Cut Red Meat Consumption by 90%: UK Paper Says Biden Climate Plan Could Come with These Horrible Changes
President Joe Biden kicked off his virtual Earth Day climate summit on Thursday by announcing his administration’s very ambitious plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and enable the U.S. to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Sacrifice on the part of every American would be necessary in order to achieve these goals. It would change our diets, force us to purchase electric cars and dictate the way we heat our homes.
Now, it’s important to note that Biden has not released many specifics on what changes Americans would have to make to their lives to meet the goals. However, drawing on various reports, the Daily Mail was able to publish a story on what adjustments could hypothetically be required of us if Democrats are truly serious about following through on this.
President Joe Biden unveiled the goal to cut emissions by 50%-52% from 2005 levels at the start of a two-day climate summit that kicked off on #EarthDay and was attended virtually by leaders of 40 countries including big emitters China, India and Russia https://t.co/18zJOhaPUC pic.twitter.com/Z9JWvfPbjK
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 23, 2021
The changes needn’t be made all at once. The Mail cited a 2020 study by the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems which concluded that “if half of all animal-based foods were replaced with plant-based alternatives and beef consumption fell by 90%, dietary emissions would drop by 51%” by 2030, according to a news release from the Center for Biological Research, which supported the study.
Such a plan “would require Americans to only consume about four pounds of red meat per year, or 0.18 ounces per day” which “equates to consuming roughly one average sized burger per month,” the Daily Mail reported.
I’m sorry but what? pic.twitter.com/vz5asGkjTW
— Katie Daviscourt?? (@KatieDaviscourt) April 23, 2021
Electric cars, meanwhile, account for approximately 2 percent of annual new car purchases in the U.S., according to the Daily Mail.
“The University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy estimated that cleaning up transportation would count towards about a quarter of Biden’s goal,” the outlet said. “It would mean more than 65 percent of new cars and SUV sales and 10 percent of new truck sales would need to be electric.”
The Mail estimated the average price of a new electric car at $55,000.
Car and Driver Magazine compared the prices of electric cars to gas-powered cars. According to data from Cox Automotive, the prices of electric cars in the U.S. have been decreasing at a fairly rapid rate. “The average cost of an electric vehicle decreased from $64,300 to $55,600 [in 2019]: a 13.4% decrease from the year before. And this drop would be even more pronounced if most manufacturers were not still focusing on making luxury electric vehicles.”
By comparison, Quartz reported the average cost of a new gas-powered car “in June 2019 in the U.S. was $36,600 … a 2% increase from the year before.”
So, if the trends of significant price decreases for electric cars and small price increases for gas-powered cars continue, this shouldn’t be too onerous for Americans.
Car and Driver also noted that the cost of an “electric eGallon” is about half the price of a gallon of gas. Obviously, the cost of energy is constantly changing, but at this point in time, it’s safe to say it costs less to operate an electric vehicle.
That might be the only good news to come from all this. The Mail pointed out that “[n]early 25 percent of homes would need to be heated by electricity, rather than natural gas or oil, to help reach Biden’s emissions goal by 2030. The average cost to install an electric heat pump, which an all-in-one heating and cooling unit, is about $5,613, according to figures home HomeAdvisor.”
The really bad news is that the Biden administration has not released the estimated price tag for the things he wants to accomplish. It has assured us that this initiative will be a net creator of jobs, but Republicans are highly skeptical. We recall some of the enormous cost projections of the Green New Deal following its introduction in 2019.
The Mail spoke to David Williams, the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who called Biden’s plan a “multi-trillion dollar corporate welfare giveaway. Strict climate mandates/targets will disproportionately hurt lower and middle-income citizens who will be forced to pay higher electricity bills.”
Matt Coday, the president of the Oil & Gas Workers Association, similarly told the Mail, “Biden is using buzzwords to justify his ‘transition away’ from American jobs while foreign countries like China, Iran, Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Iraq keep working and take over America’s global market share. President Biden’s misguided policies will crush small businesses, hurt American workers, and harm all Americans.”
He added, “If we ‘transition away’ from American jobs while foreign countries keep producing, did we ‘save the planet’ or just kill American jobs?”
Conservative radio host and political commentator Tammy Bruce, as well as former acting director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, joined Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Friday night to weigh in on what Biden wants to do.
All three were in agreement that Biden is using climate change as a cover to push his far-left agenda.
Hannity rightly said it is ridiculous for China, the world’s largest polluter, to continue to be classified as a “developing nation.”
Bruce said, “This kind of plan is … a redistribution of wealth. This global climate change dynamic and the Paris Accord is an international redistribution of American wealth to those nations. There’s no expectation of China whatsoever. And if you’re going to get serious about climate change — we all love the environment — China is the issue at hand.”
“And, of course, once again, strangely enough, something Joe Biden likes — something that the Democrats like — does a great job for China,” she continued.
“Gives them all kinds of opportunities while crushing the American citizen, while crushing American business and using the American people in this nation in some ways as like an engine for everyone else, as though we are, well, kind of a throwaway economy and the American people are throwaway people.
“This is unacceptable. It’s an absurd dynamic.”
“We are leading the world when it comes to the issue of carbon, of CO2,” she added. “But we have to recognize what the Paris Climate Accord was — which again was about us paying other nations, being like the world’s ATM. That’s not what this country is … And it certainly isn’t what American families want this country to be.”
Hannity then recited the long list of things Democrats have lied to Americans about and rattled off many of the problems America is currently facing. He asked Grenell why we should trust the government now.
“Well, first of all, we can’t. This is all for show,” Grenell replied. “Look this is a diplomatic failure for the Biden administration. They sent John Kerry to China in order to convince the Chinese to participate in this kind of new Paris Accord, the lowering of CO2 and trying to be carbon neutral.
“The reality is that under the Trump administration, we lowered CO2 and we greatly increased through fracking — fracking is safe — our ability to get off Middle East oil, and we’re well on our way there. We’ve gone from having to import energy to being an energy exporter,” he added.
“What the Paris climate treaty does is ask other countries to rely on the United States’ money in order to make the political decisions that they need to make. I want to know why we just can’t have these other countries put up or shut up,” Grenell said.
“Either lower your CO2 on your own or stop asking us for money to pretend like you’re lowering it, because they’re not. Look at China. Look at India. We have a long track record of these countries absolutely not doing what they are pushed to do and what they point the finger at others to do.”
Needless to say, Republicans are largely opposed to Biden’s plan which they believe will kill American jobs, raise taxes and push us even further into debt. Leftist Democrats don’t care about any of those issues because they have an agenda to carry out.
UPDATE, April 27, 2021: This article, and its headline, have been updated to clarify that the specific changes to Americans’ lives noted in the story have not been proposed by President Biden. Rather, they simply represent possible ways that the emissions goals floated by Biden could be reached.
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