Amid Crippling Wildfire Smoke, White House Memo Blasts GOP Climate Denial

With the United States struggling by way of one of many worst wildfire smoke occasions on document, the White House on Tuesday slammed Republicans for his or her repeated efforts to dam motion on local weather change and to spice up manufacturing of planet-warming fossil fuels.
In a memo authored by White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates and obtained solely by HuffPost, the Joe Biden administration condemns House Republicans for subscribing to “debunked conspiracy theories that deny the existence and nature of climate change” and enabling air pollution that’s “having catastrophic health impacts on Americans.”
“As the American people fight through unprecedented economic, national security, health, and safety threats due to climate change, it’s important to remember that less than one month ago nearly every House Republican voted to kill the President’s historic climate investments that are driving a manufacturing resurgence ― especially in conservative states ― and taking on climate change,” the memo says.
Bates was referring to House Republicans’ initial debt limit proposal, which sought to rescind clear vitality tax credit within the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature local weather legislation, which Democrats handed final 12 months. Those provisions didn’t make it into the last debt ceiling invoice that Congress handed in late May and Biden signed into legislation earlier this month.
“House Republicans’ very first priority was to protect deficit-busting taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil ― which is experiencing record profits ― and enable pollution that is having catastrophic health impacts on Americans,” Bates wrote. “What’s more, had the Default on America Act become law, it would have raised Americans’ energy bills even more *and* exacerbate pollution even more, while killing thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs we’re bringing back from overseas.”
As HuffPost reported Thursday, congressional Republicans have largely responded to the historic occasion by peddling pro-logging speaking factors whereas ignoring and downplaying the local weather change link. Democrats have used it to name for extra aggressive motion to rein in planet-warming greenhouse gasoline emissions.
Bates went on to spotlight mounting local weather results throughout the nation — wildfires, floods and illness outbreaks — and tout Biden’s efforts to fight the disaster.
“Study after examine has confirmed that in lots of instances the waves of jobs the Inflation Reduction Act is creating are disproportionally flowing to crimson states as corporations make investments to make every part from electrical automobiles to photo voltaic panels. To commerce these advantages for extra Big Oil subsidies is not sensible.
The House GOP’s effort to repeal these jobs would have been a devastating and unconscionable assault on center class households in their very own districts, on American manufacturing, on our competitiveness with China, and on Americans throughout the nation enduring the never-before-seen security and health threats of local weather change.
The American individuals need the steadiness, high-quality jobs, decrease vitality payments, and curbed risks that President Biden’s management is offering in the case of local weather.
Selling hardworking households and manufacturing out to Chinese trade *whereas* worsening the ache of utmost climate simply so wealthy particular pursuits can acquire new deficit-increasing tax giveaways stays unacceptable.”
A analysis group at Stanford University carried out a rapid analysis that confirmed Wednesday was the worst wildfire smoke day on document within the United States. The smoke plumes stem from a whole bunch of early-season fires in neighboring Canada following a prolonged heat wave in May that shattered a number of temperature information.