Obsessed with manmade climate change, the Biden administration claims natural forces no longer play any role and blames every temperature change, hurricane, tornado, flood, drought and wildfire on fossil fuel emissions. It ignores forest mismanagement, the vital roles fossil fuels play in our lives, and the enormous ecological impacts that any Green New Deal would inflict.
Team Biden is determined to eliminate oil, natural gas and coal in US energy – and mandate wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles and backup battery systems, while building no new nuclear power plants or allowing any US mining for the metals and minerals essential for those new technologies.
We only have to look in two directions to see where this will take us.
To the West, where China says it won’t be bullied into committing economic suicide by ending fossil fuel use. It won’t begin cutting fossil fuel consumption until 2030 or reach “net-zero” before 2060. It won’t even engage in further discussions unless the US stops complaining about Honk Kong, Taiwan, Uighur slave labor and lax environmental rules.
In fact, China already emits 27 percent of all global greenhouse gases. It is 85 percent reliant on fossil fuels and just announced plans to build 43 new coal-fired power plants and 18 new coal-fired blast furnaces. It recently said it would stop financing and building poor country coal-fired power plants, and support only wind and solar projects, though that new policy could well sunset after the COP-26 climate confab.
China’s “peak carbon” plan is to install as much fossil fuel power as possible by 2030 – and use that cheap, reliable energy to manufacture wind, solar and battery technologies for sale to the USA, Europe, Australia and Canada, bankrupting Western industries in the process. Its “green energy” plan is to rake in as many greenbacks as possible from these sales.
China also intends to dominate global mining and processing for lithium, cobalt, rare earths and other raw materials required for “renewable” energy, defense, aerospace, communication and other high-tech applications. Ongoing discussions with the Taliban could soon give it access to the Bagram airfield and trillions of dollars in critical mineral deposits beneath Afghanistan’s rugged mountains.
President Biden seems content with this, just as he was with approving the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, giving Russia domination over European energy, while blocking the US-Canada Keystone XL pipeline and saying OPEC needs to sell us more oil.
Then look East, where Vladimir Putin is already squeezing Europe’s supplies, sending wholesale gas prices up 280 percent so far this year. Citigroup says EU gas prices could hit $100 per mcf (million Btu) if this winter is particularly cold and more Gulf of Mexico hurricanes disrupt supplies.
That’s 25 times this July’s Henry Hub US price ($4.07) and seven times the highest ever US price ($13.42 in Oct 2005, before fracking). It’s equal to $580 per barrel for oil! EU electricity is four to 10 times more expensive than the 13-cent US average.
Countless British and European companies and families face bankruptcy and mass layoffs. Tens of thousands of elderly face death from hypothermia because they cannot afford adequate heat. Recent headlines underscore the looming disasters.
- “Putin’s iron grip on energy leaves Europe increasingly vulnerable.”
- “Vestas closes wind turbine factories in Europe, as manufacturing moves to Asia.”
- “Energy companies supplying six million UK homes face collapse.”
- “UK energy minister admits ‘very difficult winter’ ahead, amid fear of blackouts and food shortages, as gas prices soar.”
- “Elder care homes warn crippling energy bills could force closures.”
- “This energy crisis is a mere harbinger of the candle-lit future that awaits us.”
- “Green energy transition will cost debt-ridden Italy €650 billion” [$760 billion].
- “If Boris thinks Brits are going to pay through the nose for green boilers and electric cars, while the Chinese are burning coal like there's no tomorrow, he’s signing his own death warrant.”
- “Why is Britain facing an energy crisis when we’re sitting on a gold mine [of natural gas that we refuse to frack]?”
This is what the United States faces if it continues down the “green energy” primrose path. Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are playing a brilliant chess game, while Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and other Western leaders play doddering checkers, with the West’s energy, economic and national security at stake.
Where are Republicans who say they want America to remain energy independent, competitive and free? Or Democrats who claim they care deeply about poor, minority and elderly families?
Craig Rucker is president of the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org)
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