Climate change sucks. Especially since China and India control it. They're the big polluters now, and their carbon footprint is growing as their economies expand (much faster than ours). Ergo, they are running the climate show, not us.
Americans seem to have bought into the climate pipe dream that EV cars, wind, and solar will make a dent in global warming/carbon emissions. The impact of these is minuscule at best. Whatever your opinion, factually speaking, they won't move the dial.
Nuclear power can move the dial & France runs 80% on such. Will our politicians wake up? Don't count on it.
Meanwhile, we can move the dial on water pollution, Agri pollution, crime, immigration policy, and helping (vs. hindering American business). Maybe we should work on the stuff we can control?
Rashida Tlaib Wants a Climate Bank Run
Lawmakers are a bigger financial-stability risk than climate change.
By The Editorial BoardFollow
Sept. 22, 2022 1:06 pm ET
The political left increasingly claims climate change is an imminent threat to global financial stability and demands regulators do something about it. Well, if we’re talking about financial threats, how about the Democratic Congresswoman who called for a bank run to protest an institution’s fossil-fuel investments?
We speak of Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who on Wednesday got into a verbal tussle with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Let’s go to the videotape toward the end of a marathon six-hour financial-services committee hearing:
Ms. Tlaib: “So I would like to ask all of you, go down the list, because again you all are agreed to doing this [supporting long-term net-zero carbon emissions targets], please answer with a simple yes or no, does your bank have a policy against funding new oil and gas products? Mr. Dimon?”
Mr. Dimon: “Absolutely not, and that would be the road to hell for America.”
Ms. Tlaib: “Yeah, that’s fine. Sir, you know what, everybody that got relief from student loans [who] has a bank account with your bank should probably take out their account and close their account.”
By this point, Ms. Tlaib and other Democrats on the committee appear to have been irritated with Mr. Dimon for telling uncomfortable truths. One was his observation that the world is discovering how insecure the global energy supply is, and that investment in natural gas will be the best, cleaner-burning alternative to coal for years to come.
The other was that President Biden’s mammoth student-loan forgiveness plan is a bad idea. “I wish they had targeted the people who actually needed help,” Mr. Dimon noted, while describing the debt-relief plan as a Band-Aid.
Apparently banks now need to bow to Democratic policy priorities or risk lawmakers inciting a bank run. The good news here is that the vast majority of Mr. Dimon’s customers probably don’t take Ms. Tlaib any more seriously than anyone else does. Besides, isn’t the student-forgiveness plan supposed to be helping people so impoverished by college debt that they aren’t able to save?
This exchange and the broader point of Mr. Dimon’s testimony Wednesday highlight the extent to which climate-obsessed lawmakers and regulators pose a greater threat to the economy and financial system than changes in the climate. It’s a relief that some business leaders still are willing to say so.
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