Biden takes sweeping steps to curb climate change, vows job creation

[webfact]

Biden takes sweeping steps to curb climate change, vows job creation

By Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason

 

U.S. President Joe Biden signs executive order as Vice President Kamala Harris and White House science adviser Eric Lander standby in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 27, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a new raft of executive actions to combat climate change, including pausing new oil and gas leases on federal land and cutting fossil fuel subsidies, as he pursues green policies he billed as a boon for job creation.

 

The orders map out the direction for the Democratic president's climate change and environmental agenda and reverse the policies of his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, who sought to maximize U.S. oil, gas and coal output by removing regulations and easing environmental reviews.

 

"In my view, we've already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis," Biden told a White House ceremony, noting the threats the nation faces from intensifying storms, wildfires, floods and droughts linked to climate change as well as air pollution from burning fossil fuels. "It's time to act."

 

Biden unveiled a "whole-of-government approach" to put climate change concerns at the center of U.S. national security and foreign policy as well as domestic planning. He said building a modern and resilient climate-related infrastructure and a clean energy future for America would create millions of good-paying union jobs.

 

"This is a case where conscience and convenience cross paths, where dealing with this existential threat to the planet and increasing our economic growth and prosperity are one and the same. When I think of climate change and the answers to it, I think of jobs," added Biden, who faces pressure from liberals in his own party for aggressive action on climate change.

 

Biden's focus on climate change has cheered international partners and environmental advocates, but upset Big Oil, which argued that his moves would cost the United States millions of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue with the U.S. economy still battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry said the United States plans to announce a target for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 under the Paris climate accord before an international climate summit that Biden will hold on Earth Day April 22.

 

Biden last week announced plans to rejoin that accord after Trump abandoned it, part of a previous series of climate actions that included blocking TC Energy Corp's Keystone XL oil pipeline project from Canada.

 

China leads the world and the United States is second in greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists link to climate change. Kerry indicated the United States would work with China but would not trade other pressing concerns to make climate progress.

 

Biden directed the Interior Department to pause new federal oil and gas leases on public lands and offshore waters "to the extent possible" and undertake a "rigorous review" of existing leasing and permitting practices.

 

The pause will not restrict energy activities on lands that the government holds in trust for Native American tribes.

 

Biden also set a goal to conserve 30% of federal land and waters to protect wildlife by 2030 and seek to double renewable energy production from offshore wind, also by 2030.

 

The orders affect large swaths of land onshore in mostly Western states, as well as offshore drilling acreage located mainly in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which combined, make up about a quarter of the U.S. oil and gas supply. The action drew criticism from some states that depend on drilling revenue.

 

FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES

Biden also directed federal agencies to "eliminate fossil fuel subsidies as consistent with applicable law." It was not clear which subsidies could be stripped away under the order, given many of the industry's tax breaks are congressionally approved. Biden also said he would ask Congress to end the $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies through legislation.

 

The president said his goal was to achieve an electric energy sector fully without carbon pollution by 2035. He cited "environmental justice" in his plan to spur investment in low-income and minority communities disproportionately affected by pollution. He also vowed to help revitalize the economies of coal, oil and gas and power-plant communities.

 

John Hess, chief executive of energy company Hess Corp, said Biden's administration must keep in mind the impact of its climate actions on jobs and energy security. Abraxas Petroleum Corp CEO Bob Watson told Reuters separately that Biden's orders would not help economic recovery.

 

Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, a state reliant on coal, oil and gas, said: "Despite all the hot air from climate alarmists, banning new oil, gas and coal leases on federal land and waters will do nothing to address climate change. Energy producers will simply go elsewhere - likely out of state or overseas."

 

Environmentalists welcomed Biden's moves as bold and decisive. Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said the president's action "makes clear he is serious about restoring and strengthening American leadership on climate solutions."

 

Biden's orders also included creation of climate change positions and an inter-agency task force within his administration, measures to boost federal procurement of U.S.-sourced clean energy and vehicles and protection for scientists from political interference.

 

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason in Washington; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner, Makini Brice and Lisa Lambert in Washington, Gary McWilliams in Houston and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Richard Valdmanis, Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-28

 

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[Tug]

Good now let’s figure out how to profit from it we need to (evolve) towards renewables let’s get in in the beginning and grow with it 

[Chomper Higgot]

Great news.

 

 

[Scott]

Off-topic post and reply reported and removed.

 

[cycolista]

Thank you President Joseph R Biden.  Commander in Chief. ????

[placeholder]

32 minutes ago, cycolista said:

Thank you President Joseph R Biden.  Commander in Chief. ????

Unless you're serving in the American Military , the President is not your commander-in-chief.

[Chomper Higgot]

59 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Unless you're serving in the American Military , the President is not your commander-in-chief.

He did not claim President Joseph R Biden was ‘his’ Commander in Chief.

 

 

[Jeffr2]

Great news.  How nice to finally have adults in charge of things.

 

Businesses are going along with this also.  Fantastic. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/business/dealbook/larry-fink-letter-blackrock-climate.html

 

BlackRock Chief Pushes a Big New Climate Goal for the Corporate World

 

Larry Fink is using his firm’s huge influence to pressure companies to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

[placeholder]

8 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

He did not claim President Joseph R Biden was ‘his’ Commander in Chief.

 

 

Given that the article had nothing at all to do with military affairs, I think it is an obvious inference. At best, cycolista's invocation of Biden's military rank was utterly irrelevant.

Edited January 28, 2021 by placeholder

[wombat]

while the rain forests of the earth are being cleared by acres every day climate change speeches by the elite who profit from killing the lungs of earth is a nonsense
send Greta to Brazil and the Amazon....see how she gets on there

Edited January 28, 2021 by wombat

[Isaan sailor]

He closed Keystone Pipeline project, killing 11,000 American jobs.  He suspended drilling leases on government property and Gulf of Mexico.  This looks like a death blow for the oil industry.  How about keeping the industry alive until you can replace the jobs you ended?

[Pattaya Spotter]

I seem to recall another recent Democrat president saying under his leadership, the earth would begin to heal and the sea levels would even stop their rise...how has that worked out? I guess we're just back to the future.

“[T]his was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal ..." Barack Obama upon winning the Democratic nomination for president conveys his thinking of what that means for the world. June 3, 2008

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/547906-this-was-the-moment-when-the-rise-of-the-oceans

 

And some people say President Trump suffers from megalomania. 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Pattaya Spotter

[Jeffr2]

19 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

He closed Keystone Pipeline project, killing 11,000 American jobs.  He suspended drilling leases on government property and Gulf of Mexico.  This looks like a death blow for the oil industry.  How about keeping the industry alive until you can replace the jobs you ended?

11,000 temporary jobs.  Only a few permanent ones.  And in the end, protected the environment and respected the right of indigenous people.  Congrats to Biden.

 

You are aware of how bad extracting oil from tar sands is, right?  Doesn't seem to....

[ThreeEyedRaven]

36 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

I seem to recall another recent Democrat president saying under his leadership, the earth would begin to heal and the sea levels would even stop their rise...how has that worked out? I guess we're just back to the future.

“[T]his was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal ..." Barack Obama upon winning the Democratic nomination for president conveys his thinking of what that means for the world. June 3, 2008

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/547906-this-was-the-moment-when-the-rise-of-the-oceans

 

And some people say President Trump suffers from megalomania. 

I believe the sentiment Obama was making, which you seem to have either misunderstood, or deliberately twisted, was that he intended to bring in better environmental policies, which he did.

I did not for one second take it to mean he thought he was King Canute, or a suggestion that he could singlehandedly solve global climate issues, only start the process, which he also did. Someone then came along and reversed direction of course,  and I fail to see how that would have had a better impact. At least Obama had some semblance of understanding of the problem.

[Sujo]

1 hour ago, Isaan sailor said:

He closed Keystone Pipeline project, killing 11,000 American jobs.  He suspended drilling leases on government property and Gulf of Mexico.  This looks like a death blow for the oil industry.  How about keeping the industry alive until you can replace the jobs you ended?

A president doing what he said he would do, its a nice change.

[Pattaya Spotter]

19 minutes ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

I believe the sentiment Obama was making, which you seem to have either misunderstood, or deliberately twisted, was that he intended to bring in better environmental policies, which he did.

 

19 minutes ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

I did not for one second take it to mean he thought he was King Canute, or a suggestion that he could singlehandedly solve global climate issues, only start the process, which he also did.

I didn't misunderstand or twist anything...just quoted President Elect Obama directly. It seems to me you are the one twisting his words to suit a particular agenda.

[Jeffr2]

5 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

 

I didn't misunderstand or twist anything...just quoted President Elect Obama directly. It seems to me you are the one twisting his words to suit a particular agenda.

You selected one small piece out of a long speech. Selectively showing only one very small part. And said it represented something else.

 

That's misleading.

[phantomfiddler]

An admirable plan, probably best addressed by stopping the rivers of molten lava flowing 24/7 into the oceans using some form of inert plug. O'bama isn't doing anything right now ???? 

[placeholder]

4 hours ago, wombat said:

while the rain forests of the earth are being cleared by acres every day climate change speeches by the elite who profit from killing the lungs of earth is a nonsense
send Greta to Brazil and the Amazon....see how she gets on there

Well maybe Greta should travel to the future and come back with some non-polluting form of transport. In the meantime, she'll have to go with the means that actually exist. 

[placeholder]

2 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

He closed Keystone Pipeline project, killing 11,000 American jobs.  He suspended drilling leases on government property and Gulf of Mexico.  This looks like a death blow for the oil industry.  How about keeping the industry alive until you can replace the jobs you ended?

Yes definitely fatal. Except for this tiny exception:

"Interior itself noted that the oil and gas industry currently has leases on more than 26 million acres of federal lands, of which 13.9 million (or 53%) are unused and non-producing. Offshore, of the more than 12 million acres of public waters under lease, over 9.3 million (or 77%) are unused and non-producing. "Onshore and offshore, the oil and gas industry is sitting on approximately 7,700 unused, approved permits to drill," Interior added."

https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/biden-pauses-new-oil-gas-leases-on-public-lands-pending-review.html#:~:text=Interior itself noted that the,are unused and non-producing.

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

I seem to recall another recent Democrat president saying under his leadership, the earth would begin to heal and the sea levels would even stop their rise...how has that worked out? I guess we're just back to the future.

“[T]his was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal ..." Barack Obama upon winning the Democratic nomination for president conveys his thinking of what that means for the world. June 3, 2008

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/547906-this-was-the-moment-when-the-rise-of-the-oceans

 

And some people say President Trump suffers from megalomania. 

I salute you on your work ethic. It must have taken a lot of hard work to come up with that slant on Obama's words.  Obviously he spoke in reference to the previous 8 years of George W. Bush's reign which also twisted and/or ignored science and favored the fossil fuel industry. 

[placeholder]

31 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

An admirable plan, probably best addressed by stopping the rivers of molten lava flowing 24/7 into the oceans using some form of inert plug. O'bama isn't doing anything right now ???? 

I'm not sure what you believe molten rivers of lava have to do with climate change. I have my suspicions but I hope a belief so obviously wrong doesn't undergird you assertion.

[bartender100]

Well they are finding a shed load of oil right on his doorstep. Cuba, Guyana and hopefully very soon The Bahamas, first explority well result in the next week or two as it nears TD

 

British company Bahamas Petroleum hope to prove up a multibillion size field, using the state of the art Stena Icemax drill ship

 

https://www.bpcplc.com/

[ExpatOK]

11 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Great news.

 

 

I'm sure you and several others on the forum feel biden_i and his efforts are "double plus good" but not everyone agrees. These actions are job killers.

[placeholder]

1 minute ago, ExpatOK said:

I'm sure you and several others on the forum feel biden_i and his efforts are "double plus good" but not everyone agrees. These actions are job killers.

The projects they are working to complete are human killers. The World Trade Organization estimates that fossil fuels are subsidized to the tune of about 5 trillion dollar per year. That's about 6% of global GDP.Most of that comes in the form of medical costs incurred from fossil fuel pollution.

[billd766]

6 minutes ago, ExpatOK said:

I'm sure you and several others on the forum feel biden_i and his efforts are "double plus good" but not everyone agrees. These actions are job killers.

But there will be another lot of jobs coming along to replace them.

 

It is not as you assert, that nothing will replace them, which is untrue.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

10 minutes ago, ExpatOK said:

I'm sure you and several others on the forum feel biden_i and his efforts are "double plus good" but not everyone agrees. These actions are job killers.

I love the way Fox News and others are making reference to 1984 type language lately due to the fact that dangerous people have been curtailed from some social media for making actually objectively dangerous lies.

As if Trump wasn't the epitome of obfuscation, manipulation of the truth, straight out lies - and friendly with dictators whose people actually live in 1984 like conditions e.g Putin, Kim etc.

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Fat is a type of crazy

[Chomper Higgot]

53 minutes ago, ExpatOK said:

I'm sure you and several others on the forum feel biden_i and his efforts are "double plus good" but not everyone agrees. These actions are job killers.

Forbes disagrees with you:

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/energyinnovation/2019/04/22/renewable-energy-job-boom-creating-economic-opportunity-as-coal-industry-slumps/?sh=54b5e6af3665

 

 

 

[Tug]

4 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

He closed Keystone Pipeline project, killing 11,000 American jobs.  He suspended drilling leases on government property and Gulf of Mexico.  This looks like a death blow for the oil industry.  How about keeping the industry alive until you can replace the jobs you ended?

True temp jobs installing a pipeline to move tar sands oil that is extremely difficult to refine pollution intensive not economically viable rite now that a lot of folks don’t want imo we should be working on less harmful forms of energy so projects like this aren’t needed or even considered let’s employ 22,000 folks on renewables 

[placeholder]

2 minutes ago, Tug said:

True temp jobs installing a pipeline to move tar sands oil that is extremely difficult to refine pollution intensive not economically viable rite now that a lot of folks don’t want imo we should be working on less harmful forms of energy so projects like this aren’t needed or even considered let’s employ 22,000 folks on renewables 

The oil companies are in a race against time:

Rating agency S&P warns 13 oil and gas companies they risk downgrades as renewables pick up steam

Rating agency S&P has warned 13 oil and gas companies, including the some of the world’s biggest, that it may downgrade them within weeks because of increasing competition from renewable energy.

On notice of a possible downgrade are Australia’s Woodside Petroleum as well as multinationals Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Imperial Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Energy North America, Canadian Natural Resources, ConocoPhillips and French group Total.

S&P said it was also considering downgrading four large Chinese producers – China Petrochemical Corp, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, China National Offshore Oil Corp and CNOOC.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/27/rating-agency-sp-warns-13-oil-and-gas-companies-they-risk-downgrades-as-renewables-pick-up-steam