Earlier on Wednesday, September 20, President Biden announced his attention to use his pen and his phone to implement another piece of the Green New Deal by executive fiat. He intends to establish an "American Climate Corps," which the administration claims will serve as a green jobs program, but will almost certainly instead serve as a training ground for climate alarmists.
After being thwarted by Congress, President Joe Biden will use his executive authority to create a New Deal-style American Climate Corps that will serve as a major green jobs training program.
In an announcement Wednesday, the White House said the program will employ more than 20,000 young adults who will build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels and do other work to boost conservation and help prevent catastrophic wildfires.
The climate corps had been proposed in early versions of the sweeping climate law approved last year but was jettisoned amid strong opposition from Republicans and concerns about cost.
Democrats and environmental advocacy groups never gave up on the plan and pushed Biden in recent weeks to issue an executive order authorizing what the White House now calls the American Climate Corps.
One might cast their optics in this direction and inform us as to where the Constitution authorizes the President to do this by executive order, or indeed at all by any means; I suspect you will not find this among the Executive Branch's enumerated powers. But that hasn't stopped the Biden Administration (nor, indeed, many of its predecessors) from doing whatever they please, the highest authority in the land be damned.
This is bad government, it's almost certainly unconstitutional, and it's even bad economics.
Here's what the order will do:
White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said the administration will work with at least six federal agencies to create the climate corps and will pair with at least 10 states. California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan and Washington have already begun similar programs, while five more are launching their own climate corps, Zaidi said: Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah.
The initiative will provide job training and service opportunities to work on a wide range of projects that tackle climate change, including restoring coastal wetlands to protect communities from storm surges and flooding; deploying clean energy projects such as wind and solar power; managing forests to improve health and prevent catastrophic wildfires; and implementing energy efficient solutions to cut energy bills for consumers, the White House said.
That's pretty nebulous. Infrastructure projects have traditionally been the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers, but they are not mentioned here; and it's unclear as to whether the "job training" the young volunteers here will be receiving involves operating chainsaws, dredges, backhoes, and bulldozers to carry out tasks like "restoring coastal wetlands" or "managing forests." We can be confident that most of the youthful members of the new American Climate Corps will not be anxious to, you know, actually go out and get their hands dirty working in the environment. This isn't the first stupid climate-panic move made by government officials, but unlike some, this one isn't local; Biden's spending everyone's tax money on this, and a lot of it.
Here's the thing about the environment that is well understood by those of us who live out in it: It's frequently dirty. It's got hot, sweaty, humid days, days with endless cold rain, days with freezing temps and snow. It's got bugs and raccoons, rodents, and other pesky critters that get into your stuff and eat your snacks. It's got nasty critters like skunks and porcupines. And the kind of projects that the American Climate Corps is apparently to be tasked with will not only involve spending days, weeks, and months out in the actual environment, it will also involve the kind of work where you can't wear shorts and Crocs; it's the kind of work where you wear leather gloves, jeans, and long-sleeved shirts even on hot days, to protect yourself from rough brush, stinging bugs and burning sun. You shower after work, not before. These kids will get hot, sweaty, and dirty, except when they are making their way through snow or cold rain.
That's the environment, kids; it's real, and it's there every day.
Here's a great illustration: When I was in college, one summer I volunteered (really volunteered - no pay was involved) to work on a project where we tore up about 10 miles of unused northeast Iowa railway. We removed the ties, piled them up and burned them, raked up the ballast, drove bulldozers to level off the ground, and then spread the ballast back out to make a walking path; the last couple of weeks were spent planting small trees and brush along what became a lovely walk/bike path. We weren't paid (I had grown up doing this kind of thing on the land where I grew up, and my motivation, to be perfectly honest, was to make the acquaintance of the many young women involved) and we got hot, sweaty, and dirty every day. We got blisters on our hands. We got bunions on our feet. It was hard work, even for the big, tough farm kids (like me) Iowa turned out in great numbers in those days; many of the townies couldn't hack it and walked after a few days. We got it done in about six weeks. I even had it relatively easy, because I was one of the few kids that had experience with tracked equipment, and so ended up driving one of the Caterpillars for a few days.
Does anyone think, for even one moment, that these kids who will be running to join up with the American Climate Corps will be tasked with any actual work like this? No? Neither do I.
