Aug 10, 2021,03:56pm EDT|2,180 views
Infrastructure Bill Implements Green New Deal Via Corporate Welfare
David Blackmon
David BlackmonSenior Contributor
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 07: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) (L) and Sen. Ed Markey ...
During the 2011 session of the Texas legislature, an advocacy group that I helped lead worked with then-Lt. Governor David Dewhurst to enact SB 20, a bill that targeted some state funds to incentivize the installation of new compressed natural gas fueling infrastructure to help serve the state’s growing fleet of natural gas vehicles. Lt. Gov. Dewhurst was at the time roundly criticized by many in the Texas news media for engaging in an exercise in “corporate welfare,” mainly due to the fact that the infrastructure would end up benefitting the state’s oil and gas companies to some extent by helping to enable the adoption of an increasing number of NGVs in the state.
Given that experience, it has been more than a little interesting to observe how little similar criticism has been directed by the news media towards President Joe Biden and congressional sponsors of the federal “infrastructure” bill that has made its way through congress over the past week. With the notable exception of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and its August 5 editorial titled “The Electric Vehicle Welfare State,” the national media has seemed mighty reluctant to call out all the examples of rank corporate welfare targeting “green” energy not just in the infrastructure bill, but also in the Democrats’ gargantuan, $3.5 billion debt ceiling/budget bill that will be rolling towards a party-line vote in the coming days.
As the Journal’s editorial points out, EVs make up less than 3% of total auto sales in the U.S. today, but the Biden Administration, after months of detailed negotiations involving not just automakers, but also their labor unions and the Big Green lobby groups, wants to raise that to has high as 50% by the year 2030. To achieve that target, the administration is using these two multi-trillion dollar legislative vehicles to set up a raft of subsidies, mandates, earmarks and slush funds for EVs and renewables. You can be sure that, whenever any corporate sector of the economy engages in this sort of negotiation with any administration, there will be benefits to the bottom line in exchange for the companies’ endorsement.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2021/08/10/infrastructure-bill-implements-green-new-deal-via-corporate-welfare/?sh=1e236cdcebd0
