Trump will try to make Biden's statement on ending use of fossils fuels as a "gaffe"

[brooklynite]

And it might work in Texas.

[AleksS]

1. The fact that he's searching and spinning for

ways to save TX for republicans fills me with joy.

I did not think I’d see the day when a GOPer is begging to save Texas!

[jcgoldie]

2. Texas... please like me!?

[Renew Deal]

3. It wasn't great

[vercetti2021]

4. It won't

Texas from another thread is only 1.8% of employment here in oil and its mostly in red parts. It won't hurt Joe.

[Caliman73]

5. Yes he will. Unfortunately, yes it might.

Oil is big business, but Joe is right. Oil pollutes. It is dirty and deadly. We need it to run society now, but it WILL kill us all one way or another. We do need to find a way to get off of fossil fuels and as soon as possible.

People won't realize until parts of Florida, Louisianna, Texas, and Califronia are under water. Then they will be like, "What happened? Who knew this would happen?" We will say, "Joe Biden knew, October 22, 2020. He said it".

[Claustrum]

12. Unfortunately, like with coal in WV for Hillary in 2016.

The people that works in those job doesn't want to hear it even if the job will literally kill them. They thought of it as sacrifice to put food on the table for their family. They know the downside and they chose to do it anyways.

[tman]

6. Yeah, it might.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

7. We need to start discussing making fossil fuel workers and owners secure

Job retraining. Early retirement. Guaranteed education for their kids. Guaranteed health care.

Yes - we need to save the planet by reducing greenhouse gasses. But no one that makes their living drilling, maintaining pipelines, mining, or well servicing will get behind that idea if doing the right thing means poverty.

[Claustrum]

14. Yes. That's the problem I have with Hillary's answer to WV coal problem.

Democrats need to come up with a real plan that will get the training needed to those people. They know the downside to the job and they still chose to do it. They view it as a sacrifice to put food on the table for the family. You have to lay out a real and tangible plan that will get them to the next job. Just saying there will be green energy jobs means nothing to them because they don't know how to get there.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

15. Coal, Natural Gas, and Oil

We can certainly try tax incentives to drive behavior, but there's no guarantee that a solar panel plant or a wind turbine plant opens up in Kentucky, West Virginia, Western PA, and Ohio. We need to be prepared to pay the kind of wages that well workers and miners make doing work like mine site restoration. We need to be prepared to offer generous retirements to workers that have spent their work-life not just in the mines or oil/gas fields, but in the machine shops, fab shops, and mechanical shops supporting those businesses.

It's easy to say we want energy policy change, but we need to think hard about who is hurt by those changes and how we can make them whole.

[Claustrum]

16. I completely agree with you.

Until we can come up with a better proposal than just "we will bring green energy jobs", we will keep losing those voters and losing on the issue.

I fully understand the environment impact of these industries. But you can't tell them you are taking away their jobs without a good replacement.

[Baked Potato]

26. Hi, I responded to a posting you made to me below and I would like to comment here too.

I agree we need to invest heavily in those areas in the country where people work in mines and wells, etc. Those Americans need to be offered choices and incentives to transition to clean energies or paid to leave the industry and carry on their lives elsewhere. These folks need cold hard cash. Republicans have cajoled these folks into thinking some day the glory days will return and the good, high paying jobs will return to reward the eager, hard workers waiting for them. And, Democrats have not been able to get things done, mostly from Republican obstruction.

Republicans know they need cash and jobs training, things they are terrible in providing. Republicans have no problem bailing out corporations, but hate bailing out individual Americans. Republicans also hate paying for education. I hope Joe Biden will go big in those areas you have mentioned and put some big resources in there. Those Americans can be brought to the Democratic side forever with real, on-site help. There should be a task force developed just to work the issue.

[cry baby]

8. Even though what Biden says is true, it won't be good for the TX folks. nt

[mr_lebowski]

9. He should've clearly said 'transition away from petroleum for energy production by 2050'

right from the outset. He didn't handle the idea very gracefully. It was a bit of a gaffe.

[PTWB]

10. Biden shouldn't have said it that way.

He should have said that we need to explore options to go beyond fossil fuels because eventually we're going to run out of fossil fuels. He should have hammered the fact that we need to transition fossil fuel workers from high paying oil jobs to other high paying jobs when that day comes.

[brooklynite]

11. UPDATE: Democrat Kendra Horn challenges Biden on Fossil Fuels

Link to tweet

[phylny]

13. My husband retired from Big Oil last year.

He got out just in time. The companies are laying off and firing employees, here and abroad. Oil stocks have plummeted. The dividends will need to be cut.

Oil companies know they have to change and diversify to survive. They just didn't do it soon enough.

[Turin_C3PO]

17. Maybe so but

I wasn’t really expecting Biden to take Texas anyway. I think 2024 will be our year in that state.

[Bleacher Creature]

18. So a public option is socialism, but handing over cash to energy companies isn't?

Link to tweet

[Baked Potato]

19. I don't think so. Trump made it look like just mentioning the word "oil"

was like instant death. Trump really overacted the moment. Biden rhetorically said he would transition away from oil. That’s nothing new from Democrats. Joe told the truth.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

21. Trump is the other idiotic extreme

Deny that climate change is real. Pander to fossil fuel interests.

Trump's arguments play well in places like Western MD, Western PA, W VA, etc. Coal and Natural Gas jobs pay well, and don't require a lot of post-secondary education. But they are killing us on a planetary basis. So we need to be systematic - we need first to acknowledge that climate science is real -- just like cigarette cancer science is real; just like too much fat and sugar leads to heart attacks and strokes science is real. The difference here is that we can't just quit using coal and oil and natural gas, and simultaneously quit on the families that support these industries. So any discussion of how we wean off these has to start with this question: Who is hurt? Next question? What do we do to make the hurt whole? Third question: How can we best guarantee the kids of those displaced have the most promising future we can offer?

[Baked Potato]

25. I think Joe knows and understands what you are saying here.

After Joe fixes the more dire problems he will face, such as calming down the country and getting people to put their guns away, he can work on longer term projects. Biden knows the country can’t transition to clean energy in one term of a presidency. The subject should have been a whole debate point so both sides could lay out the strategy going forward. Right now, many in the country are sick and unemployed and getting ready to be homeless. These Americans need immediate help. Also, as far as helping the families dependent on the fossil fuel industry, Republicans aren’t doing anything to transition to clean energy. Like other issues they keep in their pocket to fundraise like getting rid of healthcare and abortion, I don’t think Republicans are in a hurry on energy because they use it to raise money.

[Marius25]

20. Some guy on twitter actually said that 87% of people

actually oppose oil subsidies.

[Zeus69]

22. Certainly not what oil workers want to hear.

But his lead in PA remains robust despite Trump's all-out assault on the fracking issue.

[Raine]

23. Possibly in Pennsylvania and Ohio too. nt

[BainsBane]

24. No, he'll use it as fact

and it will probably work in Texas.