Biden to Target Industrial Pollution in a 2nd Term, if He Gets One

www.nytimes.com

14 comments

i always hate this because its like...ok...but you are president now so just target it now.
- A few reasons:
  Spending significant amounts of money needs congressional support and the Republicans control one house of Congress
  Changing laws requires not just a majority, but a 60% supermajority in the Senate
  The US regulatory process is designed to be slow, and the EPA lost most of its staff under Trump, so they prioritized the low-hanging fruit
  
  Sounds like it’s probably not going to happen then if all the stars have to alight to get it.
He accelerated it in his first term, so fuck em.
- Yeah, but what's the alternative?
  It's a fucked up system we (in the industrial society) have. I would obviously want to have a different candidate that's less influenced by lobby and rich people. But it's not what the "system wants to have"...
  
  Younger, progressive candidates.
“If you are seen as imposing debilitating regulations on heavy industry that employs large numbers of people, you’re not only going to get a backlash from manufacturing, but labor as well,” said David Axelrod, the Democratic strategist who ran former President Barack Obama’s campaigns. “How to do that without looking like you are stabbing these industries in the back, or in the front for that matter, is a real political challenge.”
Godbless him he's trying, but no... it's not actually hard to get labor on board with this.
Step 1: Consult labor leaders and make labor standards and union requirements for government contracts a part of the regulatory requirements.
Step 2: Place barriers on outsourcing.
That's kind of it. You say, "We're going to place new burdens on this industry!" and the executives say, "We'll hold jobs hostage!" and you say "No... if you want to deal in US dollars, you'll make it here, you'll employ unionized workers, and you'll smile and thank us for all the fucking money you're making."
- He's actually done a lot:
  Biden cut the issuance of drilling leases to the minimum required by law
  Signed the Inflation Reduction Act
  enacted a regulation to force vehicle electrification into law
  passed a regulation to force fossil fuels out of most power plants
  The Washington Post has a much more complete list
  The reason this is on the to-do list instead of done is that Trump left the EPA short-staffed, so they're only now thinking about the smaller harder pieces of decarbonization.