|
|
Joe Biden on Energy & OilFormer Vice President; previously Democratic Senator (DE) |
PROMISE KEPT: (NPR, 4/22/21): Emphasizing US commitments on climate change, Pres. Biden kicked off the first international summit during his presidency. He announced that the US would cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half, from 2005 levels, by the end of the decade. Biden was joined by 40 heads of government on Earth Day, focused entirely on lowering greenhouse gas emissions quickly in order to prevent the worst outcomes of a rapidly warming planet.
ANALYSIS: Much of the substantive work on cutting GHGs has yet to be done; only plans & proposals have been announced. However, the 2-day summit, which included Russia & China, fulfills Biden's pledge, within his first 100 days.
PROMISE KEPT: (Executive Order on Climate Crisis , 1/27/21): It is the policy of my Administration that climate considerations shall be an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security. I have created a new Presidentially appointed position, the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, to elevate the issue of climate change and underscore the commitment my Administration will make toward addressing it.
OnTheIssues ANALYSIS: Biden's order acknowledges primacy of climate change as a matter of national security (which the Trump administration did not). Former Secretary of State John Kerry was appointed as the first "special envoy."
TRUMP: The [Paris Climate Accord], I took us out because we were going to have to spend trillions of dollars and we were treated very unfairly. I will not sacrifice tens of millions of jobs, thousands and thousands of companies because of the Paris Accord, it was so unfair.
BIDEN: This is a guy who says that you don't have to have mileage standards for automobiles that exist now.
TRUMP: Not true.
BIDEN: It's all true. And here's the deal--
TRUMP: He's talking about the Green New Deal.
BIDEN: I'm talking about the Biden plan.
Q: Is it going to cost a lot of money and hurt the economy?
BIDEN: What it's going to do, it's going to create millions of jobs.
TRUMP: This is a 100 trillion dollars.
BIDEN: The fact is, it's going to create millions of good paying jobs, and these tax incentives for people to weatherize, is going to make the economy much safer. Look how much we're paying now to deal with the hurricanes. We're going to be in a position where we can create good jobs by making sure the environment is clean, and we all are in better shape. We spend billions of dollars now, on floods, hurricanes, rising seas.
And what I would do is, number one, work on providing the $47 billion we have for tech and for making sure we find answers--to find a way to transmit that wind and solar energy across the network in the United States. Invest in battery technology.
I would immediately reinstate all of the elimination of what Trump has eliminated in terms of the EPA. I would secondly make sure that we had 500,000 new charging stations in every new highway we built or repaired. I would make sure that we once again made sure that we got the mileage standards back up which would have saved over 12 billion barrels of oil. And I would invest in rail. Rail can take millions of cars off the road if we have high-speed rail.
Look, what we have to do is we have to act right away. And immediately, if I'm elected president, I'll reinstate all the mileage standards that existed in our administration which were taken down. That's 12 billion barrels of gasoline to be saved immediately.
And with regard to those folks who in fact are going to be victimized by what's already happened, we should be investing in infrastructure that raises roads, makes sure that every new highway built is a green highway, having 550,000 charging stations.
We can create millions of good-paying jobs. We're the only country in the world that's ever taken great crises and turned them into great opportunity.
Biden: The answer's yes, because the opportunity for those workers to transition to high paying jobs is real. We're the only country in the world's ever taken great, great crises & turned them into an enormous opportunities. I've met with the union leaders. For example, we should, in fact, be making sure right now that every new building built is energy-contained, that it doesn't leak energy. That in fact we should be providing tax credits for people to be able to make homes turn to solar power. We're now on the verge of having batteries that are about the size of the top of this podium that you can store energy when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining.
Joe BIDEN: I think it is the existential threat to humanity. While I was passing the first climate change bill, while I managed the $90 billion recovery plan, investing more money in infrastructure that related to clean energy than any time we've ever done it, my friend was introducing more coal mines and produced more coal around the world, according to the press, than all of Great Britain produces.
Bernie SANDERS: If we don't get our act together within the next eight or nine years, we're talking about major cities going underwater, increased drought, increased extreme weather disturbances.
BIDEN: First of all, we have to turn back all of the changes that the president has made, from CAFE standards to moving in a direction that we deal with providing people who get displaced opportunities to have jobs. Whole range of things. I would see to a standard that we provide efficiency for appliances, that saves billions of gallons of gasoline--$500 billion in savings and two billion metric tons of CO2 going into the air. We should do it across the board. I propose we have 500,000 charging stations in the new green economy. We should own the electric vehicle market. I think we should raise the CAFE standards, bring them back to where they were. It goes on from there. But the bottom line is, to set in place standards that cannot be walked away from when the next president does what Trump tries to do.
BIDEN: Yes, I think it is aggressive enough. It has gotten good reviews from most of the environmental community. But science and technology are going to change. We learn more, we can do more. We have to start and do things we know can be done immedia keep moving. There's a lot we have to do by 2030 just to set in place a set of institutional structures that mean you can't turn it around, like this president has done. It is an existential threat. There is no doubt about that. We make up 15% of the problem. The rest of the world makes up 80%, 85% of the problem. We still have to get the rest of the world to come along. I have great experience in leading coalitions both at home and internationally. I think I can do that better than an
BIDEN: No, it's not. But it doesn't have a lot of specifics about exactly what we'll do with regard to greenhouse gases. It doesn't have specifics of what programs are you going to initiate to be able to deal with getting a net zero emission. I think the Green New Deal deserves an enormous amount of credit for bringing this to a head in a way that it hasn't been before.
BIDEN: I'd renegotiate. We make up 25% of the world's economy. Either China is going to write the rules of the road on trade or we are. We have to join with the 40% of the world we had with us, and this time make sure environmentalists and labor are there. I would not rejoin the TPP as it was initially put forward.
Biden: There is no middle ground about my plan. We're responsible for 15% of all the pollution in the country. 85% of it is something I helped negotiate; and that is the Paris Climate Accord. I would immediately rejoin that Paris Accord. I would make sure that we up the ante which it calls for. I would be able to bring those leaders together and I would raise the standard. I also invested $400 billion in research for new alternatives to deal with climate change.
Biden: My plan calls for 500,000 charging stations around the country so by 2030 we're all electric vehicles. My plan calls for making sure that we have $400 billion invested in technologies to learn how to contain what we're doing, creating 10 million new jobs. We will double offshore wind. We will end any subsidies for coal or any other fossil fuel. But we have to also engage the world while we're doing it. We have to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Q: Would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?
Biden: No, we would work it out. We would make sure it's eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, either -- any fossil fuel.
A: We have. In his inaugural address, the president said, "We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations." In the very beginning, we decided that we had to move on this. And we thought, cap-and-trade. But it got shut down, even when we had a Democratic Congress. So from that point on, the president has been trying to figure out how he can use his executive authority to make some real changes.
Q: Despite the congressional opposition, do you feel the Obama administration has made inroads in the climate fight?
A: The thing I'm proudest of that we were able to get done in the first term was the Recovery Act. It had $90 billion in clean-energy programs. We had a lot of money going into research and development, and also tax credits for wind and solar energy.
President Obama is committed to do that. And he is going to have an interlocutor in John Kerry. There is no one in my country who has been, over the period of time he's been in the Senate, more concerned with or knowledgeable about the issues relating to global warming.
The solar company Solyndra was one of those companies that was shown the money at the beginning of Obama's presidency, as it was a recipient of the stimulus under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. At the time, Solyndra was touted as the model to follow by the Administration for its green energy economy.
Joe Biden said that the loan guarantee to Solyndra was an "unprecedented investment this Administration is making in renewable energy and exactly what the Recovery Act is all about."
Now Solyndra has completely collapsed and gone bankrupt; it is clear that the President's policies of "showing the money" has meant throwing the money away. In the end, Solyndra is more than just a bankrupt company: it is a metaphor for the failure of Obama's war on affordable energy and American fossil fuel jobs.
PALIN: As governor of the nation's only Arctic state, Alaska feels & sees impacts of climate change more so than any other state. And we know that it's real. I'm not one to attribute every activity of man to the changes in the climate. There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet. But there are real changes going on in our climate. And I don't want to argue about the causes. What I want to argue about is, how are we going to get there to positively affect the impacts?
BIDEN: Well, I think it is manmade. I think it's clearly manmade. If you don't understand what the cause is, it's virtually impossible to come up with a solution. We know what the cause is. The cause is manmade. That's the cause. That's why the polar icecap is melting.
PALIN: I was the first governor to form a climate change sub-cabinet to start dealing with the impacts. We've got to reduce emissions. John McCain is right there with an "all of the above" approach to deal with climate change impacts. As we rely more on other countries that don't care as much about the climate as we do, we're allowing them to produce and to emit and even pollute more than America would ever stand for. It's all the more reason that we have an "all of the above" approach, tapping into alternative sources of energy and conserving fuel, conserving our petroleum products and our hydrocarbons so that we can clean up this planet
A: I see a role for nuclear, but first you've got to deal with the security as well as the safety concerns. I'd be spending a whole hell of a lot of money trying to figure out how to reconfigure the spent fuel into reusable fuel. I would not invest in [growing our nuclear power capacity in its current form], but I would invest in sorting out the storage and waste problems.
In response to Trump's speech, Biden's campaign spokesman said, "Donald Trump is lying about President Biden's agenda to distract from his failed track record of trickle-down tax cuts, closed factories, and jobs outsourced to China. There is no 'EV mandate.' Simply put: Trump had the United States losing the EV race to China and if he had his way, the jobs of the future would be going to China."
PROMISE BROKEN: (Politico, 3/13/23): Biden's decision to allow ConocoPhillips to build its massive Willow oil project on federal land in the Alaska wilderness is causing an uproar among environmentalists who not long ago were praising the president over the billions in climate funding in his signature Inflation Reduction Act. But a separate White House announcement that it would take 16 million acres of Alaska land and Arctic waters off the table for new oil lease sales triggered blowback from the fossil fuel industry, whose relations with Biden appointees had been warming as recently as last week.
Biden didn't persuade other countries to "join the US": In 2015, 191 countries signed the Paris Accord committing to GHG reductions. Trump withdrew the US entirely in 2017, reducing US commitment to zero.
Looking at the numbers, the US had committed in 2015 to a 26% domestic reduction in greenhouse gases by 2025 compared to 2005 levels. Biden committed to a 50% reduction by 2030--a comparable reduction rate. For comparison, the EU committed to a 40% domestic GHG reduction by 2030 compared to 1990 levels--a much lower base level. In summary, Biden's action restored the US to what the world is already doing--the US joined the other nations, not vice-versa!
America must lead in the face of this existential threat. And just as with the pandemic, it requires global cooperation.
BIDEN: I never said I oppose fracking. I rule out banning fracking because we need other industries to transition, to get to ultimately a complete zero emissions by 2025. What I will do with fracking over time is make sure that we can capture the emissions from the fracking, capture the emissions from gas. We can do that and we can do that by investing money in doing it, but it's a transition. I said, no fracking and/or oil on federal land.
TRUMP: Would he close down the oil industry?
BIDEN: Well if you let me finish the statement, because it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time, over time, and I'd stopped giving to the oil industry, I'd stop giving them federal subsidies. You won't get federal subsidies to the gas, oh, excuse me to solar and wind.
The reason is that they have not, that has not been mastered yet. I met a lot of people in Silicon Valley. The battery technology is increasing significantly so you're going to be able to have, for example, solar on your home and a battery in your basement. So when the sun doesn't shine for five days, you still have enough energy. So, we're making significant progress.
The other thing we're going to do is provide an awful lot of work. It's estimated to put close to a million people to work by weatherizing four million buildings and two million homes, because we'll save tons and tons of energy or billions of barrels of energy over time. And at the same time provide significant employment and a good union wages, prevailing wages.
We should be moving toward finding the new technologies that are going to be able to deal with carbon capture. Ultimately, it's a transition we moved from, to a net zero emission of carbon that we're still going to be able to use if we find the right technology. I think we're going to be able to move in a direction where by the year 2035, we'll be able to have net zero emissions of carbon from the creation of energy so we can move it by dealing with those.
We're going to take the federal fleet and turn it into a fleet of electric vehicles. Making sure that we can do that, we're going to put 500,000 charging stations in all of the highways that we're going to be building in the future.
We're going to build an economy with the ability to take 4 million buildings and make sure that they are weatherized in a way that they'll emit significantly less gas and oil because the heat will not be going out.
There's so many things that we can do now to create thousands and thousands of jobs. We can get to net zero, in terms of energy production, by 2035. Not only not costing people jobs, but creating millions of good-paying jobs.
BIDEN: Yes, I do. I do. In addition to that, right now [there are] thousands of uncapped wells because a lot of companies have gone out of business, whether they're gas or oil facilities. We can put to work right away 250,000 people from iron workers and other disciplines, making union wages. Capping those wells that are leaking methane and their danger to the community.
Q: You said you won't ban fracking but did you wanted to gradually move away from it ultimately. Why should it fracking continue at all?
BIDEN: Well, fracking has to continue because we have transition, we're going to get to net zero emissions by 2050. And we'll get to net zero power admissions by 2035. But there's no rationale to eliminate right now fracking, number one. Number two, those jobs are out there, whether it's an iron worker, or a steel worker.
My plan takes on the fossil fuel industry and it unites the world. I'm saying we bring them together, make them live up to the commitments. If they don't live up to the commitments, they pay a financial price for it. They pay an economic price for it. Because we can do everything, my state is three feet above sea level. I don't need a lecture on what's going to happen about rising seas. I wrote the first climate change bill that was in the Congress, which PolitiFact said was a game changer.
BIDEN: I think the way we deal with state lands is we have less latitude, what we say we can and cannot do. I've argued against any more oil drilling or gas drilling on federal lands. I think we should be looking at what exists now [on state lands] and making a judgement whether or not those wells are dangerous, and what we can do from there by trying to change the attitude of the governors and the state legislatures. I don't think we could pass national legislation, to say all fracking that's going on now ends, unless you can show there's some physical security need or worried about explosions, or physical safety from earthquakes. But I would not allow any more.
Q: So to be clear, you would not call for a ban statewide on fracking or nationwide? You said stop new oil and gas drilling on federal lands? BIDEN: Yes.
A: The truth is, right now, no, because we know it will go nowhere. Look, one of the things we are doing, and the president is asking me to kind of get ahead of here, is that we have a real chance, both in this hemisphere and with China, to enter into joint ventures on renewable energy and on cleaner-burning natural gas. Let me give you an example: The Chinese are building something like one new coal-fired plant a week. The Chinese have figured out that they have a giant environmental problem. Folks in Beijing, some days, literally can't breathe. So we have a great opportunity here to figure out how we can not only begin to wean ourselves off of carbon-based fuels but wean the world off of them too. It's just a gigantic opportunity, and it produces a boatload of jobs. There are going to be 600,000 new jobs out there in the gas industry over the next 10 to 12 years.
BIDEN: Absolutely. Absolutely we do. We call for setting hard targets.
Q: On clean coal?
BIDEN: My record for 25 years has supported clean coal technology. A comment made in a rope line was taken out of context. I was talking about exporting that technology to China so when they burn their dirty coal, it won't be as dirty, it will be clean.
There are two things wrong with this statement. One, it took two months, not a "moment," for the price of a barrel of oil to increase by $18. The price per barrel was $80.31 on Sept. 26, the date of the Senate resolution. It wasn't until Nov. 19 that it went up as much as Biden says, to $99.16.
The second problem is that connecting the increase in the price of oil to the declaration on the Revolutionary Guard is a rather stunning post-hoc fallacy. There's no evidence that something like the Senate resolution would have anything approaching such a dramatic effect on the price of oil. Some would expect [SOME] impact from Bush's sabre-rattling [but] risky financial maneuvers by high-stakes speculators may be having a bigger effect.
We also have legislation in requiring we invest $100 million a year for the next couple of years in order to be able to find lithium battery technology to be able to power our cars.
We also have legislation talking about capping emissions. Cap them now; not wait. Cap them where they are now. Time's running out.
But you have to be willing to make multi-billion dollar investments over the next 10 years and set hard goals in order to be able to get to the point where we are no longer dependent.
Over the years, I had occasionally listened to Biden's discussions of energy and realized he had not changed. He still seemed opposed to sensible innovations, from clean coal to nuclear energy to responsible new directional drilling techniques in places like ANWR. On one issue after another, Obama's VP choice was loaded with government experience but still seemed to have no understanding of logical steps we could take to capitalize on American energy resources.
Mr. President: A recent federal court decision regarding energy efficient air conditioners is a significant victory for consumers, for the environment, and for our nation`s energy future. We respectfully request that you do not appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District (Natural Resources Defense Council et al v. Abraham, Docket 01-4102) affirmed that central air conditioners sold beginning in 2006 must be at least 30% more energy efficient than those available today.
Air conditioners are a necessary modern convenience but are also major users of electricity. On hot days, cooling homes and businesses is the largest category of electricity demand. Requiring air conditioners to be as energy efficient as possible will begin to reduce the stress on the electricity generation and transmission network and decrease the likelihood of blackouts that many regions of the country experience during warm weather conditions.
Air conditioners that meet the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating 13 standard will provide benefits for consumers, the environment, and the nation. The SEER 13 standard will alleviate the need for additional electricity production and transmission resulting in as many as 48 fewer power plants required by 2020. This standard will also result in less harmful air pollution being emitted into the atmosphere. Moreover, by 2020 power plant emissions of carbon dioxide will be 2.5 million tons lower as a result, and emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides will also be held down resulting in cleaner air and healthier citizens.
Finally, the higher standard can be expected to save businesses and residential consumers $1 billion per year in lower electricity bills. Lower electricity bills will recover the slightly higher purchase cost for the more efficient air conditioners in less than 18 months.
OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: A bill to provide for a program of scientific research on abrupt climate change, to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the US by establishing a market-driven system of greenhouse gas tradeable allowances, to limit greenhouse gas emissions in the US and reduce dependence upon foreign oil, and ensure benefits to consumers from the trading in such allowances.
SPONSOR`S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: Sen. McCAIN: This bill is designed to begin a meaningful and shared effort among the emission-producing sectors of our country to address the world`s greatest environmental challenge--climate change.
The National Academy of Sciences reported, `temperatures are, in fact, rising.` The overwhelming body of scientific evidence shows that climate change is real, that it is happening as we speak.
Terrible things are happening at the poles, which will have global implications. Amplified global warming, rising sea levels, and potential alterations in ocean circulation patterns are among the global concerns.
The International Climate Change Task Force recommended that `all developed countries introduce mandatory cap-and-trade systems for carbon emissions and construct them to allow for future integration into a single global market.` That is already being done in Europe as we speak, which is the substance of this legislation.
If we do not move on this issue, our children and grandchildren are going to pay an incredibly heavy price because this crisis is upon us, only we do not see its visible aspects in all of its enormity. We have done relatively nothing besides gather additional data and make reports. That is what the US national policy is today: gather information and make reports. I would argue that is a pretty heavy burden to lay on future generations of Americans.
LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME:Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; never came to a vote.
OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2005-2006 CAF scores as follows:
The Campaign for America`s Future (CAF) is a center for ideas and action that works to build an enduring majority for progressive change. The Campaign advances a progressive economic agenda and a vision of the future that works for the many, not simply the few. The Campaign is leading the fight for America`s priorities--against privatization of Social Security, for investment in energy independence, good jobs and a sustainable economy, for an ethical and accountable Congress and for high quality public education.
About the CAF report, `Energy Independence: Record vs. Rhetoric`:
Energy independence has surfaced as a defining issue in the current elections. Are most candidates and both parties truly committed? To help distinguish the demonstrated level of support for homegrown, clean energy alternatives, we examined the voting records of current U.S. Representatives and Senators on bills vital to promoting those interests. Key pieces of legislation included goals for independence, and subsidies for the development of alternatives compared to subsidies for drilling and digging. We then compared votes on these issues with campaign contributions from major oil interests. The results show strong inverse correlations between political contributions from big oil and votes for energy independence.
OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: A bill to increase fuel economy standards for automobiles.
SPONSOR`S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS: Sen. OBAMA: At a time when the energy and security stakes couldn`t be higher, CAFE standards have been stagnant. In fact, because of a long-standing deadlock in Washington, CAFE standards that initially increased so quickly have remained stagnant for the last 20 years.
Since 1985, efforts to raise the CAFE standard have been stymied by opponents who have argued that Congress does not possess the expertise to set specific benchmarks.
To attempt to break this two-decade-long deadlock and start the US on the path towards energy independence, we introduce the Fuel Economy Reform Act of 2006. This bill would set a new course by establishing regular, continual, and incremental progress in miles per gallon, targeting 4% annually, but preserving NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) expertise and flexibility on how to meet those targets.
Under this system, if the 4% annualized improvement occurs over ten years, this bill would save 20 billion gallons of gasoline per year. If gasoline is just $2.50 per gallon, consumers will save $50 billion at the pump in 2018. By 2018, we would be cutting global warming pollution by 220 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent gases.
In order to enable domestic manufacturers to develop advanced-technology vehicles, this legislation provides tax incentives to retool parts and assembly plants. This will strengthen the US auto industry by allowing it to compete with foreign hybrid and other fuel efficient vehicles. It is our expectation that NHTSA will use its enhanced authority to bring greater market-based flexibility into CAFE compliance by allowing the banking and trading of credits among all vehicle types and between manufacturers.
LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME:Referred to Senate Committee on Finance; never came to a vote.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, DESIGNATION OF PORTION OF ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE AS WILDERNESS.
The National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 is amended by adding at the end the following:
Designation of Certain Land as Wilderness- Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska comprising approximately 1,559,538 acres, as generally depicted on a map entitled `Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--1002 Area. Alternative E--Wilderness Designation, October 28, 1991` and available for inspection in the offices of the Secretary, is designated as a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System under the Wilderness Act`.
A bill to permit California and other States to effectively control greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, and for other purposes. Amends the Clean Air Act to approve the application of the state of California for a waiver of federal preemption of its motor vehicle emission standards.