American consumers are already reaping the whirlwind from the Biden administration’s deliberate sacrifice of American energy independence on the altar of green energy’s false promises.
Whether at the pump or at the supermarket, Americans are seeing their disposable incomes eaten away by higher prices driven by the soaring cost of energy.
The prospect of Congress changing hands in January has raised hopes that, under divided government, the White House’s war on domestic fossil fuels can be effectively countered, slowing the headlong march to a green Utopia. (RELATED: MCKENNA: Are Democrats On The Verge Of Making A Major Political Miscalculation?)
In considering what steps can be taken to restore sanity to how we derive our energy, we should be guided by the Hippocratic Oath: “First of all, do no harm.”
Harm in this context means accepting the underlying premise of climate alarmists that humans are responsible for a dangerous warming of the planet, and then developing a set of pale-green policies, complete with shibboleths about “free-market” solutions and “all of the above” approaches to energy.
This is the approach taken by the Conservative Climate Caucus (CCC), a group of over 70 House Republicans, headed by Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah). On its website, CCC states: “The climate is changing, and decades of a global industrial era that has brought prosperity to the world has also contributed to that change.”
Perspective on the climate is completely absent. The climate has undergone many changes in the earth’s roughly 4.5- billion-year history, including several Ice Ages and periods when ice was completely absent from both the North and South Pole.
When the current interglacial period ends, as all previous interglacial periods have ended, we will fall back into the next Ice Age.
Tellingly, the caucus’s website features a photo of (taxpayer-subsidized) wind turbines, but not one of an oil or gas rig. While acknowledging that “fossil fuels can and should be a major part of the global solution,” CCC makes no mention of restoring America’s energy independence.
Once in power, a group with views this fuzzy will be easily rolled by Washington lobbyists skilled at inserting their narrow interests into massive spending bills. The caucus will also be no match for the forces determined to use the “climate crisis” as a pretext to transform society so that powerful, deep-pocketed elites in government, foundations and corporate boardrooms can seize control of energy and dictate its use to the benighted masses.
Don’t Play Their Game
Instead of playing a game of “me too,” why not turn the tables on our would-be green masters? Today’s runaway inflation, the Supreme Court’s recent decision curtailing the power of the federal regulatory bureaucracy and the energy disaster unfolding in Europe provide a favorable backdrop for a counterattack.
And while there is nothing Congress can do to force the administration to end its war on fossil fuels, the next Congress could use the power of the purse to limit the Biden White House’s ability to force-feed the nation a steady diet of destructive green policies. For starters, Congress could withhold funds for Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s position on the National Security Council (NSC).
Kerry, notorious for using fossil-fuel-powered private jets, is the first person to hold such a position on the NSC and has used it to spew climate alarmist propaganda while contributing nothing to national security.
Similarly, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s creation of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) within the Treasury Department should also go on the chopping block. Tasked to evaluate the risk of climate change for financial stability, the FSOC could easily be used to interfere in financial markets.
Another inviting target is the Biden 30×30 plan, which aims to “protect” “at least” 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. Created by executive order, and not by congressional authorization, the plan is ideally suited to make broad swaths of land (public and private) off limits to energy development. No funds should be provided for this scheme.
Under no circumstances should Congress extend subsidies for wind and solar power. Both have been propped up by taxpayers for decades.
Likewise, there should be no extension of federal subsidies for electric vehicles. EVs are disproportionately purchased by the well-heeled, who don’t need to be pampered by tax money extracted from the less fortunate.
Bonner Russell Cohen, Ph. D., is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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