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Biden uses the Defense Production Act to get US companies to build heat pumps. Wow, so much to unpack here.

First, if he wants to fight climate change, he should cut subsudies for fossil fuel companies. AFAIK, he hasn't. That in and of itself should show how much he cares about climate change.

Next, why use war powers? Is this because congress is unwilling to act and this is his way of going over their head? I honestly don't know, but it seems pretty odd to use wartime powers when we are not at war.

Finally, let me float an idea out there for you. Maybe this is not a corrupt move at all. Maybe it's not an abuse of power. One explanation for this would be the the collective security of the states requires heat pumps and therefore using the Defense Production Act would be completely appropriate.

What could cause heat pumps to be a matter of national defense? The inability to import anything from big trade partners that supply, oil, coal, natural gas, solar panels, wind turbines and heat pumps, maybe? This is basically what we are defending against by producing energy equipment domesticaly.

Getting the population to switch to electric, and reuse the same equipment for heating as is used for cooling makes sense in terms of resource utilization. No need to generate or maintain more equipment than is necessary. Plus, if more people use electric, it means oil can be used for transportation (or war planes or whatever) instead of heating.

So yes, people should switch to heat pumps. Yes they should be produced closer to where they are needed instead of half way around the world. But I fo question the mechanism of attempting to achieve these ends.