He then promised, “That’s not going to happen on my watch.”
It’s laudable that, after decades of downplaying the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Biden is finally recognizing the extent of Beijing’s ambitions. Or it would be, if he weren’t about to unleash a green energy plan poised to hand the CCP a massive gift.
At the center of Biden’s climate plan is a call to shift vast swathes of our energy infrastructure over to what Biden calls “clean energy.” This means buying millions of solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, and other expensive green infrastructure – all industries where China dominates production.
In other words, where will the new solar array that the Biden administration wants installed on your home’s roof be coming from? China. Whose industrial base will profit as a result? China’s. And whose dominant position in manufacturing are we ensuring? The Chinese Communist Party’s.
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China dominates the renewable energy industry because it’s been investing in it for years through massive government subsidies. If the U.S. is going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on renewable energy, it should not go to rewarding the CCP and allowing a genocidal regime to profit from its abuses.
Instead, U.S. policy should focus on how to build up domestic production to create good jobs here in America. The Biden plan gives a paltry nod to this through a handful of references to Buy America provisions, but they’re a far cry from what is needed to develop our own industry.
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Any serious plan would do two things.
First, make clear that none of the money in the bill can go to China. Period. This “don’t buy Chinese” provision would hurt Beijing’s industrial base and provide tremendous incentive for U.S. manufacturers and other nations to fill the gap.
Second, the bill should increase domestic content requirements and apply Buy America requirements to all new spending to spur massive domestic investment here at home. The Biden plan falsely ties propping up the CCP to responsible environmental stewardship, but this could not be further from the truth.
The alternative is a future that is Beijing’s to control. After a brief year of U.S. energy independence in 2019 – the first since the 1950s, thanks in great part to the shale revolution and clean natural gas – the Biden plan would make America even more reliant on foreign competitors.
This is pro-China legislation that will build up the CCP at the expense of American jobs.
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