With GOP split on clean energy, Democrats should act
By Carl Pope / Bloomberg Opinion
The Republican effort to demonize clean energy across red-voting America has reached a reckoning.
The next six months will determine the success or failure of President Biden’s combined climate and reindustrialization initiative, the Inflation Reduction Act. It will also reveal whether the GOP can hold its coalition together in the face of a clean-energy dilemma and whether Democrats can use the economic boon that the IRA provides to split Republicans around pocketbook issues.
When Biden signed the IRA, his mood was celebratory. The legislation will “take the most aggressive action ever — ever, ever, ever — in confronting the climate crisis,” he said, and “save working families thousands of dollars” with $370 billion in rebates for efficient and electric appliances, rooftop solar and a $7,500 tax credit to buy new or used electric cars.
No Republican members of the House or Senate joined Biden’s ceremony; a right-wing counteroffensive had already begun. A week after the signing, Texas and Florida joined West Virginia in boycotting banks that appeared to favor renewable-power projects over coal, oil and gas. The Texas Public Policy Foundation quickly lined up Republican officials in other states to blackball financial institutions over alleged bias for renewables.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-with-gop-split-on-clean-energy-democrats-should-act/
