Brooks: ‘Not Sure How Realistic’ Biden’s Emissions Goal Is

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that while President Joe Biden’s emissions goal is “noble,” “I’m not sure how realistic it is” and argued that cutting emissions by 50% would require “pretty radical stuff.”

Brooks said, “Well, it’s noble, and it’s the right policy. I’m not sure how realistic it is. It’s a policy that’s — it’s going to introduce a lot of electric vehicles, as we just saw. We’re going to have a new power grid. If all these things go through, will we really cut emissions by 50%? Well, at the height of COVID, when we were totally shut down, we cut emissions like 21%. So, I’m not totally optimistic. I think the experts that I’ve read said you’ve got to do more. There has to be a price on carbon. You have to pretty much get rid of natural gas, evolve that out of existence, as well as oil-burning cars. So, that’s pretty radical stuff. But that doesn’t make the perfect the enemy of the good, or whatever the expression I’m searching for is. So, it’s definitely a step in the right direction. I think the really hard thing is China.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett