GOP Strategy: The Green New Deal Will Be Like Lockdown But Worse - So Help Us Own The Greentards!

[hatrack]

EDIT

The ominous warnings of a clean-air economic catastrophe may appeal to Mr. Trump’s base, which overwhelmingly supports the president’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change, elimination of regulations on fossil fuel industries and general antagonism toward the established science of man-made global warming. But whether it has broader resonance amid a global health emergency and the worst economic crisis since the Depression remains to be seen.

Republican political strategists expressed hope that the conservative talking point ricocheting around the right-wing echo chamber could appeal more broadly as voters’ attention focuses on health and personal finances. “The Republicans’ line of attack is going to be that the Democrats are trying to create a massive Green New Deal that’s going to create a lot of spending at a time when we just can’t afford that,” said Ron Bonjean, a veteran Republican operative. Focusing on the economic pain that voters would encounter under Democratic energy policies, Mr. Bonjean said, is “the sweet spot” for Republican campaigns.

Over the past two months, Republican lawmakers, the Trump campaign and conservative outlets have hammered the themes that Democrats are more interested in climate change than reviving the economy, that Mr. Biden and environmental groups are seeking to exploit the pandemic to push a “radical” green agenda, and that the economic fallout of Covid-19 is a preview of life under ambitious climate change policies. They have also labeled virtually every climate change effort as part of the Green New Deal — an ambitious plan championed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, both democratic socialists — whether they are part of the proposal or not. The Green New Deal, which Mr. Biden has loosely embraced, envisions powering all transportation and generating all electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

The most explicit attack so far has come from the Heartland Institute, a climate denialist group with ties to the Trump administration, which held a recent online conference asking, “Is the Coronavirus Lockdown the Future Environmentalists Want?” At the meeting, Marc Morano, who runs Climate Depot, a website that is funded by the fossil fuel industry and promotes the denial of climate science, said: “What is the Green New Deal if you think about it? It’s just one giant national recession.”

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/climate/coronavirus-republicans-climate-change.html

[NNadir]

1. Oh well then...

It is one thing to deny climate change, another to deny how to fix it, and yet another to propose things that waste time and money as unworkable panaceas.

Around the world we're over two trillion dollars into oodles and oodles and oodles of "Green New Deal Rhetoric." Last I looked, a few days back, we're at 416 ppm, with rates of increase steadily rising to over 24 ppm/decade.

Simply because the Heartland Institute says something is bad does not imply it's good.

The "Green New Deal" should be called the "Mining New Deal" since the material demands of trying to make what won't work work is unsustainable. Those big steel posts on wind turbines are made with coke, derived from coal heated with coal.

We are out of time, and we on the left still being very smug that we know what to do.

We clearly don't. The "Green New Deal" is not sustainable.

[Finishline42]

2. While you are jumping up and down

This from Germany:

Germany's target for renewable energy sources to deliver 65% of its consumed electricity by 2030 seemed on track Wednesday, with 52% of electricity coming from renewables in 2020's first quarter.

The federal BDEW energy and water federation and Baden-Württemberg state's ZSW solar and hydro research center observed a 7% percent renewables jump from 44.4% in the same period last year, in comparison to fossil fuel consumption.

Wind, especially offshore wind turbines, solar panels and other sources generated 77 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) compared to 67 kWh in the first quarter of 2019.

snip

The renewables record, noted the BDEW and ZSW, was achieved despite the shutdown of Germany's Philippsburg 2 nuclear power plant at the end of 2019 and the placing of brown coal power plants on standby to cover emergencies.

Using another measure, gross electricity produced, the two groups calculated that with exported electricity included in their calculation, renewable sources made up 49% of Germany's gross electricity production in the first quarter of the year.

https://www.ecowatch.com/germany-renewable-energy-2645629058.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2

[hunter]

3. It's like beating your wife three days a week instead of seven.

If you want somewhat realistic numbers go here:

https://www.energy-charts.de/power.htm

Germany is using gas to smooth out the lumps when they can't get hydro.

[Finishline42]

4. But maybe Gas really is a bridge fuel.

Wind and solar will continue to get cheaper. Because they don't pay for fuel, it gets used when it's available.

Batteries and transmission lines are key. In my linked story there is objection by Germans to running transmission lines from the Baltic to the South of Germany where it's needed. Similar problems here as well.

In the US what do you think the chance are for an upheaval in the NatGas sector? With the rumored bankruptcy of Chesapeake Energy and filing of Whiting in early April will that run the price of natgas up? If gas goes up we will continue to build out wind and solar.

If the Democrats win the WH and the Senate in Nov will something be done about the methane pollution problem at fracked wells?