As the United States suffers from one of the worst wildfire smoke events on record, the White House on Tuesday criticized Republicans for their repeated efforts to block action on climate change and to increase the production of fossil fuels that warm the planet.
In a memo written by Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates and obtained exclusively by HuffPost, the Joe Biden administration condemns House Republicans for subscribing to “debunked conspiracy theories that deny the existence and the nature of climate change” and allowing pollution that “has catastrophic effects”. impacts on the health of Americans.
“As the American people struggle with unprecedented economic, national security, health and safety threats from climate change, it is important to remember that less than a month ago, nearly every Republican in the House voted to kill the President’s historic climate investments that are spurring a manufacturing resurgence — especially in conservative states — and tackle climate change,” the memo reads.
Bates was referring to House Republicans initial debt limit proposal, which sought to reverse clean energy tax credits in the Cut Inflation Act, Biden’s flagship climate law, which Democrats passed last year. These provisions were not included in the final debt ceiling bill which Congress passed in late May and Biden signed into law earlier this month.
“The very first priority for House Republicans was to protect taxpayer subsidies to reduce the deficit of big oil companies – which are running record profits – and to allow pollution that is having catastrophic effects on the health of Americans,” said writes Bates. “Furthermore, if the Default on America Act had become law, it would have further increased Americans’ energy bills *and* exacerbated pollution even further, while killing thousands of well-paying manufacturing jobs we are bringing back from America. ‘foreign.”
Like HuffPost reported Congressional Republicans largely responded to the historic event on Thursday, peddling pro-logging talking points while ignoring and downplaying the link to climate change. Democrats have used it to call for more aggressive action to curb emissions of greenhouse gases that are warming the planet.
Bates then pointed to the growing climate effects across the country — wildfires, floods and disease outbreaks — and praised Biden’s efforts to tackle the crisis.
“Study after study has proven that in many cases the waves of jobs created by the Cut Inflation Act flow disproportionately to red states as companies invest to make everything from vehicles trading off these benefits for more subsidies to big oil companies is foolish.
The House GOP effort to cut those jobs would have been a devastating and unconscionable attack on middle-class families in their own districts, on American manufacturing, on our competitiveness with China, and on Americans across the country enduring the security and health threats of climate change.
The American people want the stability, high-quality jobs, lower energy bills, and reduced dangers that President Biden’s climate leadership provides.
Selling hard-working, manufacturing families to Chinese industry *while* compounding the pain of extreme weather just so wealthy special interests can win new deficit-increasing tax giveaways remains unacceptable.
A research team from Stanford University conducted a quick scan which confirmed that Wednesday was the worst wildfire smoke day on record in the United States. The smoke plumes come from hundreds of early season fires in neighboring Canada following a prolonged heat wave in May which broke several temperature records.
