The 2024 presidential cycle has finally given us a vision for an effective climate strategy that elevates American workers. You just have to combine what the two campaigns are saying.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) argued at the vice presidential debate and again this week that if the objective is to lower global emissions, our policies should “invest in American workers” to drive more manufacturing to the U.S., where we operate with fewer emissions than most . He’s right.
His counterpart, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), has argued that we need to be focused on “ becoming an energy superpower for the future ,” which will create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs and lower emissions. He’s also right.
Count me in for the Vance-Walz plan.
To date, our country has lacked a coordinated approach for lowering global emissions and meaningfully competing for the $215 trillion global decarbonization market. While we’re meandering, China is dominating clean energy markets at the cost of the American economy, our security and our workers. Why? In part because while we’re distracted by whether climate action is “woke” or “weird science,” China is singularly focused on winning in every international market that’s demanding these technologies — which is every international market.