Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Further Cripples American Energy Workers

April 1, 2021

Yesterday, President Joe Biden unveiled his $2 trillion infrastructure proposal in Pittsburgh. The plan includes significant funding to climate change efforts, making it as much about curbing our carbon footprint as it is about improving America’s infrastructure.

Power The Future discussed the radical proposals included in the plan to satisfy Biden’s eco-left supporters in a recent press release:

The plan includes $174 billion for electric vehicle incentives and new charging stations, $100 billion to update the power grid with more renewable sources, $46 billion for the federal government to buy electric vehicles, and $35 billion to research and development of green technology. Additionally, the package includes a clean electricity standard, which mandates a certain percentage of zero-carbon electricity generation. Sadly, less than 1 percent of this spending plan would go to helping fossil fuel workers who are displaced by the Biden Administration’s climate policies, like canceling the Keystone XL pipeline.

Just as we feared, Biden is delivering on his promises to the eco-left to go big on climate. In doing so, he is deliberately tearing down the valuable oil and gas industry. Many energy workers have already lost their high-paying jobs due to the countless executive orders Biden has enacted. The most notable was Biden’s cancelation of the Keystone Pipeline his first day in office, where in one swift signature he took away 11,000 American union jobs. What does he offer to them as consolation? Less than 1 percent of the spending plan to help fossil fuel workers who are displaced by his administration’s climate policies.

President Biden continues to wreak havoc on the industry and give false promises of new and better green energy jobs as alternatives. Green energy jobs pay 75 percent less than oil and gas jobs, not to mention green energy supports nowhere near the number of jobs the oil and gas industry does.

The Wall Street Journal reported that pay for a Phillips 66 median worker, for example, was $196,407 in 2018.

Compare that to the $53,000 annual salary of a wind turbine service technician, the fastest-growing job category in the U.S., according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The annual salary of a solar installer, third on the fastest-growing list, is even worse, with a median salary of about $45,000.

Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, said, “Someone working in a refinery leaving to go install solar panels, they’re probably going to take a 75 percent cut in pay. A transition sounds like a fancy name for a funeral.”