BELEN, N.M. — President Biden on Wednesday sought to fine-tune his messaging on combating climate change and promoting “Bidenomics” as he touted the effects of major laws nearly one year after their implementation.
Mr. Biden took credit for a clean energy and manufacturing “boom” from his tax-and-climate spending law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, and the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act for semiconductors during a speech in New Mexico at the future site of a wind tower facility.
“Look, folks, that’s Bidenomics. Since I took office, we’ve attracted over half a trillion dollars in private investment in manufacturing and industries of the future right here in America,” Mr. Biden said. “According to Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Wall Street, my investing in America agenda is leading to a boom of manufacturing investment.”
Mr. Biden is banking on wind power as a key clean-energy source to boost his climate change agenda and help transform the energy industry. But the president’s optimistic tone came amid a backdrop of uncertain times ahead for the wind sector.
Wind accounted for just over 10% of the country’s total power last year, according to the Energy Information Administration. Hydropower and solar combined produced about 10%, coal nearly 20% and natural gas almost 40%. The EIA forecasted last year that renewable generation by 2050 will only reach 44%, a far cry from the Biden administration’s target to eliminate fossil fuels as an electricity source by 2035.
Regional electricity providers tasked with keeping America’s lights on recently warned that the U.S. needs to slow the rate at which it’s prematurely shuttering coal- and gas-fired power plants. But a proposed rule from the Environmental Protection Agency would force fossil fuel plants to slash pollution by 90% before 2040 — most likely through costly and little-used carbon capture technology to store emissions underground — or shut down entirely.
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Tri-State Generation and Transmission, which provides electricity to 42 utilities across the rural West that serve 1 million consumers in New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming, said fossil fuels must remain online for the foreseeable future even in areas with heavy wind and solar production.
“I would stress the need for a balanced portfolio. You do need wind, you do need solar, but you do need something to back it up,” Tri-State Chief Operating Officer Barry Ingold told last week. “You need something dispatchable.”
Onshore and offshore wind projects in the U.S. and Europe totaling tens of billions of dollars are in jeopardy amid rising costs and distribution hurdles, underscoring the challenges for the wind industry to scale rapidly.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel on Wednesday accused Mr. Biden of wanting to “destroy New Mexico’s oil and gas industry” with his climate change agenda.
“While Biden is gaslighting voters in New Mexico, he is ignoring the real ’national emergency’ that is going on at the Southern Border,” she said in a statement. “Prices are up, real wages are down, and cartels are thriving — that’s Bidenomics.”
Mr. Biden’s visit was part of a three-day trip to western states that he’s used, in part, to generate support for his green agenda and to court a key voting block of climate enthusiasts that make up his base amid a slump in the polls on his handling of climate change.
A Washington Post-University of Maryland survey released this week found a majority of Americans, 57%, say they disapprove of his handling of the issue.
The president promoted wind energy and Arcosa, the wind tower company’s new plant where he spoke, as the future of the clean power industry. The company designs the towers that prop up wind turbines and said it’s received $1.5 billion in new orders since the Inflation Reduction Act.
“This company is a great example and is now poised to be the leader in the wind industry. But a few years ago, they were laying off workers because we weren’t investing in them,” Mr. Biden said. “Now, thanks to the new law I signed making historic investments in clean energy, business is booming again.”
• Ramsey Touchberry reported from Washington.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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