President Biden comes through
Aside from the courts, one of the most crucial issues on the ballot to consider is the environment – particularly as the GOP has gotten progressively worse on this issue over the last 30 years. The laws of physics don’t necessarily care who is in Congress or the White House, which makes it particularly difficult to propose ideal emissions standards and other policies that both please environmental activists while also appeasing businesses and middle of the road voters.
Fortunately, the Biden administration has delivered on a number of promises to make the transition to clean energy easier at a time when gas prices are reaching record highs. Now, the Department of Energy is taking a bold step further, announcing new guidelines on Monday for gas furnaces used in homes.
Once enacted, the department estimates a reduction in carbon emissions by 373 million metric tons over the next three decades, and a drop in methane emissions by 5.1 million tons within that same window of time. The best part is that the administration have a selling point to the new standards as well, with figures estimating that the rules being implemented can save consumers over $1.9 billion annually on their energy bills.
This comes just over a year after the former guy’s administration purposely made standards for furnaces more difficult to follow, determined to abolish the EPA and make it harder for states to enforce their own EPA standards. On just about everything else, the difference between voting Democratic and Republican in 2022 and 2024 couldn’t be clearer.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making