Did CNN Lay a Trap for VP Joe Biden?
I thought that it was very unfair for CNN to waylay, sucker punch, blindside, etc. VP Joe Biden with their first question in the Climate Crises Town Hall. They had the first questioner ask about why his fundraiser the next day would be with an owner or executive of a natural gas company. Biden answered that he did not think that he was an active executive, which it seemed that CNN admitted at the end of the interview. Anderson Cooper followed the question with the same statement.
The questioner was from Sunshine, which was demanding that no Democratic candidate was receiving any money from fossil fuel companies. One wonders how the questioner got to the event, without buying any fossil fuel. The vilification of natural gas is uncalled for at the present time for two reasons. Most relevant to the Sunshine and Wind Farmers is that only rapidly responding natural gas plants can supplement the rapidly and also seasonable varying renewables. The reductions in emissions that have been made so far have mostly come from natural gas replacing coal plants.
I have a feeling that CNN wants to set back Biden, since they get a lot of viewers for events with many viable candidates, but will get nobody if Biden becomes a majority front runner.
It could also be bad if the Green New Dealers accept support from wind and solar power companies or their industry groups, since their interest is to highly overbuild these resources in order to rapidly achieve total renewables, despite the local fluctuations. They are also pushing rooftop solar, despite the fact that it still is twice as expensive as large scale utility solar projects.
I’m not opposing lobbyists or climate action enthusiasts, but just the narrow enforcement of what people see as a purity that won’t really work.
Those pushing for a carbon tax have to realize that since natural gas is needed to supplement fluctuating wind and solar power, as well as to charge up electric cars at night, taxing natural gas used for those purposes will raise the costs of renewables, and electric car charging.
The sad thing about such purity, is that it was used to embarrass the leading Democratic candidate, and treated as righteous by CNN. The fact is that the eight years of the Obama-Biden administration attacked a vast number of areas that are needed to fight greenhouse gas emissions, and set up carefully studied regulations and the Green Power plan. Trump has spent almost three years tearing down 84 emissions regulations, which are so well founded, that many are being fought in the courts.
Biden was shook up and answered questions as if he was under siege after that. He has done so much, as opposed to just wishing, that his answers jumped between things that he has done, which seemed less coherent than it could have been.
