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Green New Deal offers jobs, climate protection; Carl Davidson; Beaver County Times; January 17, 2019.
For some background info about Mr. Davidson, please go here; he is also a leader of Beaver County Reds. Previous letters from Mr. Davidson I critiqued are here, here, here, and here. Critiques of Davidson pieces on Beaver County Reds are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“The Green New Deal is making waves. Some oppose it: We can’t afford nice things. We need to wage endless wars. Climate change is a hoax.”
[RWC] Spoiler alert! KD’s selling the Green New Deal (GND) short.
As I wrote in a previous review, “if you think the Green New Deal (GND) is about swapping out current energy sources for ‘100% renewable energy,’ get that thought out of your brain right now. Read the ‘Draft Text For Proposed Addendum To House Rules …,’ and a chill should run up your spine. Here’s an example. A question in the FAQ section asks, ‘Why do we need a sweeping Green New Deal investment program? Why can’t we just rely on regulations and taxes alone, such as a carbon tax or an eventual ban on fossil fuels?’ One of the answers is, ‘a country that is trying to change how its economy works will need to make big investments today to jump-start and develop new projects and sectors to power the new economy.’ Wait! The GND is going to ‘to change how [our] economy works’ and the result will be ‘a new economy?’ I thought the GND’s goal was about swapping out current energy sources for ‘100% renewable energy.’ Instead, we find its about establishing a fascist economy. A fascist economy is one in which businesses are still owned by the private sector on paper, but government regulation takes sufficient operating control to make the government the de facto owners. Communism is the next step on the slippery slope, going from de facto to de jure government ownership of businesses.”
For those who don’t know, the original New Deal was a flop. According to Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Treasury Secretary during the Great Depression, the New Deal was a failure. Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee in May 1939, Sec. Morgenthau said, “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot.” Further, unemployment never got below 9.9% before the U.S. entered World War II.
What does “We can’t afford nice things” mean? Is the GND one of the “nice things?”
Who says “We need to wage endless wars?”
Regarding “Climate change is a hoax,” please read my paper “Manmade Global Warming.”
“GND isn’t going away. It’s a proposal with many benefits, save for carbon-burning interests. Its support goes beyond the new U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and the Sunrise youth occupying hallways. The United Steel Workers has a ‘Green Energy Revolution’ proposal sitting on the shelf for years.”
[RWC] KD continues to get Miss Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) name wrong; it’s “Alexandria,” not “Alexandra.”
“If the United Steel Workers has a ‘Green Energy Revolution’ proposal, why has it been” sitting on the shelf for years?”
“The GOP opposes it. Unfortunately, Democrats are divided, with Ocasio-Cortez and friends on one end and centrists on the other.
“What would it mean for us?”
“Start with our rivers. A GND would modernize our locks and dams, including those upriver. The more the river is used for bulk transport, the less travels on diesel-burning trucks.”
[RWC] Our dams and locks are already undergoing renovation.
Unless there’s some new towboat propulsion technology coming down the pike, we would be replacing “diesel-burning trucks” with diesel-burning towboats. The GND calls for converting to 100% renewable energy, however.
“Then our hilltops. We have fairly steady winds for turbines. And while we’re not Arizona, there’s enough sun for solar arrays.”
[RWC] Is KD volunteering to live next to or inside a wind-turbine farm?
“Our aging electrical grid is a problem. Our national grid’s inefficiency is estimated at 6 percent loss, but it adds up to the pollution of about 200 coal-fired plants.”
[RWC] According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), our “electricity transmission and distribution (T&D)” system is about 95% efficient (Last updated: January 9, 2019). Though I’m a mechanical, not electrical, engineer, I think it’s safe to say a 95% efficient system is pretty good. It’s also safe to say each additional percentage-point of efficiency we try to wring out of a system becomes more and more expensive.
I don’t know where the “6 percent loss … adds up to the pollution of about 200 coal-fired plants” came from.
“All of these projects need labor, from unskilled to high tech. All would drive our economy more than fast food.”
[RWC] For the sake of argument, let’s say KD’s projects needed doing. None of these projects, however, require a GND.
“Spending this way returns many times over. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ‘threw money’ at our 1930s unemployment problem and built Raccoon Creek State Park. We still reap benefits. The GND is both practical and needed. Urge our politicians to back it.”
[RWC] As I mentioned previously, the New Deal was a failure.
Raccoon Creek State Park is a regular, albeit bad, “go to” for KD.
KD and I had a discussion on this topic during December 2012. I think you will find it informative.
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