When Democrats discuss the climate goals they hope to meet in the reconciliation package, they don’t mince their words: “transformational,” “once-in-a-generation,” “big enough to meet the moment.”
This sounds pretty good. It might actually work. By that, I mean the idea of building out the electricity infrastructure to help supercharge changing other parts of our pollution system.
This should have been done decades ago and this is probably the last chance to do it at a level that will make a difference. Of course, the GQP will oppose it at every opportunity and their intransigence will make the history books, if there is anyone around to write it.
The majority of all Americans should be for this. The idea that Republicans would be against saving their own environmentally threatened existence is consistent with their stance on COVID:
Their stubbornness kills more than just them…it kills US, too
Pretty dismal projection. Good thing they will be using data already a couple of years old. They keep using Trumpian policies and methods that lost them the election last year. Do you really believe that the policies will look better in 2022?
The Press in a feeding frenzy as usual. Lord you people are depressing.
We need to work on that. But I might also add that there was too much casual and divisive thinking in 2016 and it has permanently altered the emotional outlook of a lot of people.
The division within the Democratic Convention of 2016 was juvenile and stupid. Especially when juxtaposed with the menace we faced with a criminal/sociopath like Donald Trump as a Presidential opponent.
Totally disappointed to see this chart exclude Matrix-like “Human Battery Farms”.
Start thinking outside the box, people!
You can’t think outside the box. That’s impossible.
Instead, you must realize that there is no box.
The R’s will oppose it because, well . . .
You mean “…there is no spoon”—right? 
If this is what it takes then so be it: We have run out of time.
But in that vein it should be added that this isn’t just the Democrat’s hope, nor even just the nation’s, it is the world’s and our continuing place in/on it.
Any rando gop MoC: “We’ll see it when we believe it!”
Because the cake is a lie.
I read this article the other day. It’s an interesting opinion piece by John Rapleya political economist at the author of Twilight of the Money Gods: Economics as a Religion and How It All Went Wrong.
Although I’m not a Tesla owner. I actually seldom drive at all now but could see my own lifestyle and environmental attitudes aren’t completely aligned. I do my best, have for most of life. I ran an almost zero waste woodworking business in the eighties and nineties. Sometime ago I read something that made sense. Individual actions are good and worth while but it’s the kinds of infrastructure project, like what is being proposed, that make the real difference.
Let’s face it, there’s a lot to change in both the microcosm and macrocosm of our life to get to where we want to be.
The Repugs in office know it’s good for them too. They just have to be against it because they’ve boxed themselves in with their base. They’ll support good ideas if and only if they can pretend they’re not doing “liberal” things. I just listened to this interview with Senator Padilla yesterday where he talks about this exact thing:
Senator Padilla: One of my first bipartisan bills was with Senator Cornyn from Texas. Never let a crisis go to waste, right? So, remember the ice storms in Texas a few months back? So, I approached him and said, “Look, you’re dealing with grid issues because of these ice storms, it’s only a matter of time before California deals with grid issues because of wildfires. There’s gotta be a way to partner to bring federal resources to bear… let’s modernize the electrical grid. Not for reliability purposes but for resiliency purposes. Imagine if we made the grid more efficient, we could reduce emissions, improve air quality…” And I got the “stop right there” sign. [from Cornyn] “As long as we don’t put ‘climate change’ in the label, we can do this.”
Jon Favreau: Oh god… well, whatever it takes…
Senator Padilla: But you know what? We did, we got the language right, the policy is good, so good that it got swept up into the bipartisan infrastructure package, they multiplied the money we were asking for times five, and it just got passed by the Senate. So there is hope… there is hope.
Tommy Vietor: Did you have to zoom in Ted Cruz from Cancun for these negotiations or was he left out?
Senator Padilla: Umm… I can neither confirm nor deny…
sorry, I included that last part because it was funny.
for those interested… here’s the interview which starts at 47:59, the part quoted above starts at 59:39.
While it’s getting worse it’s also getting better and vice versa.
[quote=“Scoutmom, post:13, topic:211852, full:true”]
Tell me about it. Every time I imagine a cake in front of me, it disappears when I try to eat it.
In 2008, Al Gore proposed spending a trillion dollars to build a green electrical grid. What could have been.
I’d say this is our last chance. If we can’t even do this, we are done.
A distinction with a difference. As noted in the article, this quandary is brought to you by Republican gerrymandering, partisan redistricting and restrictive voter laws from GOP state legislatures.