April 26, 2021

Days after the conviction of Derek Chauvin, there is a lot to process about the state of our country. While vaccines become available for all adults, COVID rates continue to increase throughout parts of the country. On the same day of Chauvin’s conviction, a 16-year-old African American girl, Ma’Khia Bryant, was shot and killed by a police officer in Columbus, Ohio. Just when some sense of relief washes over, we are reminded that these battles are far from over.

For the past year, news stories such as these have dominated the media and the soul of our nation. It’s hard to stay optimistic when these tragedies persist; it is frustrating to see that some aren’t taking them seriously. Similarly, when it comes to the state of our planet, it’s easy to lose sight of the ultimate threat that is climate change. With so much else going on in the world, it takes a natural disaster, catastrophic floods on our coasts, or devastating forest fires in California for us to pay attention.

In case you missed it, President Biden addressed the nation in Pittsburgh at the end of March to introduce the American Jobs Plan. The plan includes spending an additional $2 trillion on infrastructure over the next eight years with about half of that total geared towards protecting the environment and combating climate change. As a proud and recent Pitt graduate, I was excited when President Biden visited my backyard. But on this Earth day, I found myself wondering if his plan is ambitious enough.

The plan is full of support for electric vehicles and renewable energy; it proposes to fund the research needed for America to become the global technological leader in renewable and carbon-free energy production. More specifically, one section of the plan aims to use $174 billion from corporate tax hikes “to win the EV (electric vehicle) market” with refurbished factories, incentives, 500,000 chargers, and electric buses and mail trucks (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,2021). While the plan’s promise to encourage the creation of more union jobs and incentives for firms that build supply chains in the U.S. will likely be popular here, the tactic of leading different industries to meet new energy efficiency and clean electricity standards is just not fast or vast enough.

A price on carbon that applies to a larger segment of the economy and rises over time would show the true costs of different technologies, deter those that are polluting most, and incentivize newer technology. Admittedly, the timing is not ideal for another ‘tax’. The past year created hardships that could last a lifetime. However, this ideality does not exist when our planet continues to deteriorate every day. We need to take prompt and drastic steps to sustain my generation and future generations. The threat of climate change is the ultimate do or die for us. We cannot change the past, but we can learn from mistakes, we can innovate, and now more than ever we need to challenge our legislators to do the same.

Francesca Manriquez
Kennett Square
Francesca Manriquez is a committeeperson for the Kennett Area Democrats.

(Editor’s note: There are reports that Ma’Khia Bryant had a knife and was threatening another person when the police officer fired. )

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