In the Apple TV comedy series “Loot,” Maya Rudolph stars as a recently divorced billionaire having a life crisis as she tries to decide how she wants the rest of her life to play out. In a dramatic scene in Episode 10, Rudolph suffers a public humiliation while demonstrating a water-purification system she has helped to develop during a conference attended by fellow global elite billionaires.
The scene is a thinly-veiled reference to the annual World Economic Forum gatherings in Davos, Switzerland. (RELATED: DAVID BLACKMON: Biden’s Energy Secretary Shows Yet Again That Her Head Is In The Clouds)
As she attempts to recover from the public humiliation when the system fails to function during a demonstration for the attendees, she comes to the realization that she and her fellow billionaires are the worst class of people to be telling the world’s masses how to live their lives. The scene in which she admits this reality is one of the highlights of the show’s first season.
I was delighted by the scene, given that one of the overarching themes of my writing about energy over the last several years has been the undeniable fact that we have the worst possible class of people — globalist political elites in the western world — making far-reaching energy decisions on behalf of the rest of us.
The obvious reason why they are the worst possible class of people for this task is that they are, by definition, immune to suffering the negative consequences of their own actions.
Energy prices rising rapidly due to government-created scarcity? They don’t care — they don’t even pay their own bills for the most part, and even if they did, they’re so wealthy not to even feel the pain.
Operators of grids overloaded with unreliable wind and solar capacity forced to implement rolling blackouts? Not in their gated neighborhoods, where backup generators are ubiquitous.
Price tag for the average car moving closer and closer to 6 digits? Those are just abstract numbers that have no meaning for these people.
That EV you bought really gets only about half the battery range advertised on the huge price tag? Easy solution — drive less and take the bus.
Bus routes being cut by half due to the enormous cost of electrification? Easy solution — stay at home.
You’ll get fired if you stay at home and don’t go to work? No problem — apply for enhanced unemployment benefits.
It all adds up to a never-ending spiral of bad solutions forcing deprivation and hardship on the 98% due to horrible energy decisions made by the 2% elites.
Last week, we saw another episode of this awful tragi-comedy of public policy absurdities play out when Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm gave congressional testimony over her department’s effort to finalize regulations limiting the use of gas stoves.
Granholm first denied there was any effort to ban the appliances — a dissembling prevarication at best — and then admitted — you guessed it — she uses a gas stove in her own home.
“There is no ban on gas stoves. I have a gas stove,” Granholm said. “It is just about making the existing electric and gas stoves and all the other appliances more efficient. It is a proposed rule, so the full range of gas stoves, absolutely, is not affected.”
“In fact, half the gas stoves that are on the market right now wouldn’t even be impacted,” Granholm added, explaining the stoves that would be impacted are “high-end” appliances that, she said, constitute a “wasteful use of natural gas.”
That’s right: DOE’s own analysis admits its regulation would ban the use of at least half of all gas stoves on the market today. At the same time, the bureaucrats at the Consumer Products Safety Board are working on banning the other half.
But we can all rest absolutely assured that any final regulations issued by this administration will contain carve-outs designed to ensure that Granholm and every other wealthy elite in the U.S. will be able to go right on cooking with gas.
Because that’s what happens when the worst possible class of people are the ones making all the energy decisions for us.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
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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