McConnell Calls Biden’s Environmental Policy Changes “Piecemeal Green New Deal”

On Thursday, Mitch McConnell called Biden’s slew of environmental policy changes a “piecemeal green new deal.”

McConnell addressed a Senate session Thursday and criticized various Biden executive orders and policies that have reversed many Trump-era orders. McConnell went on to say, “There’s nothing green about a tsunami of pink slips for American workers, or carting Canadian crude around in trucks and trains instead of a pipeline.” McConnell was referring to the significant number of jobs that are being lost due to Biden’s swift changes to the oil and gas industry.

McConnell went on to call Biden’s moves “the wrong prescription” for America saying, “This piecemeal green new deal is the wrong prescription. Wrong for the environment, wrong for national security. And most of all for the working Americans who will soon be formerly working Americans if this keeps up.”

These comments follow controversial statements made by John Kerry on Wednesday when, instead of addressing job-loss, he told laid-off oil and gas workers to go work on solar panels.

Many have claimed Biden’s changes do not promote American interests, instead help promote the interests of foreign governments such as China and Russia. McConnell highlighted this, and the importance of ensuring American infrastructure is strong, saying, “China, Russia, and our other competitors must be thrilled, absolutely thrilled, that our new government is essentially declaring war on some of our own economic foundations to satisfy a craving for symbolic gestures.”

Since taking office, the Biden administration has enacted many new executive orders and actions. While it is customary for new administrations to enact changes using these mechanisms, they circumvent the legislative process, leaving the executive branch with nearly unchecked power in matters of national significance.

Many have criticized the President for the number of orders he has enacted, including the New York Times. this week, the New York Times released an editorial calling on the Biden Administration to curtail the trend of governing through executive action and move these decisions through the legislative process.