Let's Get Wonky

The Democrats renewable energy plan versus Trump's kamikaze mission

Recently I explored how former Leftists with an ecological focus (and, in some cases, an avowed spiritual ethos) such as Russell Brand, Charles Eisenstein, and RFK have moved so far to the Right that they either directly embrace Trump or clearly prefer him to the Democrats. I admit I still have a splinter in my brain about this. It seems the result of some grotesque combination of nihilism, narcissism and mid-life crisis (nothing more terrifying than a slow fade into irrelevance).

Sadly, I find a similar confusion among many of my friends. People who I consider thoughtful and good-hearted still believe the choice between Trump and Biden hardly matters. In many cases, they feel instinctively compelled by conspiracy theories around the “Deep State:” They somehow believe the populist myth that Trump will dismantle a system of deepening technocratic controls that they don’t like — that could lead, for example, to forced vaccinations during a future pandemic. Because the election could be very close, I want to continue to pry this group away from their ideas and assumptions. In many areas, I do not find them well-informed.

I am, also, not a fan of the Democratic establishment — or of American politics, our frustrating duopoly, which is deeply compromised by lobbyists. I understand feeling fury against them. The Democrats are often corrupt and manipulative (for instance, they sabotaged Bernie Sanders’ campaign). But the Republicans are grifters on a whole different level. This must be acknowledged.

Some of my friends believe that the Democrats are more likely to steal votes and try to win the election by foul play than the Republicans. My perspective is completely the opposite: I believe the Republicans are far more duplicitous and ready to steal the results. Journalists like Greg Pallast and Sarah Kendzior have tracked this in great depth. I believe Republicans intend to lock in control of the government, if they win: Trump has said as much.

The Republicans are currently exploring every possible means to create a murky ambience around the election so they can steal it via the Supreme Court if necessary. They use gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement as weapons to hijack election results. They have to do this because they know the demographic trends — the will of the people — don’t favor them. They are already launching dozens of lawsuits in the event that Trump loses. They will seek to contest the results on every level. This could lead to a very difficult, tense situation, which I may explore in a future essay.

In what follows, I want to focus on just one, somewhat wonk-ish area, which is the transition to renewable energy. Under Biden, the US has taken major steps toward building a renewable energy infrastructure, which we need on every level. Trump and his allies intend to roll back this progress while intensifying fossil fuel production. It is extraordinary to me that Charles, who took a sanctimonious Wendell Berry-esque approach to local economies in earlier work, the avowed environmentalist RFK, and the former Eco-mystical-Leftist sex-addict comedian support psychotic policies which run directly against even the faintest possibility of our kids having a decent future on Earth. (Why do Christian Baptism and “burn, baby, burn” go together so well?).

My sense is that many people — including my friends — have simply not bothered to look at the policies in any detail, or at all. I also tend to share this innate feeling that everything attempted by our government is somehow unreal, immoral, and a failure, blanketed in grey, bureaucratic haze. I had to push past my rebellious disinterest and antipathy to research and write this.

Our American system is pathetic, brutal, compared to what you find across Europe. As a freelancer, I pay almost $700 a month for health insurance that gets me access to the most perfunctory — almost stupid — medical care, with doctors who don’t seem to care about my health at all. In Europe, people get decent, free medical care. Here, we saddle our college students with brutal amounts of student debt which forces them to take soulless corporate jobs or end up destitute. In Europe, education is often totally free. And so on.

Europe has accomplished this through the magic of progressive taxation. The US, instead, sanctions inhuman levels of wealth inequality, leading to psychopathic disregard for the wellbeing of its people who suffer from chronic illness and psychological problems on a diabolic scale, while the .1% pimp out their Hawaii bunkers, Montana ranches, and New Zealand survivalist compounds. And much of this was rubber-stamped by past Democratic leaders, who sold out the middle and working class in craven fealty to the financial elite, allowing for increased monopoly control in crucial sectors like tech and media.

Having said all of that, there is still a significant difference between the parties when it comes to the energy transition. This is something so fundamentally needed, it shouldn’t be a topic for discussion at this point.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law by President Joe Biden in August 2022,  designed to address climate change, lower healthcare costs, and revise corporate taxation. Despite its confusing name, the primary focus of the IRA is not immediate inflation reduction but long-term investments in clean energy and environmental sustainability, combined with healthcare cost controls and tax reforms. The Act seeks to transform the American economy in response to the global climate crisis while reshaping the energy and manufacturing sectors. Every Republican voted against it.

The Inflation Reduction Act establishes a 15% minimum tax on corporations making over $1 billion in profits. It closes loopholes that allowed many large corporations to pay little to no federal taxes. It also introduces a 1% tax on stock buybacks, targeting companies that repurchase their own stock to raise its value instead of reinvesting in innovation or worker wages.

The Act mandates $369 billion investment in climate and clean energy initiatives over the next decade. The legislation provides tax credits for the production of renewable energy from sources such as solar and wind, along with energy storage systems. It incentivizes the manufacturing of clean energy infrastructure within the United States, aiming to reduce reliance on foreign supply chains, particularly from China.

The goal is to accelerate the U.S.’s transition to a greener economy and achieve significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The Department of Energy projects that the IRA will triple electricity generation from wind and expand solar capacity seven- to eight-fold by 2030.