Via: https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-j-d-vance-stacks-up-on-energy-environment-issues/
The senator has been dismissive of concerns about climate change. “Even if there was a climate crisis, I don’t know how the way to solve it is to buy more Chinese-manufactured electric vehicles,” he said in 2022, saying the idea of an environmental crisis was “created” to please Democratic donors.
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Former President Donald Trump has picked Sen. J.D. Vance — an author and former venture capitalist who has been dismissive of climate change concerns but outspoken on rail safety — to be his vice presidential running mate.
Trump, the Republican nominee in November’s presidential race, announced his pick Monday on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Views on climate change
Vance’s energy and environmental agenda in the Senate has aligned closely with the Republican Party. The senator has been dismissive of concerns about climate change.
“Even if there was a climate crisis, I don’t know how the way to solve it is to buy more Chinese-manufactured electric vehicles,” he said in 2022, saying the idea of an environmental crisis was “created” to please Democratic donors.
Two years earlier, Vance said society had a “climate problem” because cleaner sources of energy have not taken significant market share.
He has sought to put significant blame on China for greenhouse gas emissions. In a 2023 hearing with Kevin Welsh, the Federal Aviation Administration’s top official for environmental policy, Vance criticized the Biden administration’s endorsement of climate policies from the International Civil Aviation Organization and dismissed carbon offsets in aviation as “climate reparations.”
“Why are we doing so much to follow ICAO’s recommendations, when the Chinese themselves are not doing very much?” Vance asked.
“When you think about the fact that China is the dirtiest economy in the world — they emit about two times as much carbon as we do — why are we effectively penalizing the American aviation while we don’t require, or even attempt, to force the Chinese to do the same to their aviation industry?”
Vance last year introduced the “Drive American Act,” S. 2962, which would repeal the federal tax credit for electric vehicles and instead offer tax credits for U.S.-made vehicles powered only by gasoline or diesel.
He also introduced legislation to double maximum penalties for climate change protesters and others who target exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution and National Gallery of Art.
Vance has opposed and sought to scrutinize EPA regulations, including on gasoline-powered generators and methylene chloride, a paint stripper chemical linked to cancer. He’s also dismissed environmental justice as an excuse to offshore American jobs.
Vance has called Democratic action on climate “dumb” and a “handout to Chinese companies at the expense of Ohio workers.”
But he recently told POLITICO’s E&E News that if some local companies support certain Inflation Reduction Act provisions, lawmakers might want to keep them instead of repealing the entire law.
“The Inflation Reduction Act is mostly a lot of green energy stuff. And I think it’s made our economy less energy independent. It’s also added a lot of costs out there and a lot of federal spending that’s forced the inflation prices,” said Vance.
“And I also think that it’s sort of hastening a transition away from things like the gas driven cars that most Americans don’t want. So I think there’s a lot of bad policy in there. Also a lot of inflationary policy in there. And I’d like to see a lot of it gotten rid of.”
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Greens react
Environmental advocates who support Biden quickly denounced Trump’s choice of Vance. He has a zero percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters.
“Donald Trump’s anti-climate, anti-environment agenda is reinforced with his pick of J.D. Vance as the Republican vice-presidential nominee,” David Kieve, president of EDF Action, said in a statement. EDF Action is the advocacy arm of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Lori Lodes, executive director of the group Climate Power, said, “J.D. Vance is Donald Trump’s dream come true — a climate denier who is all too happy to do Big Oil’s bidding and pad their profits at the expense of working people.”
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