Politico: The Green Schism Threatening Biden’s Climate Plan

In the middle of a spiraling energy crisis and warnings of summer gas shortages, progressive activists are currently angry that Joe Biden’s climate plan doesn’t go far enough. Joe has already been blasted by Greta Thunberg who personally sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to countersignal him on Earth Day for only wanting to slash carbon emissions by the impossible goal of 50% by 2030.

Politico:

“President Joe Biden’s ambitious proposal to wean the U.S. electric grid off fossil fuels, already a non-starter with congressional Republicans, has run into a new band of politically inconvenient enemies: Left-wing climate and environmental justice activists who believe it isn’t ambitious enough. …

More than 600 groups sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday warning that a CES would promote “false climate solutions” such as natural gas, nuclear and biomass power plants, as well as efforts to keep polluting plants open by capturing their carbon. The dissenters instead called for a stricter renewable electricity standard limited to wind, solar and geothermal power, not only to accelerate the deadline for a zero-emissions grid from 2035 to 2030, but to “avoid perpetuating the deep racial, social, and ecological injustices of our current fossil-fueled energy system.”

“This isn’t some fringe protest. It’s a real coalition, and it’s a real fight,” said Tamra Gilbertson, director of climate policy for the Indigenous Environmental Network. “We’re not just going to hope for the best with Biden, and we’re not going to be sidelined or silenced.” …

Most mainstream climate leaders rejoiced when Biden endorsed a clean electricity standard last summer, because they see it as by far the best way to drive fossil fuels out of the grid, and they’re incredibly frustrated to see it trashed as a kind of backdoor protection for fossil fuels. Biden’s goal of reducing power-sector emissions 80 percent by 2030 would probably require retiring just about the entire coal fleet and about half the gas fleet — and there’s real skepticism among scientists that the dissenters’ goal of zero emissions by 2030 is even possible. Greening the power sector is also vital to Biden’s larger goal of cutting all U.S. greenhouse gases in half by the end of the decade, partly because it’s the only sector that’s already making real progress in reducing emissions, thanks to the rapid replacement of coal with cheaper solar, wind and gas, and partly because progress in other sectors will depend on electrifying vehicles and buildings. …”