Exposing Joe Biden's Green Scam

Each week, I can't wait for Salena Zito's latest column. This week, Salena's column highlights the scam behind Joe Biden's Green New Deal push. In the article, she wrote "The pitch to the people of Cambria County when the Maple Hill Solar Farm was first announced two years ago was that the $200 million project would create 150 megawatts of electricity while eliminating 150,000 tons of carbon emissions that fossil fuel plants would have emitted — and that it would employ 250 workers at peak construction."

It shouldn't shock anyone that the Maple Hill Solar Farm still isn't finished. In fact, it isn't even close.

Salena continues, saying "Climb to the top of the mountain where the solar farm is and you see thousands of racking systems spread across hundreds of acres that hold solar modules — but no panels. The scene is jarring. The question is: Why?"

I'd say that jarring is the right word alright. I'd say that this is upsetting:

The delay caused by the ensuing Commerce Department investigation has stalled solar farms like this one for months — others permanently — and threatened the climate change goals Mr. Biden laid out at his inauguration.

“The tariffs derailed renewable projects across the country,” said Tom Rumsey, senior vice president of Competitive Power Ventures, the developer behind Maple Hill. "Lifting the tariffs has helped, but here at this solar panel farm, we’re expecting it to go commercial second quarter next year."

The uncertainty of the tariffs caused over 315 projects to be cancelled or delayed, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the industry’s top trade organization.

What else should we expect from this administration? They're nothing if not wedded to project-killing overregulation. If you think that's being harsh, look at the destruction they've done to NEPA reforms by the Trump administration. Finally, there's this:

On the same day Mr. Biden lifted the tariffs, he also announced he was going to use wartime powers granted under the Defense Production Act to ramp up solar equipment production to speed up American-made clean energy manufacturing.

That’s the other rub: We don’t make solar panels in this country. “The capability to manufacture the amount that you’re going to need, well that’s going to take probably over a decade,” explained Mr. Rumsey.

"And it’s not just build them — then where are you going to get the raw materials needed that go into them? That’s the part no one talks about. Yes, you can assemble them in the United States. You’re still going back to China, to the mines that everybody hates," he said.

Solar energy requires rare earth minerals, and China holds most of them, primarily in Xinjiang, where manufacturing is tainted by the use of forced labor.

This administration is famous for proposing projects that sound good but that are, at best, half-baked. That's because there aren't any people who have business experience. They're an administration filled with virtue-signalling idiots who've never been responsible for running point on a project from start to finish.