Two of the top environmental aides to President-Elect Joe Biden have openly declared that “systemic racism” is a driver of climate change. In doing so they seek to justify a government-led economic overhaul.
Mr. Biden has named Maggie Thomas as Office of Domestic Climate Policy chief of staff and Cecilia Martinez as “senior director for environmental justice.” Both Thomas and Martinez have said racial inequality in a factor in perpetuating climate change
Both Thomas and Martinez argue that a key component to the Biden administration’s environmental policy needs be focused on “racial and economic justice.”
Biden unveils picks to staff White House climate officehttps://t.co/QEp9ewNeci
— Axios (@axios) January 14, 2021
“Unless intentionally interrupted, systemic racism will continue to be a major obstacle to creating a healthy planet,” Martinez said in a 2019 self-promotional policy press release. “The only path forward is to design national climate policies that are centered on justice.”
The transformative policies touted by Thomas and Martinez would require a significant increase in government spending and, as they have stated, the “realignment of public dollars at all levels.”
Thomas’s approach to combating climate change not only goes after the fossil fuel industry but calls for “trillions” to fund welfare programs, to include rent and utility relief. Martinez’s platform adds increased government spending on “affordable and quality housing.”
Thomas’s plan calls on the President-Elect to issue a day one executive order establishing a “government-wide environmental justice initiative” tasked with the purpose of focusing “federal environmental policy around equity, justice, and inclusion.”
Climate, meet change 🌎 https://t.co/X515kJZR9g
— Maggie Thomas 🌲 (@maggiethomas315) December 18, 2020
Daniel Turner, the founder and executive director of Power the Future, declared that Biden’s climate team – and specifically Thomas and Martinez – is attempting to use “racism” and “social justice” to nationalize the US energy industry.
“Punishing America’s energy workers will do nothing to address climate change and it will do nothing to address injustices,” Turner told reporters. “It will, however, cause the prices of gas and utilities to rise sharply, and that will punish the less privileged most of all.”
Eco-extremists are pressuring the federal government to enact an immediate, radical shift to renewable energy. By immediate, they mean to start on Inauguration Day. This completely ignores states’ rights to make decisions best for their local communities. https://t.co/1aviwveUwe
— Power The Future (@powerthefuture) January 7, 2021
Thomas and Martinez’s agenda mirrors the Green New Deal, a $94-plus trillion piece of legislation introduced by US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), in 2019.
The Green New Deal calls for, among other radical measures, the “economic transformation” of the nation and increased investment in federal housing, two issues that have zero to do with the subject of the climate.
