Pirate's Cove

Interestingly, nothing in the plan requires the elected Democrats and their staffs to stop using fossil fueled travel and make their operations Net Zero

Democrats Unveil Details of Sweeping Climate Change Spending Plan

The coming weeks on Capitol Hill will be crucial to President Biden’s climate agenda, including whether the president can credibly make the case to the rest of the world that the United States will meet his promise to drastically reduce emissions that are warming the planet.

In Congress, details are emerging of the climate and clean energy policies in a sweeping $3.5 trillion budget package that Democrats are drafting and hope to send to Mr. Biden’s desk by year’s end.

The most powerful climate mechanism in that bill is a $150 billion incentive and penalty program designed to replace most of the nation’s coal- and gas-fired power plants over the next decade with wind, solar and nuclear plants. The program would pay electricity suppliers for increasing the amount of power they produce from clean zero-emissions sources, and fine those that don’t.

Power plants that burn fossil fuels are the second-largest source of greenhouse emissions after cars and trucks, and shutting them down would significantly lower the nation’s heat-trapping pollution. If enacted, the program could stand as the centerpiece of Mr. Biden’s climate agenda.

First, you know that the climate cultists and extreme-enviros will block the construction of any new nuclear plants. Heck, the extreme-enviros work to block the construction of many wind and solar plants. What about hydro-electric and geothermal? No mention? Second, this will be more about the penalties, leaving the US woefully lacking in power, much like California. This will be the centerpiece of Biden’s climate agenda, fines and less power.

The House energy committee will debate other climate provisions in the budget bill, including $13.5 billion to construct charging stations for electric vehicles and promote the electrification of heavy-duty vehicles. Another program would spend $9 billion on updating the electric grid, to make it more conducive to transmitting wind and solar power, and to make it more resilient to the extreme temperatures, flooding and fires that scientists say are now unavoidable. Another provision would spend $17.5 billion to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from federal buildings and vehicles. The budget bill would also assess a fee from oil and gas companies for leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The government would use the revenue from those fees to pay for climate mitigation programs.

Fines. Of course. And, I hope reducing CO2 emissions from Los Federales means doing away with fossil fueled vehicles and travel.

At the same time, Democrats on other committees are drafting tax incentives intended to lure American drivers away from fossil-fueled cars — the nation’s top source of greenhouse pollution — and toward electric vehicles, and to boost companies that design clean energy technology. They are readying money for a “Civilian Climate Corps” — a program designed to put young people to work in environmental conservation and climate resilience. And they are preparing to channel billions to help low-income and minority communities, which are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change, as well as communities that would lose fossil fuel jobs as a result of climate change policies.

Why haven’t most of these climate cultists replaced their own vehicles with EVs? Tax incentives mean little when EVs are unaffordable to most citizens, considering the average cost of $54,000.

It’s going to be a tough road ahead if they try and push the punitive electric generation part, along with the entire $3.5 trillion bill.