Earlier this summer, the Biden administration announced it was directing $90 million to states as part of a larger infrastructure bill, in hopes that new building rules would be mandated that are inspired by “climate crisis” pseudoscience. It was part of the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which more properly identifies as the “Green New Deal.”
The Energy Department will distribute the grants to 27 projects in 26 states and the District of Columbia.Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will announce the funding on Wednesday during a visit to Louisiana, where Hurricane Katrina in 2005 destroyed or damaged more than 800,000 homes and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage overall.
However, that amount doesn’t appear to be enough to tempt states to amend their rules in favor of the environmental activist agendas. So, Team Biden has now upped the “bribe” to $400 million.
A senior administration official told reporters Monday that under the codes, new buildings and major renovations would be done with better construction and in a way that is more efficient and resilient.The Energy Department said in a press release announcing the funding that homes built using modern energy codes are 40 percent more efficient than homes built 15 years ago.
One has to wonder why there is a need to unleash this much green in the pursuit of a green energy utopia. There are likely many causes, chief of which is Biden’s sinking poll numbers. The data is so bad that Democratic operatives are worried.
Democratic strategist James Carville sounded the alarm about President Biden on Thursday, telling a CNN audience his poll numbers were “troubling” and a clear expression of voter apprehension.”Well, I guess, to say the least, the polls were not great,” Carville said when asked about the concern around Biden’s age in a recent CNN poll. “And it tells us that voters are expressing some apprehension here. It’s pretty clear. There’s not much else you can say when you look at them.”The CNN poll found that 49% of those surveyed flagged Biden’s “age” as their biggest concern about Biden as a presidential candidate. Another 7% said that Biden’s “mental sharpness” was a concern, while 7% said “health,” and another 7% said that Biden’s ability to do the job was a factor for concern.
Perhaps the move is an attempt to beef up support from eco-crazed constituents. Alternatively, it could be an attempt to divert as many funds to preferred agencies and organizations while the administration can do so.
Additionally, green policies are becoming increasingly less popular, especially as the realities associated with their implementation kick in. A new book, Green Breakdown, describes all the failures and misinformation related to the new construction policies the administration wants implemented, including:
- After almost $4 trillion spent globally on renewable energy from 2000 to 2018, why were coal, oil, and natural gas still providing 81 percent of world energy in 2018, the same share as in 1991?
- If electricity produced by wind and solar is cheaper, why do Denmark and Germany, the European nations with the most wind and solar capacity per person, have the highest electricity prices?
- Since electricity produced by burning biomass emits at least 50 percent more carbon dioxide per megawatt of power than burning coal, why is biomass considered zero emissions?
- If global warming makes storms more frequent, why does data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that hurricane land falls in the United States have been slightly declining since 1850?
- Since less than five watt-hours of every million watt-hours of US electricity consumption are stored in grid-scale batteries, how can batteries solve the problem of wind and solar intermittency?
Finally, housing starts are plummeting.
The number of housing starts fell in August, an indication of the challenges facing the housing market.Housing starts, the change in the number of new residential buildings that began construction, fell 11.3% from July to this past month, according to a Wednesday report from the Census Bureau. They are now at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.283 million. From August 2022, they fell 14.8%. That marks the lowest level since June 2020.
It’s going to be difficult to persuade states to adopt more construction-killing rules under these circumstances, so maybe Biden’s bureaucrats decided to use fiscal persuasion.
After all, it appears to work for their boss.
The only thing green about this move is the money it will waste…driving up inflation.
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