Based on his recent statements and his choice of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his running mate, Joe Biden is a true believer in climate catastrophe.
“There’s no more consequential challenge that we must meet in the next decade than the onrushing climate crisis,” Biden said. Moreover, Biden’s plan to battle climate change reflects his belief that climate change will destroy the planet if the United States doesn’t act fast to decarbonize the economy.
If Biden becomes president, and Democrats take both houses of Congress this fall, the United States will be set firmly on the road to serfdom. In general, socialists favor government designed and directed policies over freedom. In Biden and company’s case, the policies they are pushing would limit individuals’ decisions concerning how to travel, where to live, and what types of homes and appliances they will be allowed to have.
If you think I exaggerate, consider this: Biden’s climate plan is an amalgamation of a unity task force with self-proclaimed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the Green New Deal (GND), which was designed and pushed by Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who co-chairs Biden’s climate change committee.
With these radical socialists shaping Biden’s climate policies, it is no surprise his plan requires that “the United States … must achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, and no later than 2050. To reach net-zero emissions as rapidly as possible, Democrats commit to eliminating carbon pollution from power plants by 2035….”
And if both houses of Congress are controlled by Democrats, with radical zealots like Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) leading the relevant environmental committees, there will be almost no check on Biden’s ability to get his climate plan enacted.
So, what would Biden’s climate policies entail?
Many of the climate legislation promises Biden has made come straight out of the GND, which would require a complete makeover of the economy in the span of only 10 to 15 years, at costs conservatively estimated to range from $50 to $100 trillion.
To completely decarbonize the U.S. power grid, existing power plants, mines, oil and gas fields, and refineries would have to be prematurely closed—throwing millions of highly paid, union workers out of their jobs—while vast expanses of the country would have to be covered with, per the Biden-Sanders plan, a minimum of 60,000 new wind turbines, five million solar panels, and thousands of miles of new power lines.
Although touted as a plan to save the environment from the use of fossil fuels, the consequences to the environment in terms of toxic waste from the mining required to produce the batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines; the birds, bats, and mammals killed; and landscapes destroyed would be unimaginable, dwarfing any harm done to land and species from the production and use of coal, natural gas, and oil.
The Biden-Sanders plan also targets homeowners and brick-and-mortar businesses by setting “a bold, national goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all new buildings by 2030, on the pathway to creating a 100 percent clean building sector. … retrofitting four million buildings, including helping local governments save money and cut pollution by weatherizing and upgrading energy systems in hospitals, schools, public housing, and municipal buildings … and encouraging states and cities to adopt energy-efficient building codes.”
In other words, whether they welcome it or not, homeowners and businesses would experience federal agents or local building inspectors coming into their dwellings and offices, to determine each buildings’ energy efficiency. Biden’s plan would also require them to retrofit their homes and businesses to meet new energy standards.
Going further, manufacturers would be forced to replace popular appliance models with a whole new series of appliances designed not to satisfy consumers demands for quality and effectiveness but rather to meet the government’s energy efficiency mandates.
The same is true for drivers who would be forced over a decade or so, to replace their gasoline and diesel powered personal and commercial vehicles with more expensive, less reliable electric vehicles.
Indeed, the country’s entire transportation infrastructure would have to be overhauled. Charging stations would replace gas stations along the nation’s highways—meaning people will have to add charging time to any trip they take over a couple hundred miles.
I advise readers to remember Obama’s broken health care promise that under Obamacare “if you like your health care plan and doctor, you can keep them.” When and if Biden promises under his climate plan that “if you like your car, computer, doors, stove, SUV, truck, windows, water heater you can keep them,” think twice.
Biden’s plan may sound like centrally planned utopia to radical politicians, professors, and protesters, but it sounds like a socialist nightmare to me.
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. ([email protected]) is a senior fellow on energy and the environment at The Heartland Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
