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Earth United States Science

Biden Announces $2 Trillion Climate Plan (nytimes.com) 134

Posted by msmash from the future-ambitions dept.
Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced on Tuesday a new plan to spend $2 trillion over four years to significantly escalate the use of clean energy in the transportation, electricity and building sectors, part of a suite of sweeping proposals designed to create economic opportunities and build infrastructure while also tackling climate change. DogDude shares a report: In a speech in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden built on his plans, released last week, for reviving the economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, with a new focus on enhancing the nation's infrastructure and emphasizing the importance of putting the United States on a path to significantly cut fossil fuel emissions. "These are the most critical investments we can make for the long-term health and vitality of both the American economy and the physical health and safety of the American people," he said, repeatedly criticizing President Trump's leadership on issues including climate and the pandemic. "When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax.' When I think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs.'"

The proposal is the second plank in Mr. Biden's economic recovery plan. His team sees an opportunity to take direct aim at Mr. Trump, who has struggled to deliver on his pledges to finance major improvements to American infrastructure. Republicans are sure to criticize the proposal as an attack on jobs in the energy sector -- but the plan will also test whether Mr. Biden has found a way to win over environmental activists and other progressives who have long been skeptical about the scope of his ambitions on climate. His plan outlines specific and aggressive targets, including achieving an emissions-free power sector by 2035 and upgrading four million buildings over four years to meet the highest standards for energy efficiency. The plan also calls for establishing an office of environmental and climate justice at the Department of Justice and developing a broad set of tools to address how "environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of color."
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Biden Announces $2 Trillion Climate Plan More

Biden Announces $2 Trillion Climate Plan

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  • hoax (Score:5, Funny)

    by theheadlessrabbit ( 1022587 ) on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @01:53PM (#60297764) Homepage Journal

    But what if climate change is a hoax and we end up making the world a better place for nothing?

    • This is an old joke (Score:4, Informative)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @02:17PM (#60297882)
      it comes from here [duckduckgo.com]. It shouldn't have been modded troll.
      • Interesting cartoon. Unfortunately it exhibits a common misunderstanding of economics. Making things "better" cannot be measured based on "what I think is better." It has to be based on what everyone thinks is better. And the way you do that is by allowing each person to buy whatever they want, essentially voting with their dollars. Usually the purchase decision is made primarily on the basis of lowest price. If you give up buying low-priced stuff, to buy high-priced stuff which accomplishes the same

    • Assuming you are trying to be funny but even if not, I can answer that question, it would still be a BETTER place for no reason possibly.

    • Haha funny. Not.

      The assumption is that fighting global warming will reduce pollution. Nope. See the VW dieselgate and the pollution resulting from manufacturing solar panels, batteries, unrecyclable windmills etc. All cause environmental damage while chasing the magical "low-carbon" ideal.

      Want to reduce pollution? Go nuclear for cheap, reliable, safe, and clean energy. Even if global warming doesn't happen, we'll still be better off.

    • Only a liberal would say $2 trillion is "nothing".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )
        *unless it's used to buy war planes, then the conservatives suddenly forget how many zeros are in Trillion.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ahodgson ( 74077 )

        In the context of the current US fiscal nightmare, $2 trillion is indeed trivial.

        Of course, it will also mostly be wasted and not accomplish much, but that's a given for government spending.

      • Only a liberal would say $2 trillion is "nothing".

        A billion dollars is $3 per American.

        A trillion dollars is $3000 per American.

        Two trillion is $6000 per American or $24,000 for my family of four.

        $24k is not "nothing" but my wife spent nearly that much remodeling our kitchen.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Because axing nuclear plants and building intermittent power grid that causes blackouts when wind isn't blowing without installing a massive expensive reserve is not making world a better place. Nor does increasing prices of electricity so that poor people have even more problems because of it make a world a better place.

      These things aimed at overwhelmingly rich green audience. They make world worse for poor and middle class people. The people who actually care about the size of their electric bill, rather

      • You know what a lier is? Someone who knows the truth but tells the opposite or misguiding other wrongs.

        So: you are a lier.

        The people who actually care about the size of their electric bill, rather than viewing it as "less that I spend in a day on hookers and blow" as rich greens do.
        Actually my electrical bill is about the size of a good book, and as far a I caught up in media, a blow job is 3 times as expensive as a typical household electrical bill. So: you are not only a lier but simply a profound idiot.

        b

    • What if we could make the world a MUCH better place for $2 trillion, by addressing clean water and sanitation for a few billion people?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ahodgson ( 74077 )

        I'm sure those countries will happily accept your donation.

        Taxing people on that scale to help people in other countries is not going to happen though.

    • But what if climate change is a hoax and we end up making the world a better place for nothing?

      Two trillion dollar may be nothing to you, but I doubt that it will be enough to make the world a better place. At least when the next ice age comes will all of this nonsense be over.

      This is all about elections anyway. With some luck will we see Trump announce his plans for building Snowpiercer.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bengie ( 1121981 )
        Most things like ice ages and the like happen over many tens to hundreds of thousands of years. It's not an issue that the earth is warming, it's the 10,000 years worth of heating in 100 years that is causing the issue.
  • I have lots of issues with Biden (I don't trust him on the TPP, he wants to means test Social Security & he attacked Section 230) but he's got his upsides. This plus the thought of competent leadership on the pandemic makes me actually want to vote for him as opposed to just voting against the other guy.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ChrisMaple ( 607946 )
      Of the 330 million or so residents of the U.S. about 300 million would make a more competent President than Biden.

      • Gee, maybe the Republicans should have nominated one of them.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        Have to agree with you there, unfortunately there's that other 30 million who will help to make sure that the even worst choice stays in office.

        Damn, I never thought I'd see a presidential election where the choices were Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber (take your pick which is which.) HL Mencken was right.

        “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart

      • Of the 330 million or so residents of the U.S. about 300 million would make a more competent President than Biden.

        I've got things growing in my refrigerator that would make a better President than either major party's candidate.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by sfcat ( 872532 )

        Of the 330 million or so residents of the U.S. about 300 million would make a more competent President than Biden.

        Yea but 329,999,999 would make a better president than Trump. Sorry, I'm not normally partisan but you made that one so easy. This will be another South Park election.

  • It's about fucking time he stepped up and did this. $2 Trillion probably isn't enough, but it's a good start. And 2035 is a reasonable time frame, as well.

    It's a tremendous relief to see him say this. I was concerned that he was just going to be a go along, get along corporate Democratic president who'll obviously not be insane like King Dipshit, but wouldn't want to make too many waves. In terms of both climate change and our economy, it's past time to start making some waves.

    • There is zero chance any of this passes even if he were to win.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        If the Democrats take the Senate like they should, then there's a 100% chance of this passing, in my opinion. Most rational people understand that this is exactly the sort of thing we need economically and environmentally. We cannot just keep ignoring the collapsing economy and environment.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by SirAstral ( 1349985 )

          "Most rational people understand"

          And most rational people are in the minority and therefore never have a chance in hell of getting the correct things done because all of their time is spend trying to convince the "irrational majority" that they are wrong.

          By the way... no rational person would think any of this shit is rational. I guess your bullshit just got called!

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by DogDude ( 805747 )
            No, I think it's past time trying to convince the Trump cult that AGW is "real". I think that the Biden team has rightfully just decided to ignore all of those people, and push forward with what needs to be done. Trying to educate conspiracy theorists is wasting time that we don't have.

            It's the same thing any time we need to push forward as a nation. You'll never convince all of the crazies and uneducated and the self-serving, so you just make laws that force them to do the right thing. If we waited t

          • Re:It's about fucking time (Score:4, Interesting)

            by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @03:46PM (#60298296) Journal
            Biden's plan [joebiden.com] is one of the best I've seen, for several reasons.

            1) It plans to get net CO2 emissions to 0 (a lot of plans don't, which is a fail from the outset).

            2) It addresses the car problem (through a combination of electric and biofuel).

            3) It addresses the electricity problem (through solar, wind, and nuclear).

            4) It allows nuclear as part of the solution (blindseer will be happy).

            5) It admits that new technology will be required, and invests in it.

            I personally am not very worried about AGW, but I do see this as a plan that can actually achieve the stated goal, whereas many other plans had no hope of achieving their stated goal.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by Anonymous Coward

              > 4) It allows nuclear as part of the solution (blindseer will be happy).

              This is important, maybe finally he'll shut the fuck up and let us have a discussion about power without his nuclear industry lobbying once we let them get on with it.

              In all seriousness, I think it's good because it means the US can become a world leader in nuclear technology again too, and there's still so much scope for R&D advancement and so many potentially massive technology advancements there that could be game changing th

            • I'm very worried.
              I live half in German (or France) and Thailand.
              Both countries have now the third or second drought in a row.

              My wives rice fields look really bad, and in Germany the forrests are in real danger.

        • Rational people understand that this is nothing more than a desperate pandering attempt to get the radical Left Bernie/AOC wing on board and not riot against him too. Biden won't even remember giving this speech by tomorrow.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          Sure they can. Do you think the DNC for an instant ever considers what anyone but the banksters and megacorps actually need? If so then you haven't been paying attention since Terry McAuliffe and the Clintons took over the party in the 1990s.

        • Check the GDP rate [tradingeconomics.com] and set the range to, say, 1990-01-01 to today. It's all over the place until Q1 2017 nice and flat. And most (honest) people recognize that the current economic downturn is because Governments are forcing the economy to halt, via shut-downs. Outside of that, the last 3 years have been remarkably stable in terms of economic growth, historically.
    • The government has no f***ing business doing this. It will skim money of the top, bottom, and sides. Contracts will go to buddies who have no intention of producing anything, and contracts will go to companies who have already worked in the field and they'll simply post-date their old results. Nothing good can come of this.

    • A plan is probably a good idea to get storage and other things implemented faster than market forces would implement them but as far as power generation goes renewable power generation, particularly Wind and PV have gotten so cheap the entire power market is remaking around them at a pace that was even 10 years ago considered impossible.

      So such a plan regarding electricity generation isn't much of an improvement, what I'd really like to see is carbon taxes that would speed the shift of the transportation ma

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        I agree 100%.

        Right now, after living through an administration that is doing everything possible to harm the environment, I'm thrilled to have any sort of aggressive plan to try to mitigate the change, even if it's not absolutely perfect. It's a very big step in the right direction.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by aitikin ( 909209 )

      It's about fucking time he stepped up and did this. $2 Trillion probably isn't enough, but it's a good start. And 2035 is a reasonable time frame, as well.

      Isn't there some sort of adage that states something to the effect of, "If a Politician proposes a deadline beyond their maximum term of office, they're completely full of shit?"

      '35 probably would be a reasonable time frame, but it'd probably require both House and Senate to agree on fighting Climate Change being a real problem for at least 8 years as well as the Presidency being on board.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DogDude ( 805747 )
        You're right. But, our government must look beyond the next election cycle, and must attempt to get things accomplished. Sure, another Republican Congress and/or Executive Branch could come along and destroy everything, but that shouldn't stop us from trying to get something done. The alternative (ie: not doing anything) is pretty horrible.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Details of the plan are important (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JoshuaZ ( 1134087 ) on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @02:06PM (#60297836) Homepage
    From the details that have been released this looks like a really good plan. There's a lot for solar and wind, a lot going to research also. But one thing I'm most happy about is that this isn't remotely the "Green New Deal." The Green New Deal was mostly social programs which had been tacked on to dealing with climate change in order to get more support, and the people who made it even admitted that https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aocs-top-aide-admits-green-new-deal-about-the-economy-not-the-climate [foxnews.com]. The truth is that climate change is one of the most serious threats humanity faces today, and whether or not one agrees with the proposals from the GND, tying them into climate change was, and remains a really bad idea in terms of the scale of the problems involved. The Biden proposal will create jobs and help repair falling apart US infrastructure. But it will do so as secondary effects. This is what a serious plan to deal with climate change should look like.
    • We definitely need new infrastructure after 30 years of not doing that but I'm also 99% sure it has nothing to do with a "green new deal", which years later, there is still no dialog as to how we finance it or how it makes any kind of sense that we take a financial bullet for a world still heavily invested in coal futures
    • In fairness, calling it the "New Deal" is perfectly clear that it's a social program.

  • Solyndra 2.0 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kackle ( 910159 )
    How can I waste, uh, change the world with, this sweet, sweet booty?

  • Only $2 trillion? Considering the tens of trillions of taxpayer dollars the con artist has used to prop up the stock market to try and make himself look good, money which went straight to stock buybacks and executive bonuses, or the $7.5 trillion the central planning committee has so far used to bail out (again) multi-billion dollar companies who apparently can't survive more a few days without taxpayer assistance, $2 trillion is cheap. Not to mention it will help to create jobs which increases the tax ba

  • This is why I can't take this seriously (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Trailer Trash ( 60756 ) on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @02:40PM (#60298008) Homepage

    "environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of color."

    Is there ever an end to this stupid racist pandering? If I was a "person of color" I'd be insulted.

    • There's a lot of examples of this. For example, African-Americans are more likely to have asthma than the rest of the population https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=15 [hhs.gov]. Part of that is due to hire smoking rates in the homes, but a major part is also more exposure to pollutants https://www.ajmc.com/focus-of-the-week/princeton-study-being-black-doesnt-cause-asthma-the-neighborhood-does [ajmc.com]. They are more likely to live near coal and oil powerplants for example. Similarly, lead poisoning
    • Being "pandered to" might be insulting, but it means you aren't being lynched.

    • >"Is there ever an end to this stupid racist pandering?"

      No. Everything is racist, sexist, gender-identist, ageist, classist, or whatever-ist. That is the "in" thing. It is identity politics in action. Hook some supposed victim group to your platform or proposal and start pushing it. Nothing is based on facts or reason, or wanting a real discussion or exploration of actual causes or solutions, just pandering and finger pointing to get votes or support. It is truly disheartening and divisive and has

    • "environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of color."

      Is there ever an end to this stupid racist pandering?

      When pandering isn't profitable, they'll stop.

      In other words, don't expect it to stop anytime soon.

      If I was a "person of color" I'd be insulted.

      The insulting part is those pandering are profiting without doing a fucking thing to actually fix the problem.

      In other words, Same Shit, Different Decade.

  • The problem I saw with Biden was similar to Hillary - they don't make anyone's dick hard. Figuratively speaking. Well maybe literally too. Anyway...

    If the Biden crew can link the economic recovery to addressing the existential human problem of our generation and the next and the next, which is climate change... they start to build what looks like a compelling and cohesive vision for the nation. Emotionally, it looks like a combination of the Apollo program with the New Deal. That could hit Trump right in th

  • That's 2 trillion into the pockets of his buddies. Do you think we need to spend more? Politicians on both sides make me sick. Like a credit card payment, it will catch up to us someday.

    • That's 2 trillion into the pockets of his buddies.

      Oh fuck off. The money is not going to his buddies. It's going to companies who will employ people with good paying jobs.

      Going into the pockets of his buddies [time.com] is the purview of the con artist who continues to violate the Constitution [nytimes.com]. Oddly, not one word from Republicans on all this corruption and illegality.

      Also, are you against the $7.5 trillion the central planning committee has already spent to once again bail out multi-billion dollar corporations, or

  • His plan outlines specific and aggressive targets, including achieving an emissions-free power sector by 2035...

    Judging by the current trend [slashdot.org], the power sector will get there on their own by that time, no further intervention required. The subsidies worked. Wind power is cheap, plentiful, and so widespread that it is starting to achieve the "wind is always blowing somewhere" affect. Installing a handful of grid scale batteries around the country would probably be wise, which this money could help finance, but actually shutting down the last of the coal plants is already inevitable. Running them is too expensive.

  • "When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax.' When I think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs.'"

    When I think about climate change, all I can think about is taxes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DogDude ( 805747 )

      When I think about climate change, all I can think about is taxes.

      I'm a biologist. Whenever I think about climate change, all I can think about is mass economic and environmental devastation. I wish "taxes" was my biggest concern.

  • There are so many things that we can do that cost almost nothing. Example: in the south and west just change building codes so that roofing shingles have to be white (or at the very least lighter than black asphalt!). No cost to government, homeowners, or businesses. Just more reflective and thus requires less electricity for cooling. All it takes is the will to change the building codes so owners must use lighter colored shingles when they are replaced. In 15-20 years you have HUGE savings because mos

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