Wrangling over the infrastructure deal is putting the bill’s climate provisions at risk, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) warned in a Monday tweet thread.
Seriously, how much would it take to buy a couple of last term GOP Senators to “get bipartisanship?” Not sure what their going rate is these days. Republicans always whine about passing costs onto the next generation, but are perfectly giddy to subject the next generation to a dystopian climate reality.
OT, but Joe and Kamala are kicking ass.
Why do I feel like we are own worst enemy?
I think Pogo had something to say about that.
In the view of the R’s, I think apart from a general increase in corporate taxes, anything affecting the profits of the fossil fuel industry would be the biggest no-no in the infrastructure bill.
@maximus… The most selfish fucks I have ever observed in Public Life. Willing to destroy this Planet so that a psycho can tear this country’s norms apart.
Awesome news. Trump would have taken a cut.
Oh, Sheldon Whitehouse is dreamy and knows what he’s talking about. When he talks, I listen.
Negotiations over the package remain somewhat opaque, as do which provisions may be on the table and which may already have been cast aside.
if it’s a Manchinian bipartisan negotiation, lemme guess: cast aside provisions = anything that would mitigate climate change, on the table provisions = billionaire tax break
Thanks for posting that, I couldn’t get the image to upload.
Of course it is. Joe Manchin runs the Senate and is a die-hard coal supporter. This isn’t fucking rocket surgery.
(Brief pause to reflect on the proximity of “Manchin-ian” to “Manichean”…)
This coal business is one of my pet peeves. The US coal industry is effectively dead as far as coal mining jobs are concerned:
The industry received a bump post the Three Mile Island meltdown (1979), because the nuclear industry became radioactive, so the utilities built a bunch of coal-fired generating plants. But those40 -year-old plants are all aging out, and are being replaced by gas-fired plants or renewables.
The coal industry should fuck off; it would be economically feasible to retrain or pension-off the remaining miners, so why not just do it.
Well, we know the answer to that.
I thought that the coal industry in KY and WV is practically on life support? The coal seams are running out, they’re mining less pure coal and more coal mixed with silica.
Yep. And if Joe goes ahead supporting fossil fuel competition, do you think that life-support situation results in WV people going absolutely bonkers on him OR breathing a sigh of relief that he’s trying to find replacement industry?
Hint:
China installed more charging stations last December than the US has in total. But they are also building coal plants at a furious pace to power them. They have been burning coal in China since about 3500 BC
China installed 284,000 public EV charging outlets in 2020, including 112,000 in December alone – more than the entire US public charging network – according to data published by BloombergNEF.
BNEF’s Head of Advanced Transport, Colin McKerracher, quoted numbers which showed that China had over 800,000 publicly available EV charging outlets installed at the end of 2020 – up from 516,000 in 2019 and 300,000 in 2018.
Unsurprisingly, China finished 2020 representing almost two-thirds of all public EV charging points installed globally.
Since 2015, China’s electricity demand increased by 33%. It will increase a lot more going forward.
Sort of like saying you’re going on a diet and quit carbs. But then you pig out on sugar and fat.
Meh, once they get around to invading Taiwan and we finish up mopping up most of their country with nukes, their energy demands will be much smaller for the foreseeable future.
The solution is so damned simple. Just bring Manchin on board to the infrastructure bill by bringing back steam locomotives. Win for both Joes, everyone loves a nice steam engine, and WV can get lucrative coal contracts to supply them.
So will ours.
There will be no winners. Russia will join the nuclear party.
And China has always striven for a leaner nuclear program. One that can take a first strike and deliver a retaliation via their mobile ICBM and those on their submarines. Their whole nuclear program is based on retaliation, not a first strike scenario.
