Essay by Eric Worrall
The fight against climate change is now profitable, according to The Atlantic. But this “cornucopia” of profits comes straight from your utility bills and taxes.
Fighting climate change has been costly. Now it’s profitable.
How far can these climate dynamics take us?
By Emma Maris
It’s a good time to be in the decarbonization business in the United States. The Inflation Reduction Act – with its $374 billion cornucopia of green incentives, subsidies and grants – was designed to encourage private companies to invest in the fossil fuel transition. Early reports are already suggesting that the IRA could work. Analysis by American Clean Power, a lobbying group of renewable energy companies, shows that anticipation of their bounty alone has spurred $40 billion in investments and created nearly 7,000 jobs in the final months of 2022.
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In fact, in the US, Joe Biden didn’t even try to push through a carbon tax, instead focusing on incentives because they were more politically popular. “They went with carrots rather than sticks,” Hill said. “But sticks should be part of the solution at some point.” (Interestingly, there’s a catch with the IRA: a fee for emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane that only applies to large oil and gas installations with significant emissions. According to the Congressional Research Service, ” This fee is the first time the federal government has directly imposed a levy, fee, or tax [greenhouse-gas] emissions.”)
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But for some in the climate movement, who are skeptical of capitalism in general, it is deeply unsettling to see the global economy going all-out on the energy transition. These advocates are concerned that the insane scramble for the gains from decarbonization could create its own human rights and environmental crises. For example, as documented in the new book Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara, a significant portion of the cobalt in the world’s electric vehicles is snatched from the earth by desperately poor miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who breathe toxic cobalt dust all day.
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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 gains still lag behind fossil fuel investments.
BP CEO downplays pressure on renewable energy as yields lag
… Chief Executive Bernard Looney plans to roll back elements of the oil giant’s high-profile push into renewable energy, according to people familiar with the recent discussions.
Mr Looney has said he was disappointed with the returns on some of the oil giant’s renewable energy investments and plans to pursue a tighter green energy strategy, people said. He has told some people close to the company that BP needs to do more to convince shareholders of its strategy of maximizing profits in areas where it has a competitive advantage, including its legacy oil and gas operations.
In some conversations, Mr Looney said he plans to place less emphasis on so-called ESG targets – a collective term for environmental, social and governance – to make it clear that these do not distract the company from its ability to make profits, people said. …
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bps-ceo-plays-down-renewables-push-11675249471
Even so, some companies are jumping on the bait.
Any company claiming Biden’s unlimited Inflation Reduction Act subsidies will add to the US debt burden, increasing pressure to raise taxes and mortgage rates as debt-subsidized spending threatens to overheat the economy even further.
What are Americans getting in return for higher mortgage rates, more taxes, higher utility bills, and an even more unmanageable burden of national debt?
At best, the US will get the same electricity it already has, but more expensively and less reliably.
The US might as well pile up a trillion dollars and set it on fire, despite all the “benefits” this green investment will bring to ordinary people.
A few people will benefit. I guess The billionaires who benefit from this cheap government money will be happy. Even as their green corporations soak up all the cheap government money and, when the money runs dry, their subsidized government loans fail to pay, the personal finances of the billionaires who receive those government subsidies rarely seem to suffer. Being the CEO of a bankrupt company and misjudging the market is not a crime.
Here’s looking at you, Solyndra.
A trillion dollars of federal welfare for billionaires funded by your taxes, your children’s taxes, and your grandchildren’s taxes, of no use to anyone but the recipients. Doesn’t that just give you a warm, fluffy feeling, deep down in your stomach?
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