy, Biden’s plan relies on building thousands of solar and wind farms, but is silent about how the grid can function with such an intermittent supply.
There’s the usual pipedreams about battery storage, carbon capture and green hydrogen at the same cost as conventional hydrogen within a decade.
2) Energy efficiency
Upgrade 4 million buildings and weatherize 2 million homes over 4 years, creating at least 1 million good-paying jobs with a choice to join a union; and also spur the building retrofit and efficient-appliance manufacturing supply chain by funding direct cash rebates and low-cost financing to upgrade and electrify home appliances and install more efficient windows, which will cut residential energy bills.
1 million jobs would cost in the region of £100bn a year, way above any energy savings, as we have seen in the UK. Which all brings us back to who will pay the bill.
3) Auto industry
Create 1 million new jobs in the American auto industry, domestic auto supply chains, and auto infrastructure, from parts to materials to electric vehicle charging stations,
There we are – another million jobs! Never knew it was that easy to create jobs.
There is no mention of the enormous costs the auto industry will face in developing new electric cars, only the promise of subsidies for buyers. As we know here, these have had very little effect.
He will also commit to purchase clean vehicles for federal, state, tribal, postal, and local fleets, regardless of the extra costs this may incur for taxpayers.
There will also need to be major public investments in 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations .
There is also the threat of ambitious fuel economy standards, which will accelerate the adoption of zero-emissions light- and medium duty vehicles. Forget about your SUVs then, America!
4) Public transport
Provide every American city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation options through flexible federal investments with strong labor protections that create good, union jobs and meet the needs of these cities – ranging from light rail networks to improving existing transit and bus lines to installing infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists.
And at what cost?
Most cities already have well established bus and rail systems. Will Biden waste billions converting these to low carbon?
5) Agriculture
Create jobs in climate-smart agriculture, resilience, and conservation, including 250,000 jobs plugging abandoned oil and natural gas wells and reclaiming abandoned coal, hardrock, and uranium mines
I have not a clue what climate smart farming is. Nor what capping abandoned wells has to do with anything.
But heh, it has magically created another 250,000 jobs! At this rate we will all have two jobs each.
As with the dotty net zero plans being proposed at home, Biden conveniently sidesteps the question of who will pay for all of this green drivel. Forget about all of the nonsense about green jobs. It has been proven beyond doubt that, for every green job created, something like three jobs elsewhere in the economy are destroyed.
What Biden forgets to tell the public is that his proposals will inevitably wipe out millions of jobs in productive areas of the economy, such as the oil and gas related sector, and more indirectly all of the sectors which will suffer from higher taxation and energy prices.
And most of the public will be far worse off as a result.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
July 18, 2020 at 02:54PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 
Reblogged this on uwerolandgross.
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