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Tag: climate action
Vast Majority Backs Biden On Climate Action

Poll: Vast Majority Backs Biden On Climate Action, Drug Prices

President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are still trying to work out an agreement on a compromise Build Back Better investment package. A new poll shows the vast majority of Americans want them to pass its key components.

The new survey, released Wednesday by the political advocacy groups Data for Progress and Invest in America, found that likely voters strongly back legislation to lower health insurance premiums and prescription drug copays and invest in clean energy. Those polled backed such a bill by a 75 percent -- 17 percent margin; Republicans supported it 65 percent -- 25 percent.

Biden proposed these and other human infrastructure investments as part of his Build Back Better framework in October. His $1.75 trillion plan would have paid for the new spending by raising taxes on those earning $400,000 or more and cracking down on wealthy tax cheats. It passed the House in November — over unanimous GOP opposition — but stalled in the Senate after every Republican opposed it and moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) objected to its price tag.

The Biden administration and Manchin have reportedly been trying to reach an agreement on a smaller package that would focus mostly on climate change infrastructure and addressing prescription drug costs while collecting more revenue from the richest Americans and reducing the budget deficit.



Despite Republicans and their allies spending millions of dollars on ads to convince the public that the Build Back Better agenda is a "reckless spending spree" and a step toward socialism, the original package itself was popular with voters. A December Monmouth University poll found 61 percent of American adults backed the plan.

"We're very happy with these results," TJ L'Heureux, press secretary for Invest in America, told the American Independent Foundation. "These numbers clearly show that Americans want investments that lower energy costs and lower health care costs, all of which would be incredibly popular."

"President Biden's American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have been a game-changer for the economy and he's created more jobs in his first year than at any point in US history. But to make the economy work better for everyone, we need to keep momentum going and get these policies over the finish line," L'Heureux added.

Wednesday's poll shows the popularity of the main elements being considered.

Asked if they supported "giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs" and "capping out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35/month," 83 percent of respondents said yes and eight percent said no to each.

By a 71 percent -- 20 percent margin, voters backed "raising taxes on the wealthiest 0.02 percent of Americans." An identical number favored "increasing funding for the IRS to make sure that the wealthiest Americans and large corporations pay all the taxes they owe."

Those surveyed also backed "ramping up the use of clean energy, like solar and wind power," by a margin of 68 percent -- 23 percent.

"These findings make clear that President Biden's investment package — including its key provisions and pay-fors — isn't just popular: it's bipartisan, too. Congressional lawmakers should feel confident that pushing for Biden's bill will improve, not harm, their standing with voters," Lew Blank, a political analyst with Data for Progress, said in an emailed statement.

Under budget reconciliation rules, the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate could pass a package containing each of those key items without any Republican votes — if they stay united.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Car factory.

Auto Industry Accelerates Toward A Clean Energy Future

General Motors has just delivered an electric shock to the automotive world. America's biggest automaker says that it wants its entire vehicle lineup to be electric by 2035. That's a mere 14 years from now.

This shouldn't be a shock. Electric cars are coming at us fast.

But recall that less than two years ago, then-President Donald Trump tried to slow this necessary transition. He demanded that carmakers reject California's tighter carbon-emissions standards — rules that would have helped Detroit move more quickly toward the clean energy vehicles the world was demanding.

GM sided with Trump, while Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW were happy to work with California. Trump then retaliated against America's No. 2 carmaker, accusing Ford of wanting to build "a much more expensive car, that is far less safe and doesn't work as well." None of those charges are true, in case you're wondering.

Cynics say that GM CEO Mary Barra was playing up to Trump then and is now playing up to President Joe Biden, who is going big on clean energy. In any case, the move to an all-electric fleet is a business decision.

Britain, Ireland, and the Netherlands say they will ban the sale of new gasoline cars by 2030. China announced that most vehicles sold there by 2035 must be electric. (GM sells more cars in China, through joint ventures, than in the United States.)

For an idea of how Wall Street views the electric vehicle future, consider that investors put a value on Tesla — an electric car and clean energy company founded in 2003 — ten times that of GM.

Oh, and while Washington was trying to hold domestic carmakers back, China was building dominance. China leads the world in making battery packs for electric vehicles, by far. It's grabbed control of much of Earth's raw materials needed for electric cars. And it is offering princely subsidies for the vehicles' purchase.

Biden wants to extend the $7,500 tax incentive to buy EVs and says he will build 500,000 charging stations coast to coast. Both moves would further boost domestic demand for electric vehicles. That would lower the automakers' per-vehicle costs in a global market, raising the companies' profits.

But how strong is current domestic demand for electric vehicles? Let's put it this way: One day after GM started taking orders for a zero-emission Hummer, the first year's production was sold out.

Back in the days of oil supremacy, the Hummer had become the epitome of polluting excess. Some owners seemed to like it for that reason. But power is no longer the province of fossil fuels. The electric Hummer has 1,000 horsepower and can go zero to 60 miles per hour in three seconds.

Meanwhile, the Ford Mustang Mach-E sport utility vehicle was a star at the recent Beijing Auto Show. The Mach-E is a complicated concept. Not your pony car of yore, it is an electrified SUV cosmetically altered to look a bit Mustang-like. It has four doors! Whatever. Edmunds just made this car its top-rated luxury EV, beating out Audi, Porsche, Jaguar, Polestar, and Tesla.

Funny to read that Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and former GM executive, said she told carmakers: "When Joe Biden gets elected, your world will turn upside down. You've got to be at the table or else this thing gets jammed down your throat."

By contrast, Bloomberg News reports that "Biden's position has been met with a collective sigh of relief in some quarters of Detroit." Finally, an administration is interested in easing the necessary transition.

GM plans to build an electric-vehicle battery factory in the Lordstown, Ohio, area. Here we go.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

WATCH: Biden Outlines Major Initiative Against “Existential Threat” Of Climate Change

WATCH: Biden Outlines Major Initiative Against “Existential Threat” Of Climate Change

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

In a speech Wednesday outlining his new executive actions aimed at confronting the "existential threat" of the climate crisis, President Joe Biden said he plans to ask the Democrat-controlled Congress to pass legislation eliminating the tens of billions in taxpayer subsidies the federal government continues to hand Big Oil even as the planetary emergency wreaks havoc in the U.S. and across the globe.

"Unlike previous administrations, I don't think the federal government should give handouts to Big Oil to the tune of $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies," said Biden. "I'm gonna be going to the Congress and asking them to eliminate those subsidies."

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Climate Change ‘Significant And Direct’ Threat To U.S. Military: Reports

Climate Change ‘Significant And Direct’ Threat To U.S. Military: Reports

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The effects of climate change endanger U.S. military operations and could increase the danger of international conflict, according to three new documents endorsed by retired top U.S. military officers and former national security officials.

“There are few easy answers, but one thing is clear: the current trajectory of climatic change presents a strategically-significant risk to U.S. national security, and inaction is not a viable option,” said a statement published on Wednesday by the Center for Climate and Security, a Washington-based think tank.

It was signed by more than a dozen former senior military and national security officials, including retired General Anthony Zinni, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, and retired Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the Pacific Command until last year.

They called on the next U.S. president to create a cabinet level position to deal with climate change and its impact on national security.

A separate report by a panel of retired military officials, also published on Wednesday by the Center for Climate and Security, said more frequent extreme weather is a threat to U.S. coastal military installations.

“The complex relationship between sea level rise, storm surge and global readiness and responsiveness must be explored down to the operational level, across the Services and Joint forces, and up to a strategic level as well,” the report said.

Earlier this year, another report said faster sea level rises in the second half of this century could make tidal flooding a daily occurrence for some installations.

Francesco Femia, co-founder and president of the Center for Climate and Security, said the reports show bipartisan national security and military officials think the existing U.S. response to climate change “is not commensurate to the threat”.

The fact that a large and bipartisan number of former officials signed the reports could increase pressure on future U.S. administrations to place greater emphasis and dedicate more resources to combat climate change.

Addressing climate change has not been a top priority in a 2016 campaign dominated by the U.S. economy, trade and foreign policy.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that global warming is a concept “created by the and for the Chinese” to hurt U.S. business.

Democrat Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has advocated shifting the country to 50 percent clean energy by 2030 and promised heavy regulation of fracking.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali. Additional reporting by Steve Holland; editing by Yara Bayoumy and David Gregorio)

Photo: U.S. Marines run down the beach to set up a mortar defense during a simulated beach assault at Marine Corps Base Hawaii with the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Unit during the multi-national military exercise RIMPAC in Kaneohe, Hawaii, July 30, 2016.  REUTERS/Hugh Gentry