Biden’s energy policies hurting US, Europe: Here’s the fix (Guest post)
A guest post by Steven Greenhouse (Greenhouse.publishing.com)
By Steven Greenhouse
Last night on Meet the Press, Joe Biden was asked why he had not introduced his energy plan to Congress. He answered by saying that that he had been waiting for the right moment to do so. A moment that now seems to have arrived.
You can blame it on the press, or you can blame it on the media. I believe you should still blame it on the press, though. At some point a reporter said something like, “Are you going to introduce a plan to reduce our use of fossil fuels?” It was a simple question that Biden answered by saying he was going to introduce a plan. It was the press asking the wrong question, and Biden was waiting for the right question.
I wrote a column in which I made the case that if the press wanted a Biden plan, then they should have had a simple question–how the heck can you possibly reduce fossil fuel use? I don’t think Biden likes that question any more than the rest of the press does.
And so on a couple of separate occasions this week, in interviews with the Associated Press and the Boston Globe, Biden has made the same mistake. When asked about his energy plan he says, “I hope my energy plan is ready to release; I hope you can see it when it’s available.” Of course if it is, it won’t be because of these kind of press conferences.
I thought it was worth taking this opportunity to share my argument that Biden’s energy plan is doomed.
Biden’s energy plan is just a continuation of the status quo
Biden’s plan is really a carbon tax. It’s only a “plan” if you think of a carbon tax as a tax that is collected by the government and redistributed to others (this is the only way a carbon tax can be “a plan” other than by not being a tax at all).
There’s a huge difference between a tax that is collected by the government and redistributed, and a tax that isn’t. Biden’s plan is more like the latter than the former. It isn’t at all redistributionist.
The government collects a carbon tax, and the tax is then distributed to others. If we tax the oil companies, for example, we’re still paying the