Following his big 2020 campaign promises to protect the environment, Biden has done the opposite. And now, heading into the 2024 elections, he is once gain trying to appear as if his administration stands against climate destruction.
Recently, Biden wanted to bump his ratings when he grabbed headlines for cancelling all leases approved by Trump to drill on federal lands in the National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Biden pretended that this was proof that his administration was carrying out “bold action to avert climate catastrophe.”
But in reality, no drilling ever began on any of these leases because oil companies knew they’d be canceled. There was never even any development near these areas to supply power and distribution if oil were ever drilled there. So, Biden’s cancellation of these leases was just for show.
But at the same time, cancelling these leases didn’t touch Biden’s recent approval of the massive ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project in Alaska, which opens up drilling for hundreds of millions of barrels of fossil fuel for decades to come.
And there has been no slowing down of the exploitation of 144,000 acres of federal land in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Montana, Utah and Wyoming that the Biden administration opened up for fossil fuel extraction.
In fact, the Biden administration has leased more federal lands for fossil fuel drilling in its first two years than Trump did during his.
Biden’s promises about confronting the climate emergency are empty. His administration’s climate policies have nothing to do with protecting the environment, and only serve to protect the profits of the oil companies. This is just business as usual.
Meanwhile, the Republicans propose nothing better. While Biden lies about protecting the climate, most Republican politicians deny that there is even a problem. In the end, both parties defend the same system, which relies on the continued destruction of the planet and its ecosystems for profit.
If we continue to wait for the Democrats or other politicians to protect the environment that we depend on for our survival, we will be waiting forever. The future of humanity requires an end to this system of capitalism and its path of ecological destruction.
