Showing the green agenda to be truly red, President Joe Biden took crony capitalism to new heights, invoking wartime powers in his battle against — gas appliances.
Friday, Biden and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm issued a joint statement announcing $169 million for major corporations like Honeywell International, Copeland LP and Mitsubishi Electric U.S. Inc. Sourcing funds from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the administrative state’s climate agenda dragged out a Cold War-era relic to support the move in the name of “national security.”
Aimed at nine projects across 15 sites, the Department of Energy (DOE) and White House announced the first awards through the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA) to “increase domestic production of five key clean energy technologies, including electric heat pumps.”
“Getting more American-made electric heat pumps on the market will help families and businesses save money with efficient heating and cooling technology,” claimed Granholm. “These investments will create thousands of high-quality, good-paying manufacturing jobs and strengthen America’s energy supply chain, while creating healthier indoor space through home-grown clean energy technologies.”
⚡️NEW: We’re announcing $169M to accelerate domestic manufacturing of electric heat pumps.
With this funding, we’re supporting nine projects across 15 sites that will create good-paying jobs and lower energy costs for American homes and businesses.
➡️ https://t.co/qaOxNUa71h pic.twitter.com/eRnZH65I1g
— Secretary Jennifer Granholm (@SecGranholm) November 18, 2023
Presidential adviser and clean energy czar John Podesta added to the announcement, saying, “Today’s Defense Production Act funds for heat pump manufacturing show that President Biden is treating climate change as the crisis it is.”
“These awards will grow domestic manufacturing, create good-paying jobs, and boost American competitiveness in industries of the future,” he added as the statement touted more than 1,700 “high-quality, good-paying jobs” would be created.
“The President is using his wartime emergency powers under the Defense Production Act to turbocharge U.S. manufacturing of clean technologies and strengthen our energy security,” said Biden’s National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. “This acceleration of electric heat pump manufacturing also shows how President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is advancing American innovation, cutting energy bills for hardworking families, and tackling the climate crisis — a win, win for our economy, our workers, and our planet.”
As previously reported, in an array of regulatory moves encroaching on American appliances to satisfy the whims of the green movement, “consensus-based recommendations” that linked up with two of the largest water heater manufacturers set a target of 95% annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) before the end of the current decade, a shift from the current standard of 80%.
Considering the move would ultimately pull less efficient, but cheaper furnaces off the market, and saddle American consumers with the cost of installing newer technology when their options become limited in the future, Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Ben Lieberman asserted to Fox News Digital the move was little more than the latest example of picking winners and losers.
“This is absolutely shameful corporate welfare. But we’re to believe that, because it’s for the sake of climate change, all is well. I think it’s ridiculous,” he expressed. “Of all the Biden administration’s claimed climate emergency declarations, this may be the craziest of them all. There is no shortage of heat pumps — it’s just that not every homeowner wants them.”
“Consumers ought to decide for themselves,” Lieberman went on. “The government has no role in tilting the balance in favor of one energy source over another. That’s clearly what’s happening here.”
American Gas Association President and CEO Karen Harbert weighed in as well and told the outlet, “Energy security is a top priority for AGA. We are deeply disappointed to see the Defense Production Act, which is intended as a vital tool for advancing national security against serious outside threats, being used as an instrument to advance a policy agenda contradictory to our nation’s strong energy position.”
“Increased use of natural gas has been responsible for sixty percent of the electrical grid’s CO2 emissions reductions,” she detailed. “This vital tool for emissions reductions and energy system resilience should not be unfairly undermined through misuse of the Defense Production Act.”
Adding to the pander, the administration also sought to score intersectionality points with their corporatist handout as it aligned with President Biden’s Justice40 initiative and ensured that “40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal climate, clean energy, and other covered investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.”
All as part of the broader initiative targeting appliances toward a supposed savings of $570 billion and reducing emissions by over 2.4 billion metric tons over a span of 30 years.
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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