For her Friday show on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell managed to do what many consider impossible: make Climate Envoy John Kerry seem like the more reasonable one on climate policy. During her Earth Day interview with Kerry, Mitchell would attack President Biden from the left, wondering if he has gone back on his climate promises.
After Kerry laid out some of the administration’s goals, Mitchell wanted to know about concrete steps. While doing so she lamented that world events have caused gas prices to raise and people don’t like high gas prices:
You know, let's—let’s-- agree that he has laid out, you know, some extraordinary goals and made some promises and that Congress does hold a lot of this in their hands. But, but there have been big events, like the war and, you know, Russian sanctions, the sanctions on Russian oil and he's had to go to the strategic reserves and put out more oil because of inflation and to try to keep costs down. He's got a midterm election, he’s also gone so far as to authorize something that has really upset the environmental community, which is authorizing more drilling, you know, in places like Wyoming, more oil and natural gas drilling.
She then critiqued him from the left, “So, isn't that countermanding his own goals and his own promises?”
For his part, Kerry said no because the measures are temporary and that the war in Ukraine has highlighted the need for renewables.
Kerry’s obsession with renewables has its own problems, but Mitchell’s worry that people care more about their wallets than the administration’s push for windmills and electric cars is typical Beltway journalistic snobbery.
This segment was sponsored by Progressive.
Here is a transcript for the April 22 show:
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
4/22/2022
12:34 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: You know, let's—let’s-- agree that he has laid out, you know, some extraordinary goals and made some promises and that Congress does hold a lot of this in their hands. But, but there have been big events, like the war and, you know, Russian sanctions, the sanctions on Russian oil and he's had to go to the strategic reserves and put out more oil because of inflation and to try to keep costs down. He's got a midterm election, he’s also gone so far as to authorize something that has really upset the environmental community, which is authorizing more drilling, you know, in places like Wyoming, more oil and natural gas drilling. So, isn't that countermanding his own goals and his own promises?
JOHN KERRY: Well not, not if you look at Andrea, in its, in the full measure of why it's being done and what the opportunities are we have in front of us here. Is there some additional pumping? Yes, there is because demand is up and because with the situation in Ukraine, the United States is going to do everything it can to help our friends who have made sacrifices by refusing to accept Russian gas and oil and who are now moving even more rapidly to deploy renewables for their own power sectors in their country and transportation in their country. So, I don't think -- as long as the additional efforts to produce gas are, in fact, temporary, as long as they are geared to be able to deal with a need for economic stability in order to be able to make the transitions that we need and I think that the president knows that many of these leases have been granted are not going to be drilled in.
We have an oil industry and gas industry in the United States that owns massive number of leases already that have been permitted and they are not drilling. So, I—I-- look at this as a temporary measure to relieve the price pressure, which is essential to keeping the population committed to moving in these directions. And—and-- I think it's understandable.
I know the president has changed already behavior in very significant ways. For instance, General Motors and Ford Motor Company have spent hundreds of millions retooling their plants in the United States so that by 2030, 50% of vehicles we make in America will be electric and by 2035, all vehicles we make in America will be electric. That's a massive commitment, which both Ford and General Motors have joined in and are committed to. In addition to that, the president has created an offshore wind industry. We're trying to move on the siting for those assets as soon as possible. And in addition to that, he is seeking tax credits from the Congress that will be able to accelerate the deployment of renewables here in our own country and lower the price of energy for American consumers.
