Biden Climate Advisor: Bill McKibben Wants Us To Back Joe Manchin's Dirty Deal
Channel: climatebrad
Date: 10/05/2023

5/10/2023: In a speech at the fossil-fuel industry-backed Bipartisan Policy Center, White House climate advisor John Podesta argues for the passage of Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) "permitting reform" legislation to expedite fossil-fuel and other projects and limit community and environmental review, citing "leading environmentalist" Bill McKibben's recent call to action in favor of building clean energy infrastructure. 

Manchin's "dirty deal" is strongly opposed by the environmental movement for environmental racism and questionable climate benefits. The scientific community has clearly indicated that continuing to build fossil-fuel infrastructure would violate national commitments to limit global warming.

Transcript:

Here's the bottom line: if we can't build some new things in a few backyards, the climate crisis will destroy everyone's backyards, along with the livelihoods, communities, wildlife, and biodiversity we want to protect. I may not be popular among my friends in my environmental movement for saying that, but that is the reality. 
"The general tactic used by opponents of projects, delay it until it goes away, is in effect a form of climate denial." Those aren't my words. That's what Bill McKibben, one of our nation's leading environmentalists, wrote in Mother Jones last month. He then said, "When you're in an emergency, acting at least gives you a chance. Not acting guarantees an outcome, and not a good one."
It's time that we act, it's time we confront crisis with pragmatism, to go from stopping things to building things again. And with pragmatic, bipartisan action from Congress, we can build a secure, resilient, affordable clean-energy future together.