Biden’s Empty Green Job Promises

Democrats Promise Green Jobs, But Biden And Michigan Democrats Have A Record Of Failure

BIDEN IS PROMISING GREEN JOBS HE CAN’T DELIVER

• Today, Biden is going to Dearborn, Michigan to tout his green jobs agenda ahead of Ford’s unveiling of the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup.
• While Democrats promise green jobs, “reality doesn’t always live up to projections.”
• Biden is willing to “sacrifice” hundreds of thousands of blue-collar jobs in pursuit of a “greener economy,” and has already put good-paying energy jobs on the chopping block.  
  • On day one, Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline, killing 11,000 jobs, many of them union jobs.
  • Biden rejoined the disastrous Paris Climate Agreement, which economists estimate will kill anywhere from 400,000 to 2.7 million jobs.
  • Biden placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands, threatening an estimated 268,000 jobs.  

BIDEN HAS A HISTORY OF BREAKING GREEN JOB PROMISES

• As vice president, Biden touted green investments that failed to deliver the jobs he hyped.
• In 2009, Biden extolled the failed solar company Solyndra, promising it would be “the foundation for long-term growth in the 21st-century economy.”
  • Biden praised the Obama-Biden administration’s $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, bragging that these jobs were the “permanent” “green” jobs of the “future.”
  • Solyndra was supposed to create 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs once the factory opened.
  • But just two years later, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy with promised green jobs nowhere in sight.
• In 2009, Biden praised the opening of electric carmaker Fisker Automotive’s Delaware plant, saying the Obama administration’s $528.7 million conditional loan was “seed money that will return back to the American consumer in billions and billions and billions of dollars in good, new jobs.” 
  • In 2013, Fisker Automotive filed for bankruptcy, with the Department of Energy losing $139 million on its loan. 
  • Hunter Biden was listed as a creditor of Fisker Automotive during the bankruptcy.
  • The thousands of jobs promised never surfaced and the company never made any cars in the United States. 
• In 2011, Biden visited battery manufacturer Ener1, where he claimed “creating new jobs” in green industries would “ensure our competitiveness for decades to come.”
  • Just three years after receiving a $118.5 million loan from the Obama-Biden administration, Ener1 filed for bankruptcy.
  • Ener1’s promise of 1,400 new jobs failed to materialize.

BIDEN’S ENERGY SECRETARY JENNIFER GRANHOLM ALSO PROMISED GREEN JOBS, BUT FAILED TO DELIVER

• In 2008, then-Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm signed a $6 billion alternative energy mandate, claiming it would generate nearly 17,000 jobs in the alternative energy and energy efficiency sectors.  
  • However, in just three years, the number of jobs in “power and communications system construction,” including jobs for wind and solar power construction, actually dropped. 
• In 2010, Granholm predicted the creation of almost 62,000 new Michigan jobs due to investments in battery production.
  • In January 2021, Granholm even bragged about her record in Michigan “in terms of seeding the area for battery technology.”
  • But as of 2019, less than 2,000 jobs in the battery manufacturing industry existed in Michigan. 

WHILE BIDEN PROMISES JOBS THAT WON’T COME, GRETCHEN WHITMER IS ACTIVELY SACRIFICING MICHIGAN’S ENERGY SECURITY

• In November 2020, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered Enbridge to shut down within six months its Line 5 pipeline, which supplies many Michiganders with their fuel and propane.
  • Last week, the order officially went into effect, even though Enbridge is still fighting the order. 
• Line 5 transports 540,000 barrels of crude oil and petroleum products per day and is in full compliance with federal pipeline safety standards.
• A recent study found that shutting down the Line 5 pipeline could kill 33,755 jobs and cost the economy of Michigan and surrounding states $20.8 billion.
  • Shutting down this pipeline would result in a potential rise in fuel prices, hurting consumers, truckers, aviation users, farmers, and more.
  • Enbridge Regional Operations Director Mike Moeller: “Without Line 5, consumers will shoulder the burden of supply disruptions and related price increases, particularly for propane and transportation fuel."
• America, meanwhile, is experiencing a gas shortage following a six-day shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, highlighting the importance of pipeline infrastructure. 
  • In a lack of self-awareness, having canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, the Biden administration is now saying “pipe is the best way to go.”
  • Despite this, Whitmer has doubled down on shutting down Line 5, threatening to take further profits as property of the state of Michigan.