Biden Is Concocting a Toothless Climate Policy That Puts Our Future at Risk

This just in: old man Biden plans on taking us back to Obama-era environmental policy if elected, which is to say he will not implement the energy overhaul needed to prevent irreparable climate change. What a surprise, especially coming from someone who will not have to live through the most disastrous results of global warming.

Two sources told Reuters that the 2020 candidate is crafting a policy (still not set in stone) that will hopefully draw “both environmentalists and the blue-collar voters that elected Donald Trump.” Heather Zichal, Biden’s informal adviser on climate change policy and a former Obama adviser, said that the main tenets of his policy include re-joining the Paris Climate Agreement and keeping regulations in place on emissions and vehicle fuel efficiency. She elaborated that much of the policy would entail returning to Obama-era environmental protections and simply undoing Trump’s rollback of climate change rules.

The other source, an unnamed a former energy department official, added that Biden’s plan will still support some use of nuclear energy and fossil fuel, with natural gas and carbon capture technology limiting emissions from industrial plants.

Most other Democratic candidates are supporting the Green New Deal, though, which is much more sweeping in its policies. For one, the Green New Deal calls for an end to American use of fossil fuels within the next decade. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg have all thrown their weight behind the policy that literally aims to save the world, rather than barely placate disparate groups of people. Take a more in-depth look at the proposals put forth in the Green New Deal here.

Biden himself has not publicly commented on the Green New Deal, but Zichal noted, “Right now, we need a little bit more reality around this dialogue.”

How’s this for reality: we have only a decade to majorly overhaul our greenhouse gas emissions and save our planet from irreparable damage. When the world is 2.7°F warmer—which is due to happen between 2030 and 2052 under current emissions trends—it will cost $54 trillion.

While our lives are at stake, all Biden sees are potential votes at risk. He is a relic of the past who cares more about having his picture in a history book than preventing environmental catastrophe.