Joe Biden last month announced a far-reaching plan to transform the US energy system from fossil fuels to clean energy sources like wind and solar. The plan drew much praise, but was criticized for not directly addressing the fossil fuel industry, the cause of the climate crisis. Now Senate Democrats will bite that bullet. They are poised to release a 200-page document detailing the fossil fuel industry’s multi-decade, multi-billion dollar campaign to deny the science of global heating, misinform the American public, and impede any legislation or regulation that threatened their profits.
https://www.sierraclub.org/minnesota/blog/2019/05/clean-energy-groups-appeal-puc-approval-superior-fracked-gas-plant
The Senate Democrats’ plan seeks to educate Americans about the dimensions and urgency of the climate crisis, and the complicity of the fossil fuel industry in preventing policies to protect people’s health and a hospitable environment for humans and most other forms of life. The plan sets out solutions to the crisis that the Party would implement were it to regain the Presidency and control of the Senate.
The plan will face stiff opposition from the industry and from the Republican Party, but surveys have shown that 70% or more of Americans are concerned about the changing climate and want action taken to lessen its effects on their daily lives. Democrats know that adoption of the plan will be difficult, but believe we must wean ourselves off a polluting, greenhouse gas emitting strategy based on burning coal, oil, and natural gas in order to adopt a new clean-energy strategy because the old one incurs unsustainable social, economic, and environmental costs. We will make the transition to clean energy because our lives and livelihoods depend on it.
