Here comes another one for SCOTUS

 

And, speaking of SCOTUS...

In an extraordinary and unusual dissent on Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a stark warning to the nation: The Supreme Court is favoring “moneyed interests” over all other parties, contorting the law to favor big business while locking the most vulnerable out of court.

Jackson’s remarkable opinion was a protest against the court’s decision in Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA, a case brought by the fossil fuel industry to weaken environmental protections. [...] [G]asoline companies [argued] that they had constitutional standing to sue because they suffer economic harm when people buy less gas.

[...]

The court’s newest justice assailed the majority’s reliance on “commonsense intuitions” to establish standing, arguing that the court’s musings about the economics of the auto market are not borne out by facts in the record.

[...]

But Jackson went much further, castigating her colleagues for twisting the usual rules of standing to benefit fossil fuel companies and corporate interests more broadly. “Our ruling will no doubt aid future attempts by the fuel industry to attack the Clean Air Act,” the justice wrote. “I worry that the fuel industry’s gain comes at a reputational cost for this court, which is already viewed by many as being overly sympathetic to corporate interests.”

  Slate

Because it is.

Fuck the world

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

What you get with your Republican vote

“The climate crisis committee will not exist,” Louisiana Representative Garret Graves, the top GOP member of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, said in an interview. “I don’t think that’s really consistent with what we are going to be focused on.”

  Yahoo

No. They'll be focused on Hunter Biden's laptop.  And retaliating against Democrats for opposing Trump.

The committee was resurrected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2019 when Democrats took back control of Congress. It’s served as a platform for the party to highlight the consequences of climate change and potential solutions to reduce emissions and increase clean energy. It held dozens of hearings and produced an action plan that called for limiting fossil fuel production, though the body lacks the power to advance legislation.

Graves said that he and fellow House Republicans will instead focus on a strategy they previewed over the summer that called for boosting domestic fossil fuel production and increasing liquefied natural gas exports, but that didn’t specify emission reduction targets.

I hope Republicans' children and grandchildren have a future.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Schooling Doucy

Wresting control from corporate America won't be easy

The fossil fuel industry has accumulated “billions of dollars in subsidies, loopholes and special foreign tax credits”, in Biden’s words. He intends to eliminate these and shift to non-carbon energy by strengthening the nation’s electrical grid, creating a new “clean electricity standard” that will force utilities to end carbon emissions by 2035 and providing research support and tax credits for clean energy.

It’s a sensible 180-degree shift of industrial policy.

The old industrial policy for the automobile industry consisted largely of bailouts – of Chrysler in 1979 and General Motors and Chrysler in 2008.

Biden intends to shift away from gas-powered cars entirely and invest $174bn in companies making electric vehicles. He’ll also create 500,000 new charging stations.

[...]

Internet service providers have been subsidized by the states and the federal government and federal regulators have allowed them to consolidate into a few giants. But they’ve dragged their feet on upgrading copper networks with fiber, some 30 million Americans still lack access to high-speed broadband, and the US has among the world’s highest prices for internet service.

Biden intends to invest $100bn to extend high-speed broadband coverage. He also threatens to “hold providers accountable” for their sky-high prices – suggesting either price controls or antitrust enforcement.

[...]

The pharmaceutical industry exemplifies the old industrial policy at its worst. Big pharma’s basic research has been subsidized through the National Institutes of Health. Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act bankroll much of its production costs. The industry has barred Americans from buying drugs from abroad. Yet Americans pay among the highest drug prices in the world.

Biden intends to invest an additional $30bn to reduce the risk of future pandemics – replenishing the national stockpile of vaccines and therapeutics, accelerating the timeline for drug development and boosting domestic production of pharmaceutical ingredients currently made overseas. That’s a good start but he must insist on a more basic and long-overdue quid pro quo from big pharma: allow government to use its bargaining power to restrain drug prices.

[...]

[I]t’s old industrial policy versus new. The new should focus on cutting-edge breakthroughs and not be frittered away on pointless projects like the F35 fighter jet. And it should meet human needs rather than add to an overstuffed arsenal.

[...]

A proper industrial policy requires that industries receiving public benefits act in the public interest.

  Guardian

Let's see if Biden can follow through. This imbalance has gone on far too long.

Biden’s restructuring of the American economy is necessary. America’s old industrial policy was stifling innovation and gouging taxpayers and consumers. The challenges ahead demand a very different economy.

But Biden’s new industrial policy must avoid capture by the industries that dominated the old.

And that won't be easy. They're not going to capitulate willingly.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.