Build back big business: The ‘green’ push to salvage Biden’s budget-busting bill

by Timothy P. Carney, Senior Columnist | January 24, 2020

It’s the most predictable thing in the world: Democrats’ massive bill that would subsidize both poor people and big business is being broken up, and the Biden White House is pushing to pass only the big business part of it.

A multi-industry coalition of 260 companies, including BP, Siemens, Mitsubishi Power, Shell, Xcel, and NextEra, sent a letter Monday lobbying congressional leaders to pass the Build Back Better Act right away.

“Each month of delay means an estimated $2 billion in lost economic activity … The clean energy and manufacturing provisions in the BBBA must take effect January 1, 2022 to take full advantage of the unprecedented private sector commitment to clean energy projects and to create good paying jobs in every state.”

That is: Don’t keep us guessing about whether we’ll get hundreds of billions in taxpayer subsidies.

The talk of “jobs” is how businesses defend corporate welfare. There’s no guarantee the jobs created by handing millions to Siemens will be jobs in the United States.

How to salvage BBB? The leading idea is to break off the green subsidies from the rest of the bill.

The New York Times has a news story supporting a climate-only BBB bill. That piece aptly describes the climate provisions this way:

“Instead of penalties to punish polluters, the bill offers incentives for industries, utilities and individuals … It would provide about $320 billion in tax credits for producers and buyers of wind, solar and nuclear power. Buyers of electric vehicles would receive up to $12,500 in tax credits. It would extend existing tax credits … The bill also includes $6 billion to make buildings more energy efficient … And it provides billions of dollars for research and development of new technologies to capture carbon dioxide from the air.”

That is, it’s a flotilla of corporate subsidies, and so there’s no wonder big business is lining up behind it. The piece cites multiple corporate consultants arguing for the legislation.

The “climate advocacy group” the New York Times cites is Evergreen Action, a dark-money lobbying group with ties to developers, whose donors are secret. The “nonpartisan policy analysis firm” the piece cites is a downtown D.C. firm that consults for financial firms and corporations looking to make money off of climate policy.