Lawmakers warn green energy initiatives will benefit China

Congressional critics are warning that the Biden administration's green energy initiative will benefit China, the world's leading producer renewable energy components (image courtesy GovernmentNews.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With a growing reputation as a bipartisan player on Capitol Hill, Utah’s freshman Rep. Blake Moore, R-District 1, is urging the Biden administration to take a strong stand against unfair competition from China.

“The United States faces a strategic adversary in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that is challenging our political, economic, industrial and educational systems,” Moore said in a online blog posted April 1 that urged Congress and the Biden administration to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese manufacturing and rebuild America’s competitive edge.

It appears that the warnings from Moore and others in Congress aren’t falling on entirely deaf ears in the White House.

“China has an overall goal,” President Joe Biden acknowledged during a sit-down with reporters in March, “to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world and the most powerful country in the world.

“That’s not going to happen on my watch,” the president pledged.

The problem, Republicans say, is that Biden will have a difficult time opposing China while still pleasing his progressive political base.

In February, Biden followed in the footsteps of former President Donald Trump by issuing an executive order aimed at safeguarding American manufacturing and defending the national industrial base.

That order launched a 100-day review of four vital products in America’s industrial supply chains. Those products are semiconductors; minerals and materials made from rare earths; pharmaceuticals and their ingredients; and advanced batteries for electric vehicles and other uses.

In his blog, Moore praised that effort, noting that “ … rebuilding manufacturing abilities and creating competition in these areas is critical to remaining a world leader …”

On the other hand, critics say, the Biden administration is in the process of catering to environmental advocates by launching a nationwide green energy initiative that will undoubtedly prove to be a massive financial boon to China.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, is among those critics. He says that Biden’s budget-busting infrastructure proposal includes plans to shift much of the U.S. to alternative, renewable energy sources.

After finally achieving energy independence in 2019 as a result of booming domestic production of oil and gas, the Biden administration began to curtail U.S. energy production via fossil fuels immediately after taking office. Those power sources will be replaced with green energy production, according to officials.

“This means buying millions of solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations and other expensive green infrastructure,” Rubio charges, all industries where China dominates worldwide production.

A U.S. spending spree for green energy infrastructure would only benefit Chinese industries whose productivity is built on illicit practices, according to Moore.

“China’s access to a black market of cheap, sanctioned oil and gas helps that country produce steel, plastic, chemicals and pharmaceuticals at a lower price than many of its global competitors …” Moore explains. “By buying prohibited oil, China also fuels Iranian aggression in the Middle East.

“Both the resulting instability in that region and the subsidized Chinese goods made with sanctioned energy exact a real cost on the United States and its partners.”

Rubio and other congressional critics of Biden’s infrastructure plan also object to the idea of U.S. tax dollars being spent on products made with the forced labor of Uyghur and Turkic Muslim minorities in China.

“For someone so hyperbolic in his comparison of ongoing American policies to historic evils like Jim Crow,” Rubio observes, “Biden seems inexplicably pleased with allowing America’s clean energy revolution to be built on the backs of actual slaves.”

Moore and Rubio agree that adopting “Made in American” policies must be the first step in any massive shift to a green energy infrastructure.

“If Biden is serious about cutting down the Chinese government and their communist party’s ambitions to become the richest, most powerful country in the world,” Rubio says, “then he needs to wake up to the unintended – but devastating – consequences of this plan.”

 

 

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.