Kerry to out-of-work oil/gas workers: Be grateful and build solar panels

Prior to President Biden signing an executive order that places a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling leases on public lands, White House Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, told reporters that the oil and gas workers that lose their job because of the administration’s climate edicts have “better choices” when it comes to finding a new job.

“What president Biden wants to do is make sure those folks have better choices, that they have alternatives, so they can be the people that go to work and make the solar panels,” Kerry said Wednesday.

While touting “news jobs” that are “cleaner” under the efforts of bringing emissions to zero by mid century under the Paris agreement, Kerry makes the reckless assumption that those in the fields effected by the administration’s new climate order can simply take up positions in a different industry sector.

“Look at the consequences of black lung for a miner for instance and measure that against the fastest growing job in the United States before Covid … a solar power technician. The same people can do those jobs,” Kerry stated.

“But the choice of doing the solar power one now is a better choice,” he added.

Additionally, Kerry would say that “workers have been fed a false narrative … the notion that somehow dealing with climate is coming at their expense. No it’s not.”

Right … so oil and gas workers should be grateful for losing your livelihoods for unguarenteed, “better” jobs in the solar power sector …

We suspect this is might be Kerry’s “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” moment.

Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, told Breitbart News on Saturday that if Biden’s temporary halt on new drilling leases becomes permanent, it could cost 1 million American jobs.

“The full scale ban of development on federal lands you can bet the impact could be up to a million jobs in the United States,” Macchiarola said. “If [Biden’s] priority is to bring back jobs in the United States and to grow our economy then they really need to rethink these policies, particularly the policy with respect to a leasing bans on federal lands for oil and gas development.”

The Biden administration has been successful in drawing ire from labor unions over the executive order that ended the Keystone XL Pipeline project.

“In revoking this permit, the Biden Administration has chosen to listen to the voices of fringe activists instead of union members and the American consumer on Day 1,” said Mark McManus, general president of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters. He added:

“Let me be very clear: When built with union labor by the men and women of the United Association, pipelines like Keystone XL remain the safest and most efficient modes of energy transportation in the world.”

Mike Sommers, president and CEO of trade group American Petroleum Institute, also took aim at the pipeline order, saying: “This misguided move will hamper America’s economic recovery, undermine North American energy security, and strain relations with one of America’s greatest allies.”

Beyond putting a freeze on oil and gas development on federal waters and land, Biden’s Wednesday order also plans to double offshore wind-produced energy by 2030.

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