Links tagged “economics”

Rupert Darwall: “'Build back better'” is code for decarbonization—and the promise that, out of the ashes of a U.S. economy devastated by the coronavirus, a new economy will emerge under the beneficent guidance of the federal government, setting America on a path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. We don’t need to “build back” anything, though. America’s physical infrastructure is intact. Its power stations and energy infrastructure, its roads and bridges, its railways and airports are almost exactly as they were before the virus struck. We are not Germany in 1945, after Allied bombs had reduced it to rubble. COVID-19 has done no damage to American physical assets." ...

"The Green New Deal and Biden’s plan for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 are the last things that a recovering economy needs. Mandating net-zero is the equivalent of imposing multi-trillion dollar tax hikes—and with not one cent for deficit reduction, the proceeds going instead to controlling the “global climate.” And there’s more. While America—with the glaring exception of California—already has all the energy it needs, Biden wants to spend $1.7 trillion on alternative energy, a gargantuan outlay that would pile on to an already rapidly growing federal deficit." ...

"Climate activists draw many spurious links between COVID-19 and climate change, but they have one thing in common: zero tolerance. For COVID-19 absolutists, society should be organized around the principle of zero Covid. For climate absolutists, society should be organized around the principle of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions." ... 

"We can see the collateral damage to the economy, to society, and to human freedom from the draconian measures adopted to contain this virus. On climate, Biden promises drastic action but avoids telling voters what it might mean. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is more honest. It says that net-zero requires “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” That’s true." 

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a news conference from the agency's Geneva headquarters:

"In particular, the Covid-19 pandemic has given new impetus to the need to accelerate efforts to respond to climate change. The Covid-19 pandemic has given us a glimpse of our world as it could be: cleaner skies and rivers."

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Marc Morano comments: "You were warned, COVID & Climate - A marriage made in authoritarianism. The morphing of the public health bureaucracy and the climate establishment is at hand. Nothing good can come from this arranged marriage."

Flashback: ‘Fantastic’ for the climate: Activists See Coronavirus Lockdowns As Dress Rehearsal for ‘Climate Emergency’ – Special Report

Flashback 2018: World Health Organization: ‘Climate change is the greatest health challenge of the 21st century, and threatens all aspects of the society in which we live’

A 2019 watchdog report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration showed the electric vehicle tax credit is rife with fraud and abuse, and electric vehicle incentives disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

To add insult to injury, a recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board refutes the common perception that electric vehicles are good for the environment.