The State of the Union is Oblivious
The President refuses to declare a climate emergency. But hey look, we're getting EV vouchers!
The Washington Post is among media outlets reading the tea leaves in advance of tonight’s State of the Union address by President Joe Biden. It’s a good time to see what climate rhetoric the administration’s using and how it matches with what we’re getting. If you're aware of the latest IPCC report findings, you're way ahead of most US pundits and nearly all elected officials.
The WaPo column “At State of the Union, Biden may tout a climate law that Europe hates” focuses on a contretemps over materials sourcing that has surfaced in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage. I'm not going to get into the details of the conflict, although it seems both foreseeable and avoidable. I don’t want to focus on it partly because I don't know enough about it and partly because—like nearly all "clean energy" media coverage — it fails to question fundamental assumptions about resource and energy usage. It just starts from "WE WANT EEVEES!"
This part, however, got my undivided attention:
"A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the climate elements of Biden’s speech, but in a fact sheet released Monday, the White House said the president would discuss how his economic plan is “transitioning the clean energy economy and lowering households’ energy costs.”
No no no no no Biden's economic plan fucking well is not "transitioning the clean energy economy". I will accept that statement when we start hearing schedules for decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure.
I will accept that—maybe—the Biden administration understands the stakes when it declares a climate emergency.
I will accept that it cares about household costs when it starts talking about the Green New Deal. Not the business-as-usual + renewables path laid out by the Inflation Reduction Act. The no-bullshit Green New Deal, with universal healthcare and housing and the whole shebang. An economic plan that addresses root causes of inflation instead of just raising interest rates and praying.
As it is, the White House can't even bring themselves to say "just energy transition", just "clean energy economy".
As Adam McKay, director of DON'T LOOK UP said last fall, “these people do not get it.”
The bar is too low. We must raise our expectations.
We cannot let the state of the union remain oblivious.
Of possible interest: The “Inflation Reduction Act” is not the Green New Deal; Victory Speech for a Third-Party President
If often end my climate talks by quoting the Bible (Luke, 23:34): "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”