Thread by @RL_Miller

hey, y'all listening? I want to talk in a bit more detail than yesterday about the Biden Bernie Unity Task Force climate plan. Will use same hashtag as yesterday -- #Underwhelmed.

First, the document, all 110 pages. First 6 pages are Platformese climate; then pp. 42-55 are Policy-ese climate. I skimmed a few other sections and there may be stray climate mentions elsewhere too. #Underwhelmed bit.ly/2ZTXv7z

Next, some praise. This is a labor-friendly climate plan. And that matters a lot, because non-union cleantech doesn't get much respect in Dem circles compared to labor folk who donate and walk and elect Dems. Still, I'm #Underwhelmed.

And if you're on the Sunrise email list, you know that @VarshPrakash fought hard to move up the 2050 electricity goal to 2035, and succeeded. That's another bright spot. Still, I'm #Underwhelmed.

So what is underwhelming? 1. Fossil fuel phaseout, or lack thereof. Climate folk we need to #KeepItInTheGround. This plan has nothing on it. #Underwhelmed

1a. I defer to the analysis by @collinrees and other smart folk at @OilChangeUS on details of the missing fossil fuel phase out... but start w/ this piece by @dharnanoor.

https://twitter.com/dharnanoor/status/1281276653692424192

1b. You cannot seriously present a climate plan calling for net zero anything in any year without talking about reducing fossil fuel use to, or close to, zero. This seems, IDK, obvious. #Underwhelmed

2. But maybe (thinks the Bernie Biden Unity Task force) you can get to net zero by radically scaling up renewables? So let's talk on whether the plan radically scales up renewables. #Underwhelmed

2a. Plan calls for 60K new wind turbines. Currently the US has 60K wind turbines, more or less. Source: bit.ly/2BTR8sM

So Biden-Bernie calls for doubling wind turbines. I would not call that radically scaling up wind. #Underwhelmed

And, in particular plan makes no mention of offshore wind. Seems important to places like New Jersey; Virginia; California; Rhode Island; many, many more. Huh. #Underwhelmed

Now, solar. As I noted yesterday, the Biden Bernie Unity Task Force is calling for... a rerun of the Hillary Clinton 2016 solar plan. #Underwhelmed

And honestly that one just boggles the mind. Is the Biden- Bernie Unity Task Force of 2020 srsly just copying and pasting the 2016 Hillary Clinton plan, like nothing has happened in the last 4 years? So here is proof hrc.io/1OYw81j

I mean. Come on. The science has grown starker.The impacts are more severe. The need to move faster, harder, is more patently obvious. So the committee recycles a 2016 Hillary Clinton plank??? #Underwhelmed

2c. good news, again thx Varsh of Sunrise, clean electricity by 2035 is now a mainstream Dem position. Which brings me to the stuff that has me really #Underwhelmed.... in the next tweet.

3. Transportation.

Look, we have the technical ability to solve the electric grid. And we MAY have the political will. We just need to deploy it.

Cars is a different story. #Underwhelmed

Look, I'm a Cal native so I know smog and traffic. I fell in love with the @JayInslee plan for 100 percent clean transportation. And I have yet to see one scrap of it in the Biden Bernie Unity Task Force. Instead, I see two things missing: imagination and numbers. #Underwhelmed

Lack of imagination: rather than borrowing from the Inslee plan, the task force says "we'll get with California and figure some thing out." #Underwhelmed

Lack of numbers. Where some sections are specific (500M solar panels, 60K wind turbines), there are no numbers in the clean cars section. No CAFE standards. No promise of X percent of cars sold by Y date will be clean.

Just vague rhetoric. And that's deadly. #Underwhelmed

which brings me to the big point 4. IV. FOUR.

This. is. not. a. 1.5. degree. plan.

This plan will not do what science says we have to do. #Underwhelmed

The House Select Committee plan that dropped on June 30 wasn't really a 1.5 degree plan, but at least the summary section mentioned (and played sleight of hand with) the science.

This isn't even pretending to prescribe what science says we have to do. #Underwhelmed

Not just #underwhelmed. That is unforgiveable, dear Biden Bernie Unity Task Force.

I am left with the suggestion of @KateAronoff, who is as tired of writing about climate plans as I am tweeting them.

Just measure them by how many people they kill. bit.ly/3flwpNa #Underwhelmed

@KateAronoff Final point 5. This task force is likely the starting point of the DNC platform drafting committee. If anything, Biden has reserved the right to swerve more centrist. Neither the nominee or the DNC will write something more progressive, unless pushed. #Underwhelmed

@KateAronoff at @ClimateHawkVote we're asking people to write the DNC platform drafting committee asking them to adopt, instead, the bold policies of the @DNCClimate Council. (And you can submit a public comment here! act fast, July 12 deadline) bit.ly/3gUNfTt

Honestly, I hope I'm wrong. I hope Biden listens to science, and phases out fossil fuels, and goes bigger and bolder on cleantech, and abolishes ICE (gasoline) cars. But this plan does not give me hope. #Underwhelmed

thanks for listening, folk. DNC platform drafting committee releases its work July 15 (and no, being a DNC member-elect doesn't get me a sneak peek). #Underwhelmed thread, ended.