Biden’s Empty Promise of “Green Jobs”

December 28, 2020

The media and eco-left have labeled President-elect Joe Biden’s climate cabinet appointees as an “all-star” list. This largely has to do with the grand, extreme rhetoric that each of these candidates has used throughout their political careers. Apparently, that rhetoric was the only criteria for these administrative positions, because a closer look at their records shows nothing but empty promises.

The most obvious example of this is former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who Biden nominated to lead the Energy Department. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board writes:

According to the Mackinac Center, the Michigan think tank, only 2.3% of Ms. Granholm’s investments in the state’s main incentive program met their job creation promises. But there’s little accountability for failure in government.

Granholm’s nomination is evidence of the fact that, if one panders to the environmental extremists, it’s very possible to fail upward. Granholm spent much of her time in office handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to politically favored start-ups to create new “green jobs.” 

The electric-car battery manufacturer A123 Systems, which was awarded a $249 million DOE grant plus $125 million in state tax credits, went bankrupt. Fisker Automotive also went bust in 2013 after receiving a $192 million DOE loan with the goal of manufacturing a hybrid at a plant. The biofuels startup Mascoma was awarded $20 million from Granholm and up to $100 million from DOE for a plant to convert biomass into cellulosic ethanol – the plant was never built. This list goes on and on.

“Folks, we’re in a crisis,” Mr. Biden said this month, eliding wildfires, windstorms, hurricanes, flooding and drought all supposedly caused by climate change…But as always with a progressive “crisis,” the solutions on offer are more subsidies for the politically connected, and more rules, mandates and taxes for everyone else.

Unfortunately, more massive subsidies for green companies is a near guarantee under this new “all-star” climate team – green jobs certainly are not.