Today is Earth Day, which is kind of odd since one might think that every day is Earth Day since Earth is the only place humans live. But Earth Day is the day, we can suppose, to celebrate how much cleaner our little blue pearl of a planet is than it was only a couple of decades ago. That’s true enough, after all; I’m old enough to remember drives in the country marred by bags of trash and discarded pop cans along the road, not to mention rivers catching fire and air in the major cities that was actually unsafe to breathe.
So today is the day when we celebrate fixing all that, and our much, much cleaner planet. Right?
Well, in a sane world that is what we would be celebrating, sure. But today, we must instead observe as the Biden administration intends to mark this Earth Day by shoveling billions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars into green energy and patronage jobs schemes.
President Joe Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities. He also plans to expand his New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program.
The grants are being awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which unveiled the 60 recipients on Monday. The projects are expected to eventually reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million annually, according to senior administration officials.
I have some questions.
Does that estimated “30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide” take into account all of the mining and refining operations required to obtain the materials for those solar panels and the battery backups that those solar installations include? Does it include all of the mechanized equipment and transport used in mining and transporting these raw materials, which are all fossil-fuel-powered? Does it include the vehicles used to transport the completed panels to the point of use?
Where does that “$350 million annually” figure come from? Does it take into account the fact that these initial grants are squeezed out of the taxpayer – or worse, borrowed against the futures of our grandchildren, or just plain printed out of thin air, a process that by the way is wildly inflationary?
What are these “Climate Corp” people purportedly doing, and how are they being paid? Supposedly they will be planting trees and building trails and so forth; where and when will they be doing these things that I did in college as a volunteer?
Previously on RedState:The Annual Earth Day Conflict Report: From Bald Hedgehogs to Witch Executions to Deadly Cereal!
And finally: Where in the Constitution is any of this described as an enumerated power of the federal government, and if it is not so described (spoiler: it’s not) then how can anyone justify these expenditures in light of the 10th Amendment? (Yes, I know.)
Biden’s latest environmental announcements come as he is working to energize young voters for his reelection campaign. Young people were a key part of a broad but potentially fragile coalition that helped him defeat then-President Donald Trump in 2020. Some have joined protests around the country of the administration’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
This, of course, comes at a time when the Trump campaign is making some interesting inroads with younger voters.
See Related:Donald Trump Making Inroads With Young Voters—Economy a Key Issue
Youth voters are generally more likely to list climate concerns higher on their list of priorities than older voters, and it’s likely a safe assumption that many of these “American Climate Corps” gigs will go to young skulls full of mush who may learn valuable skills like driving a lawnmower or learning the wonders of a post-holer. That’s sure to set them up well later in life – although it’s certainly more useful knowledge than, say, a Gender Studies degree.
Is all this spending an attempt to win back those youth votes? If so, it’s not exactly a subtle move, but the Biden campaign hasn’t exactly been subtle up to this point.
See Related:Monday Morning Minute
Sooner or later, there must be some challenge to the constitutionality of all this. I’m not a lawyer, and I’ve never taught Constitutional law, but I am pretty familiar with that founding document after over forty years of political activism and over twenty years of online punditry. I have a pretty good idea what the 10th Amendment was meant to do, and I have a pretty good idea that nowhere in the Constitution is there any authorization for the Executive branch to dump billions of taxpayer dollars into green energy tomfoolery.
But then, the federal government has been ignoring the 10th Amendment for decades now. It’s not surprising they continue to do so.
So, happy Earth Day! The Biden administration thanks you for your support (taxation is theft!).