Wednesday, August 3, 2022
“Earth Day is every day.”
Mother Nature
I used to think Senator Joe Manchin didn’t like me very much and didn’t care about the need to fight climate change, even though it was staring him right in his West Virginia face.
MOTHER’S NOTE: West Virginia is extremely vulnerable to climate change. A huge number of its residents live in flood zones. Global warming is intensifying the kind of rainstorms that have caused deadly river overflows across the state.
News reports portrayed Manchin as walking away from one climate bill after another. But he always walked back, and recently Manchin and Sen. Chuck Schumer carved out the most ambitious climate change bill ever.
It’s not perfect, (there are still strong incentives for fossil fuel and coal producers) but it’s a great start. Here’s some of what the proposed bill (it’s not a law yet!) entails:
The $369 billion bill would funnel billions of dollars to wind, solar, and battery-powered developments that put clean power on the nation’s electrical grid.
Remember, if extreme weather shuts down regional power, you could be without Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+. and more for an indefinite period of time.
That could result in no streaming. But a whole lot of screaming!
Sure, there are tax incentives in the bill for traditional energy sources, like oil, gas, and coal and nuclear power, but the money must be used to capture the carbon emissions that’s been fueling climate change.
And there are even provisions in the bill to help reduce inflation by spurring domestic energy production. That will lower future energy costs.
Although, if the bill becomes a law, the U.S. Interior Department will have to offer up two million acres of federal land and 60 million acres of offshore acreage to oil and gas producers every year for the next decade.
Sure, the bill is not a law yet, but what are the chances Congress could screw it up and doom the planet’s species to extinction?
I’ll let the dolphins handle that one.
Senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer proved what I’ve been saying all along:
“Only one thing can slow climate change. Human change.”
Tomorrow is another Earth Day. Don’t forget to show your Mother some love.
Mother Nature