Build Back Bad: Wounded Climate Agenda Seeks Traction

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 17, 2022

“The ‘climate crisis’ is greatly exaggerated. The 1.5C will be here soon enough–a welcomed warmth coming out of a Little Ice Age in the mid-19th century. With CO2 fertilization, look forward to more global greening–and milder winters and a reduced diurnal cycle from the enhanced greenhouse effect.”

“There is some fiscal sanity to not throw good money after bad. Wind’s Production Tax Credit (PTC) does not need to be increased for the 14th time. Neither does solar’s Investment Tax Credit need another extension. If these energies are really cheaper, then they do not need the subsidies. Ditto for electric vehicles.”

The U.S. and global climate agenda is in big trouble. Climate data is refuting the high-warming model scenarios (“the pause” continues into its eighth year); consumers prefer carbon-based energies; and wind, solar, and batteries are encountering their own economic and ecological problems.

Rather than moderate the exaggeration and deal with real problems, Big Environmentalism–teamed with Big Wind, Big Solar, and Big EV in the bootleggers and Baptists coalition–want to double down on failure.

Never mind the Texas power crisis and the EU/UK gas and power crisis, each the direct and indirect result of the government-forced energy transformation to wind and solar, the unreliables. Never mind the tripartite boom in oil, gas, and coal that is refuting Net Zero by the hour. Government energy planning must continue and accelerate.

Never mind consumers. Never mind taxpayers. Never mind budget deficits. Never mind the industrialized landscape from wind and solar.

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Here is a March 14, 2022, letter to Joe Biden signed by 89 Democrats of the House Democratic Caucuses. I intersperse my comments in green (yes, dense mineral energies are greener than dilute, intermittent substitutes).

We write to thank you for your leadership in working to deliver the For The People Agenda to all Americans. Under your leadership, we passed several pieces of critical legislation to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic and to revitalize our economy. While these are significant steps forward, we still have more to achieve in accomplishing your vision for the next generation.

Comment: Record inflation, anti-energy policies, record government spending, and budget deficits–this is why Biden’s approval ratings are low and why the Party’s prospects are grim with the midterm elections later this year.

As the leaders of the House Democratic Caucuses urged in a joint statement on March 1, we must take action on policies you have proposed to support American families and address the threat of climate change. The more than $555 billion in climate investments in the House-passed Build Back Better Act can serve as the building block to restart negotiations.

Comment: $555 billion for what? The energies that the free market (everyday consumers) do not want? And for what climate effect decades down the road? At what cost to the pristine environment and rural communities?

When it comes to addressing the crisis of our rapidly warming planet, the February 28th, 2022 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forcefully concluded that time is running out: “Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation,” the world’s scientists wrote, “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.” Leading the world in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require a monumental effort, and the climate components of Build Back Better are an indispensable foundation.

Comment: The “climate crisis” is greatly exaggerated. The 1.5C will be here soon enough–a welcomed warmth coming out of a Little Ice Age in the mid-19th century. With CO2 fertilization, look forward to more global greening–and milder winters and a reduced diurnal cycle from the enhanced greenhouse effect.

Throughout 2021, we bore witness to the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, further illustrating why transformational action cannot wait. Inaction now will mean irreversible consequences for our future generations. Given the widespread agreement in the U.S. Senate for House passed climate provisions, we have an opportunity to recommence negotiations with climate serving as a key starting point.

Comment: Check your data on each mentioned weather extreme. Weather is not climate.

During your State of the Union address, you called for decisive action on clean energy and climate change. We were encouraged to hear you discuss how families will save an average of $500 per year on their energy costs through investments and tax credits. With your support, urging Congressional leaders to move forward with these climate provisions would mark the largest climate investment in our nation’s history, setting the United States on course to meet our 50-52% greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets by 2030, while creating millions of good paying union jobs, reducing energy costs for consumers, advancing environmental justice, investing in climate resilient housing and community infrastructure, and strengthening our economy.

Comment: The politics have changed. There is some fiscal sanity to not throw good money after bad. Wind’s Production Tax Credit (PTC) does not need to be increased for the 14th time. Neither does solar’s Investment Tax Credit need another extension. If these energies are really cheaper, then they do not need the subsidies. Ditto for electric vehicles.

In just the past four years, record setting wildfires, superstorms, and heat waves have already cost our country tens of billions of dollars more in damages. Damages have also included the loss of homes and the displacement of families across the country—the effects of which disproportionately impact communities of color. It is clear that climate change is a threat multiplier to our economy. Responding now will protect American families and businesses against the most devastating financial impacts. But the longer we wait, the more expensive it will be to transition at the speed required, and we will have incurred billions in damages and harm to our communities, infrastructure, environment, and public health and safety along the way.

Comment: Exaggeration backfires. Extreme weather events are not climate calamities. Check your data and report back. You will be relieved if you really believe that the trends are alarming with hurricanes, droughts, floods, tornadoes, etc.

We are committed to working with you to realize the totality of the Building a Better America vision. Restarting negotiations with climate action is a clear path forward to deliver tangible results to the American people. Your leadership in these negotiations will ensure that we can pass on a safe, healthy, and vibrant society and planet to our children.

Comment: It is safe to say that the general public is not buying climate alarmism. Citizen voters want affordable, reliable energy now, not a hypothetical tenth of a degree of avoided warming decades from now. The children, by the way, need a solvent government based on prudent regulatory and fiscal policies, not the opposite, itself the grim harvest of climate alarmism and forced energy transformation.