President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a sweeping executive order. It calls on American businesses to “lead a clean energy revolution.”
The order instructs all federal agencies to “eliminate fossil fuel subsidies…and identify new opportunities to spur innovation, commercialization, and deployment of clean energy technologies and infrastructure.”
Any machinery that is purchased to meet this goal – including electric vehicles – should be made in the United States.
“In my view, we’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis,” said Biden. “It’s time to act.”
As part of Joe Biden’s climate plan, the executive order suspends all oil and gas leasing on federal lands until the Administration completes a comprehensive review of existing leasing and permitting practices. The goal is to double renewable energy production from offshore wind by the year 2030. It also aims to stop drilling on federal territory. Hours after the plan was announced, the Western Energy Alliance sued to block the suspension.
The order also directs incoming Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to “collect input from farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders” on how to best “encourage [the] adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices.”
Leading President Biden’s so-called energy revolution is none other than Obama-era Secretary of State John Kerry. He will assume the brand-new position of “special envoy for climate change.”
The ultimate goal of Biden’s climate plan is to achieve a carbon pollution-free sector by the year 2035. It also aims to achieve a net-zero economy by the year 2050. Biden’s order portrays these goals as necessary to “avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory.”
Included in the order is Biden’s commitment to incorporate climate initiatives into US foreign policy, reconvene the Major Economies Forum, and host a climate summit on April 22nd (Earth Day). And because climate change has somehow morphed into a social justice initiative, the order includes the stipulation that 40% of the plan’s “overall benefits” go towards “disadvantaged communities.”
White House officials claim the order will create ‘millions of good-paying union jobs.’
However, critics expect it will do the opposite.
“With a stroke of a pen, the administration is shifting America’s bright energy future into reverse and setting us on a path toward greater reliance on foreign energy produced with lower environmental standards,” warns Mike Sommers, President of the American Petroleum Institute.
President Biden followed up the climate order with a pledge to “protect scientists from political interference” so that they can “think, research, and speak freely to provide valuable information and insights to the American people.”
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Biden climate change order to tell federal agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies
Biden takes sweeping measures to curb climate change, vows job creation