Big Cheese

Steel, cement and — cheese? U.S. spends big to cut these carbon footprints.

It underscores how the administration is racing to get green money out the door before a possible change in control of the White House after the 2024 election.

Before the 2024 election, more like it; but that's just me being a little grumpier than usual this morning. 

The Biden administration has unveiled ambitious climate regulations for power plants and vehicles, two leading sources of U.S. emissions. But it has yet to impose new climate controls on industrial facilities, which could prompt pushback from union workers in states key to Biden’s reelection chances.

Or not.

Either way, this is another example of taxpayers picking up the tab for stuff these big corporations should be doing for themselves. (Another example: Cleaning up the toxic waste industrial plants often leave behind when they disappear — after having been been granted big tax breaks for being there in the first place.)

Kraft, the big cheese in this story, will receive $170.9 million to "decarbonize" 10 of its factories (“It takes a whole lot of heat to dry all that macaroni,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says). Granted, that's not a big bite as government giveaways go, but it's not a big bite, either, for these guys. 

Or steel. Or cement.