We are now fully into day three of Donald Trump and the 47th presidency and the effects are being felt immediately but also, hopefully, long-term. One way for any president to be able to have an effect right off the bat is through the issuance of executive orders, which is a popular way of sidestepping Congress. I have some thoughts on that which I will share in a later post about the pros and cons of this.
However, one of the things that Donald Trump did do on Monday was to kill funding for the Green New Deal, which was part of the garbage bills that Joe Biden was able to sign via the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. Both of these acts were massive federal government spending boondoggles and should have never seen the light of day.
Seeing as I live in the state of Michigan, which is the birthplace and home of The Big Three traditional car manufacturers who have made the world go around by building vehicles with combustion engines for well over a century, this issue makes me think about how it affects Detroit.
I read a bit about it right HERE.
Tens of millions of dollars promised to Detroit, Grand Rapids and the Michigan Department of Transportation for electric vehicle charging programs are among the federal grants in peril since President Donald Trump ordered agencies to “immediately pause” payments stemming from two laws passed during his predecessor’s term.
Trump on Monday issued an executive order that called in part for “Terminating the Green New Deal” by pausing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which funded climate, clean energy and other projects, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which put $1.2 trillion toward transportation and infrastructure spending.
The environmental initiatives funded by those laws are varied. They include a program to expand residential solar in low-income communities, a farmland preservation program, rebates for energy efficient appliance purchases, electric vehicle charging infrastructure buildouts and more.
As I mentioned above, I live in the state of Michigan, which many consider to be the birthplace of the American auto industry. Trump’s order makes me think about how this affects Detroit and the United Auto Workers union, whose main objective is (allegedly) to keep auto workers safe and paid well.
I wrote this piece here at RedState last year called VP Harris Arrives in Michigan for a Campaign Stop With a UAW Job-Killing Package, which revealed that Green New Deals were bad for the UAW and its members.
That dramatic shift will likely come at a steep cost in terms of auto industry jobs, and the transition to electric vehicles is at the center of the auto workers’ complaints. According to one estimate, the transition to EV production will come at the cost of 117,000 auto jobs.
You may think I’m making that up, but I’m not.
“The workers who are making engines and transmissions today, their jobs will be eliminated when we make a transition to electric vehicles,” UAW research director Jennifer Kelly said earlier this year. And Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, said last year he expects electric vehicles will require 40 percent less labor to produce than traditional automobiles.
Hopefully you have a little bit of a better idea of why I’m interested in this overall topic and why I think the Green New Deal is crud and not that great for the state of Michigan. We do have a spot for renewable energy, but generally, the government is throwing money at it because some lobbyists have been successful at convincing some staffers in Congress that it’s the route to go.
So Donald Trump sending this program to a time-out is okay for the moment but Congress does need to deal with this and change the overall direction of trying to influence business instead of letting the free market handle this and many other issues.
PLUS, the Trump move does give the GOP in the State of Michigan a pretty big hammer to use while it continues its rebuild and tries to set itself up to be a bit more relevant, something I mentioned yesterday about a big Democrat announcing a run for Governor here to replace Whitmer in 2026. Democrat Jocelyn Benson Announces Run for Michigan Governor, and She Is the Favorite to Win So Far
I pondered this in my post…
I have high hopes.
However, history has not been kind to Michigan in regard to defeating Democrats, and likely to repeat itself here.
Hopefully, the Trump presidency 2.0 will be the kickstart that is needed to bring consistency and, more importantly, relevancy to the leadership in the Michigan Grand Old Party.
I mentioned in the piece above that Jocelyn Benson is an enormously weak candidate, but in the blue state of Michigan, she has a pretty decent shot of winning. That’s not based on her job record which is abysmal, or that she’s a great salesperson, which she isn’t; it’s based on the fact the Great Lake State is a default Blue State unless given a reason not to be.
Donald Trump made the case two times here when he won the state.
With his repeal of the Green New Deal, he’s given a tool that hopefully Michigan Republicans will be able to use to build the party stronger going into the future.
