Trump and Vance take aim at Biden's climate legislation. Some Republicans would rather they didn't
CBC
In nearly every speech, J.D. Vance, the Republican hopeful for U.S. vice-president, drums home that Americans are being duped by the Democrats' fixation on the low-carbon economy and their wild spending on what Vance calls "green scams."
"We need a leader ... who rejects Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's green new scam and fights to bring back our great American factories," he belted out at his nomination speech at the Republican National Convention in July, drawing exuberant cheers.
Vance calls Democrats' environmental focus "crazy."
"Kamala Harris cares more about climate change than about inflation," he wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week.
Vance has also criticized the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for supporting "garbage energy" after pledging last year his state would get all its electricity from wind, solar and other carbon-free sources by 2040.
In contrast, Vance and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are all-in on increasing oil and gas production.
"Unleash American energy! Drill, baby, drill," Vance has said.
If Trump retakes the White House, he has vowed to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, a key pillar of Biden's legacy that promised to inject more than a trillion dollars into green energy investments and incentives alongside bills. About one-third of the money is earmarked for tax breaks for things like clean energy manufacturing, electric vehicles and home upgrades.
Trump has called them "meaningless green new scam ideas," as he and Vance frame climate spending as a wedge issue in this election campaign, saying it will come at the expense of jobs and Americans' hard-earned money.
That's resonating with many voters in Butler County, Ohio — Vance's base.
"I think it's a money grab for the politicians. They're using climate change as a way to put money into certain businesses," said Jack Ellis, who owns an auto body shop, while enjoying a summer music festival in Butler County earlier this month. "You know, it's taking money from us. We're taxpayers."
For his first campaign stop as VP nominee, Vance chose his hometown of Middletown — a city of about 50,000 people where steel remains critical to its survival.
"Middletown, I love you … and I will never forget where I came from," he said. He also warned that good factory jobs are at risk with the Democrats' climate agenda.
"I just want to say to Middletown and a lot of forgotten communities all across our country ... they think that we're backwards…. They think that we don't know how to do anything," he said. But "this is where things are made, this is the source of America's greatness."
