He actually did. On Monday, US President Joe Biden’s administration cleared the way for a massive and highly controversial oil exploration operation on the north coast of Alaska. With the “Willow Project” of the oil company ConocoPhillips, around 576 million barrels of oil are to be extracted in one of the last untouched areas of the American state over the next 30 years.
The decision is a success for Alaska’s politicians and some of the indigenous tribes, who expect necessary investments and new jobs in the remote region. But it is also a slap in the face for the climate movement and hits another part of the indigenous people who vehemently oppose the project.
These groups are outraged by plans to launch a project in one of the world’s fastest-warming regions that would undeniably contribute to global warming. On the Online platform change.org has already received more than 3.7 million votes against the Willow project collected. The government must be prepared for lawsuits.
90
billion liters of oil are to be funded by the Willow Project over the next 30 years
Biden was in a bind. He had to weigh up America’s energy interests, which had dramatically gained in importance with the Ukraine war, and his promise to do more to protect the climate.
His decision to authorize America’s largest oil project also comes in response to pressure from Republicans to make the US energy independent by exhausting domestic sources of fossil fuels. And it already seems clear that they will focus on this issue in the 2024 election campaign. The price of gasoline is considered an indicator of the mood of many Americans.
Political U-turns by Biden can be observed in these weeks. The president, who wants to run for a second term in 2024, is actually considered a moderate Democrat.
3.7
millions of people spoke out against the Willow project on change.org
He maintains regular contact with Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia – for many on the left the embodiment of a politician bought by the coal industry – as well as with Republicans, such as Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. With the latter, Biden has just opened an infrastructure project in his home state of Kentucky.
At the same time, the Democratic Party has shifted to the left in recent years. And Joe Biden moved with her in the last election campaign. The youngsters in the party have been and continue to be a driving force—and the Democratic Party’s chances of success rise or fall with the level of their enthusiasm. This is one of the reasons why Biden promised during the 2020 election campaign that he would not drill for oil again on public land.
As late as 2020, Biden promised that there would be no new drilling for oil
That’s why he announced that he would end the Trump administration’s policy of foreclosure and create a more humane immigration policy – and put massive investments above the need to tackle the exorbitantly growing national debt.
The emissions generated as a result not only endanger the native Alaskans and other local communities. It is also incompatible with the ambition we need to achieve a carbon neutral future.
Ex-Vice President and environmentalist Al Gore on the Willow Project
However, in his third year in office and a few weeks before the expected announcement of his 2024 candidacy, his decisions are increasingly revealing the Realpolitiker that Biden has been known for for decades. Court decisions and a Congress in which the Democrats only have the say in the Senate with a narrow majority have contributed to this.
Republicans are trying to denigrate Biden as a “socialist” who, for ideological reasons, is endangering the country’s prosperity and security. In their eyes, he will probably not get rid of this label anytime soon. But he wants to win over the moderate conservatives and politically flexible independents in this way. He is firmly convinced that elections can only be won with the largest possible coalition – which he is currently best able to hold together.
So far, progressives have been remarkably faithful to the 80-year-old president. A Trump or another conservative candidate like Ron DeSantis is obviously good as a bogeyman or as a motivation to stick together. Currently, despite Biden’s age, there is no significant sales movement and no potential challenger for the intra-party primary.
6.5
million hectares of land in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska is to be closed to oil and gas production in the long term
Notably, leftist Bernie Sanders, who himself was set to become president in 2020, has already spoken out in favor of Biden’s re-election.
Nonetheless, resentment is growing. These are the points that have the potential to stir up left-wing Democrats:
Currently, as described above, the Willow project, which Bill Clinton’s former Vice President Al Gore castigates as “reckless and irresponsible”, as a “recipe for climate chaos”. The now-environmentalist Democrat told the Guardian: “The resulting emissions are not just endangering Alaska Natives and other local communities. It is also incompatible with the ambition we need to achieve a carbon neutral future.”
The government points out that by no means all ConocoPhillips projects have been approved, but only three out of five. In addition, the Interior Ministry had announced the day before that around 6.5 million hectares in Alaska land and a large area in the Beaufort Sea, the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, to be closed to oil and gas production projects in the long term.
However, this could not dampen the anger of environmentalists, who had just celebrated Biden because of the billions in climate investments through the Inflation Reduction Act. This decision was an “unprecedented fraud” by Biden, who campaigned on the issue of climate protection and was elected for it, said the US offshoot of Fridays for Future. The activists threatened that it would cost him the credibility and approval he needed to run again.
In view of the increasing number of immigrants, in the future it should only be possible to apply for asylum from outside the USA. Migrants who simply come into the country via the Mexican border would then no longer be able to apply for asylum in the USA. There are certain exceptions, for example for minors traveling alone, it said. But most people could be deported immediately.
They are then also subject to a five-year re-entry ban. Aid organizations compared the plans with the policy under Trump and announced lawsuits. Massive criticism was also voiced in the US Congress.
The liberal capital Washington wanted to reform its criminal law. But Congress blocked the plan – with Biden’s blessing and to the annoyance of many left-wing Democrats.
3
trillions of dollars wants Joe Biden according to his budget draft save over the next ten years
In his draft budget, Biden announces that he will save up to three trillion dollars over the next ten years – also at the expense of some heart projects of progressive Democrats. In his 2019 speech in which he announced his candidacy, the word “deficit” did not appear, nor did it appear in the party program that was later adopted, as Peter Baker writes in the “New York Times”.
Debt reduction and a balanced budget have not been a priority for the Democratic Party for a long time. Biden relied on gigantic spending programs for climate protection, social affairs or reducing student debt and accepted higher inflation.
Now austerity is suddenly at the center of Biden’s agenda. The Republicans have now won a majority in the House of Representatives and are pressuring the government to cut massive amounts of money. Biden also wants to raise taxes for the super-rich and corporations.
According to the draft budget, anyone with assets of more than $100 million should in future pay a minimum tax rate of 25 percent.
And in his speech in Philadelphia, in which he presented his budget plans, he also emphasized how important it is to finance the health insurance system Medicare in the long term and, for example, to do more for families with children. But the impression remains that Biden wants to pursue a middle course in the upcoming election campaign.
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