On September 7, 2021, Joe Biden said of climate science, “So, folks, we’ve got to listen to the scientists and the economists and the national-security experts. They all tell us this is code red. The nation and the world are in peril. And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact. They’ve been warning us, the extreme weather would get more extreme over the decade, and we’re living in real time now.”
You can sense his urgency, no?
Yet on April 11, 2022, Biden’s Interior Department reopened public lands for drilling. This was on the heels of his, now blocked, plan to auction 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to the homicidal fossil fuel extractors and his equally disastrous plan to export more gas to Europe.
Apologists engaged in all sorts of deflection to defend the indefensible -- “It’s the Republicans’ fault!” No, “It’s Joe Manchin’s fault!” No, “It’s the Parliamentarian’s fault.” And they strategized about the right way to do the wrong thing, arguing that we need to strike a balance between acting on climate and maintaining the status quo.
They can argue with science, but in the end, I believe physics will win. We are watching the Democratic Party’s style of climate denial – acknowledge the science but govern like it doesn’t matter.
So what’s a voter to do?
The Republican climate plan is bat-shit crazy, and the Democrat’s is only slightly better because it acknowledges the science. Only one party has a plan that rises to the urgency of the moment. The Green Party’s Green New Deal would transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030, invest in communities and workers, right historical wrongs, and make wars for energy a bad memory.
Our Green New Deal calls for affirming science by moving away from fossil fuels and prioritizing green research. We will redirect research funds and subsidies away from fossil fuels and other dead-end industries and toward research in renewable energy, including wind, solar and geothermal.
The Green New Deal calls for a Full-Employment Program, which will directly provide jobs in sustainable energy and energy-efficiency retrofitting, public transit and re-imaging our electric grid and transportation systems.
The Green New Deal also calls for a Just Transition that empowers communities and workers most impacted by climate change / legacy injustice and the transition to a green economy. It will ensure that any community or worker impacted by the shift away from fossil fuels will receive full income and benefits as they transition.
We are being betrayed by the empty rhetoric and emptier actions of the two corporate parties. This year, vote for the Green Party and a real Green New Deal.
If you would like to join Michael Bagdes-Canning’s campaign for PA Lt. Governor, please contact 724-431-8560, mbagdes@gmail.com.
For more information:
Biden’s remarks in New Jersey in September 2021, https://news.yahoo.com/biden-warns-threat-climate-change-213142991.html
“Biden Is Opening Up Public Lands to More Oil and Gas Leasing,” Mother Jones, April 16, 2022, https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2022/04/biden-drilling-federal-land-gas-prices-ukraine/
“Green Party Candidate for PA Governor says, ‘I agree, Delay Means Death’” by Christina “PK” DiGiulio, news release, April 4, 2022, https://www.gpofpa.org/green_party_candidate_for_pa_governor_says_i_agree_delay_means_death
“Michael Bagdes-Canning for PA Lieutenant Governor,” news release, March 9, 2022, https://www.gpofpa.org/michael_bagdes_canning_for_pa_lieutenant_governor
“Green New Deal,” Green Party of the U.S., https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal
Michael Bagdes-Canning
Green Party Candidate for PA Lt. Governor