The Biden administration received a dose of ridicule and a stern fact-check from social media users after it recently flubbed an important aspect of its climate policy in a post on the platform X.
In the post, Biden was touting the Inflation Reduction Act, a critically important piece of economic and climate legislation that was passed last year. Along with an image of the president taking a selfie with an unspecified group of U.S. energy workers, the caption said, “The Inflation Reduction Act is projected to help triple wind power and increase solar power eightfold, while electricity deployed through the U.S. power grid is expected to be powered by 81% clean energy by 2023.”
The Inflation Reduction Act is projected to help triple wind power and increase solar power eightfold, while electricity deployed through the U.S. power grid is expected to be powered by 81% clean energy by 2023. pic.twitter.com/TEC51kTr2Q
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 25, 2023
Unfortunately for the administration, the date was wrong—X’s community notes tagged the post with a correction indicating that the target date is 2030, not 2023. Critics pounced on the mistake. “We’re in 2023 already, genius,” Rich Weinstein of the X account tweeted. Daniel Turner, the executive director of the anti-radical green group Power The Future, wrote, “It is 2023. And we’re not at 81%. This makes zero sense so I guess you tweeted it yourself…”
Other social media users used the error as an opportunity to challenge Biden’s green agenda, with Rebel News’ Yanky Pollak joking, “You owe me gas money.” Former GOP U.S. Senate candidate Paul Szypula attacked the approach to clean energy, proclaiming, “Biden is taking staged selfies like an egomaniac while he brags about ‘clean energy’ — meanwhile energy prices are through the roof. And there’s nothing clean about solar and wind energy. Their manufacturing creates a lot of pollution. They’re also inconsistent and unreliable.”
The White House declined to comment when asked about the mistake. A senior aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “We acknowledge the error and will be sure to fact-check posts in the future.” The aide also pointed out that, as the linked CNBC article noted, “The White House is pushing for 80 percent clean U.S. power grid by 2030.” But that’s not likely to be much consolation to the president’s critics, who will no doubt continue to question his climate policy going forward.
