Climate activists celebrate your utility bill pain

Essays by Eric Worrall

Fighting climate change is now paying off, according to The Atlantic. But that “abundant” profit comes directly from your utility bills and taxes.

Fighting climate change is expensive. Now it’s profitable.

How far can this climate momentum take us?

Via Emma Maris

This is a good time to get into the decarbonization business in the United States. The Inflation Reduction Act—with a rich $374 billion in funding for green incentives, grants and subsidies—designed to entice private companies to invest in the transition away from fossil fuels. Early reports have suggested that an IRA may be working. ONE Analysis by American Clean Power, a lobbying group of renewable energy companies, points out that even their bounty predictions catalyzed $40 billion in investment and created nearly 7,000 jobs in the last few months of 2022.

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Indeed, in America Joe Biden didn’t even try to pass a carbon tax and instead focus on incentives because they are more politically popular. “They went with the carrot, not the stick,” says Hill. “But the last stick should be part of the solution.” (Interestingly, there is a hidden fee in the IRA: a strong greenhouse gas methane emission fee that only applies to large oil and gas facilities with significant emissions. of Congress, “This charge is the first time the federal government has directly imposed a charge, fee, or tax on [greenhouse-gas] emissions.”)

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But for some in the climate movement, who are generally skeptics of capitalism, seeing the global economy focus on the energy transition feels deeply unnerving. . These advocates fear that the frenzied scramble to profit from decarbonization could create its own environmental and human rights crises. For example, as documented in the new book cobalt redBy Siddharth Kara, a substantial portion of the world’s electric vehicle cobalt is taken from the earth by the extreme poor miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who breathe in toxic cobalt dust all day long.

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Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/02/inflation-reduction-act-eu-green-deal-industrial-plan/672985/

Back in the real world, even with the help of Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act,” green returns lag behind fossil fuel investments.

BP CEO decries renewable energy push as profits lag

… CEO Bernard Looney plans to return to the famous elements of the oil giant promote renewable energyaccording to people familiar with the recent discussions.

Mr. Looney has said he is disappointed in the profits from some Oil giant’s renewable investment and plans to pursue a narrower green energy strategy, the people said. He told several people close to the company that BP needs to do more to convince shareholders of its profit-maximizing strategy in areas where it has a competitive advantage, including including traditional oil and gas operations.

In several conversations, Mr. Looney has said that he plans to place less emphasis on the so-called ESG goals — a generic term for environmental, social and governance — to help clarify that those goals That doesn’t distract the company from its ability to deliver profits, the people said. …

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bps-ceo-plays-down-renewables-push-11675249471

However, some companies are jumping on the bait.

Every company taking advantage of Biden’s untapped Inflation Reduction Act subsidies will add to the US debt burden, pressure to raise taxes and mortgage interest rates, as debt subsidy spending increases government risks overheating the economy further.

What do Americans get when mortgage rates are higher, more taxes, higher utility bills, and an even harder public debt burden to control?

At best, the United States gets the same amount of electricity it already has, but more expensive and less reliable.

The United States could also pile a trillion dollars into a pile and burn it, for all the “benefits” that this green investment will bring to ordinary people.

Some people will benefit. I guess billionaires who take advantage of this cheap government money will be happy. Even as their green businesses suck all the government’s cheap money and as the money dries up, defaulting on their government subsidized loans, the billionaires’ personal finances get This government subsidy seems to be rarely affected. Being the CEO of a bankrupt business, misjudging the market is not a crime.

This is looking at you, Solyndra.

A trillion dollars in government benefits for billionaires, funded by your taxes, your kids’ taxes, and your grandchildren’s taxes, does not benefit anyone but the recipient. Doesn’t that just give you a warm, fuzzy, deep feeling in your stomach?