News: Climate science, capitalism and government, etc.

Utilities oppose clean air regulations until government 

incentivizes them to support regulations

Capitalism really does work when one understands that profits are everything. The NYT writes:

With Federal Aid on the Table, Utilities Shift to Embrace Climate Goals

As billions in government subsidies were at stake, the electric utility industry shed its opposition to clean-air regulation and put its lobbying muscle behind passing President Biden’s climate bill.

Just two years ago, DTE Energy, a Michigan-based electric utility, was still enmeshed in a court fight with federal regulators over emissions from a coal-burning power plant on the western shore of Lake Erie that ranks as one of the nation’s largest sources of climate-changing air pollution.

But in September, Gerard M. Anderson, who led DTE for the last decade, was on the South Lawn of the White House alongside hundreds of other supporters of President Biden, giving a standing ovation to the president for his success in pushing a climate change package through Congress — a law that will help accelerate the closure of the very same coal-burning behemoth, known as DTE Monroe, that his company had been fighting to protect.

Mr. Anderson’s position reflects a fundamental shift among major electric utilities nationwide as they deploy their considerable clout in Washington: After years of taking steps like backing dark-money groups to sue the government to block tighter air pollution rules, DTE and a growing number of other utilities have joined forces to speed the transition away from fossil fuels.  

Their new stance is driven less by evolving ideology than the changing economics of renewable energy, fueled in part by the sheer amount of money the federal government is putting on the table to encourage utilities to move more quickly to cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy like solar and wind.

The priorities of most (~90% ?) big businesses cannot be much clearer than this. Profit talks and everything else walks. 

Despite Republican Party ideology vilification of, and vehement opposition to, Biden’s attempt to deal with climate change, businesses go for the cash. Ideology, hate of government and everything else be damned. Profit is king. Everything else is worthless peasantry. The government hater wing of the fascist GOP, i.e., the entire GOP leadership, must hate news like this. One can bet that Faux News won’t be mentioning this inconvenient little development.

A bit of bipartisanship about same-sex marriage happened!

The NYT writes:

The Senate passed landmark legislation on Tuesday to mandate federal recognition for same-sex marriages, as a lame-duck Congress mustered a notable moment of bipartisanship before Democrats were to lose their unified control of Capitol Hill.

The 61-to-36 vote put the bill on track to become law in the final weeks before Republicans assume the majority in the House of Representatives at the start of the new Congress in January.

The bill would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples. It prohibits states from denying the validity of an out-of-state marriage based on sex, race or ethnicity. But in a condition that Republican backers insisted upon, it would guarantee that religious organizations would not be required to provide any goods or services for the celebration of any marriage, and could not lose tax-exempt status or other benefits for refusing to recognize same-sex unions.

Notice the Republicans protected Christianity and its precious tax-exempt status. That is kleptocratic theocracy in action. Christian nationalist churches remain free to discriminate as much as their bigoted black little hearts desire. But on balance, this is still good news. 

One step at a time. One fight at a time.