Less than 24 hours on the job, and President Joe Biden has already done all sorts of good for South Dakota. Here’s what South Dakota gains from among the seventeen executive actions President Biden did on Day One:
Making good on a long-standing promise, President Biden has canceled the previous administration’s rushed and illegal permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. President Biden thus spares South Dakota from the predations of TransCanada/TC Energy’s man camps, the draining of water supplies, the disruption of farm and ranch land, and further ecological damage from Albertan tar sands oil. He also spares our economy from the diversion of resources to a project that market forces never really supported, meaning we can put the labor and resources TC Energy said the pipeline would use toward more sustainable projects. (See statements of triumphant gratitude from Dakota Rural Action and the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota.)
Rekilling Keystone XL was only Section 6 of an eight-section order getting serious about the climate change policy and science. Biden’s order launches a review of federal deregulation of methane emissions, auto emissions, and appliance and automobile efficiency standards, and coal- and oil-fired power plant emissions standards. The review and (we hope) ultimate reversal of those deregulatory actions will lead to cleaner economic activity, cleaner air and water, and more sustainable use of energy resources here in South Dakota.
To fight coronavirus, President Biden ordered all Executive departments and agencies to require all on-duty or on-site federal employees and contractors and all persons in federal buildings or on federal lands to comply with CDC guidelines. That means a workforce of 2.1 million people, including over 11,000 federal workers in South Dakota, and everyone they interact with at their workplaces will now protect public health and set a good example by wearing masks and maintaining social distance. The same order also tells HHS and CDC to set up a coronavirus-testing plan for the federal workforce (wait—we haven’t done that yet?), which will help South Dakotans working for the federal government control outbreaks in our federal offices and their surrounding communities.
In Section 10(c) of a much broader order on “advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities,” cancelled the 1776 Commission, the previous Administration’s propagandistic stick in the eye to Confederate-statue toppling and the Black Lives Matter movement. Nuking this bad federal action kicks one leg out from under South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s own confused effort to whitewash civics curriculum.
Deeming the border wall a “waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security,” President Biden cancelled the fake national emergency at our southern border. Governor Noem can thus stop sending South Dakota National Guard personnel on long, unnecessary jaunts to the desert and keep them here to deploy against real emergencies in South Dakota.
President Biden ordered an end to the Muslim ban, the reinforcement of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act, and the reversal of an order that would have kicked out Liberian refugees. All of those orders will help South Dakota families stick together and help South Dakota businesses get and keep the immigrant laborers on whom they depend for survival.
President Biden also made sure every one of those vital workers and members of those workers’ families will count in the Census. He ordered that the Census Bureau follow the Constitution and count every person person here, regardless of immigration status, so we may properly apportion resources to state and local governments to deal with the real needs of their real populations.
So on the first day of the Biden Administration, South Dakota is already coming out ahead on several fronts. Good work, Mr. President! Keep it up!
The economy will also do much better, it always does when there’s a Democratic President.
Oh yeah, Mark, remember former POTUS warnings that the stock market will tank, hit bottom, if Biden is elected! hmmmm, yesterday, the market hit an all-time high!
Texass is gearing up to sue Biden Administration every time Biden says or does anything.Just like when the Black guy was Potus.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/20/biden-texas-republicans-lawsuits/
Ravnsborg will join in, as will other magat state AGs.
Biden wants the government to remove the word “alien” from US Immigration laws. Too derogatory.
Vladimir Thune gives us the joke of the day, who knew he could be so comedic?
““The one thing that concerns me that nobody seems to be talking about anymore is the massive amount of debt that we continue to rack up as a nation,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) complained during a confirmation hearing this week for Treasury Secretary-nominee Janet Yellen. “For me,” he continued, “that is a huge warning sign on the horizon, the fact that we have an ever-growing deficit, an ever-growing debt and no apparent interest in taking the steps that are necessary to address it.” Washington Post 1.21.2021
Who knew Vladimir Thune had stand up chops? The guy is a natural comedian. I’m sure we shall be hearing more “concerns” from Johnny cakes about the spending he did while being a trump drunk with a checkbook.
Meanwhile hypocrite Vladimir Thune pretends to care about the deficit he helped create.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/right-on-schedule-republicans-pretend-to-care-about-deficits-again/2021/01/21/a749e500-5c17-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html
Just as I reported, yesterday, Texass AG filed suit against Biden today.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/politics/texas-biden-lawsuit-deportation/index.html
Thank you Cory for mentioning the man camps. Most people don’t know the history of them and their negative influence on native peoples. When you read the following, you’ll know why hearing the term “man camps” sends shivers down one’s spine, if they have one.
http://www.honorearth.org/man_camps_fact_sheet
Thank you President Biden for caring more about life and the environment than profit and destruction.
. . . and on the topic of labor, Slate reports today:
“Twenty-three minutes after assuming the presidency, Joe Biden demanded the resignation of Peter Robb, the notoriously anti-union general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board appointed by Donald Trump. Robb refused to resign, so Biden fired him. Alice Stock, another anti-union Trump appointee, then assumed the role of acting general counsel—and Biden demanded her resignation the next day. Stock also refused to resign, so Biden fired her, too.
Both Robb and Stock, who relentlessly undermined unions’ ability to organize and bargain, are now complaining that Biden fired them without just cause. Stock went so far as to suggest that Robb’s firing was illegal. She is wrong. Robb and Stock were at-will employees of the executive. Like the countless American workers whom they prevented from unionizing, they had no guarantee against termination without just cause. Biden did not violate any laws. He simply gave the nation’s chief union busters a taste of their own medicine.”
https://www.rawstory.com/pipeline-canada/
By Rod Nickel and Steve Scherer WINNIPEG/OTTAWA (Reuters) – The expansion of Canada’s government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline assumes greater importance for the oil sector after the cancellation of rival Keystone XL reduced future options to carry crude, potential buyers say. Trans Mountain Corp, a government corporation, is spending C$12.6 billion ($9.9 billion) to nearly triple capacity to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd), a 14% increase from current total Canadian capacity. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government bought the 68-year-old pipeline in 2018 when previous owner Kinder Morgan fac… Read More…
Canada reaps the rewards, now they reap the risks as well.