Tipsheet

Biden: Hey, At Least These Awful Gas Prices Will Help Our 'Fundamental Turn' to Green Energy

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  June 22, 2022 10:35 AM

Matt wrote up President Biden's testy response when a reporter asked him about the growing likelihood of a recession on his watch, and we mentioned it yesterday, too.  The fact is that a growing percentage of economists and expert projections are now anticipating the US economy to enter recession sometime within the next two years.  Lurching from brutal inflation to painful recession would be politically disastrous for his presidency, so Biden abruptly "joked" that such concerns are 'made up' Republican talking points.  But during that same seaside session with reporters, the president also said this:


Biden previously hailed the current pain at the pump as part of an "incredible transition" away from fossil fuels.  That wasn't a flub; he means it.  Out of these "lousy" gas prices, "something good" is happening -- namely, a "fundamental turn" toward green energy.  These comments remind me of a recent observation by Manhattan Institute senior fellow and longtime economic and budget policy wonk on the Hill, Brian Riedl:


This is the moment they've been pining for, haven't they?  Rather than blaming Putin, 'greedy' oil companies, and powerless Republicans, shouldn't Biden et al be thanking them profusely?  After all, they're claiming those parties are responsible for the record-shattering gas prices that are burdening American families from coast to coast.  Three cheers for the "incredible transition" and "fundamental turn," eh?  Two cheers, maybe?  How about one?  Obviously, the tricky part for them is that there's an election coming up, and people are hurting badly.  Hence Democrats' incoherent posture of falsely attacking everyone else for stratospheric prices, while still pledging to rid the country of fossil fuels in short order (oil companies expect this hostility to continue, and are baking those expectations into their business decisions).  It's good, you see, except to the extent that it angers people, thus endangering the Left's political power, which they need to maintain in order to achieve more 'good.'  Quite the cycle.  And no, that anti-energy hostility is not a right-wing invention.  It was a promise:


Meanwhile, this energy-related flashback has been making the rounds.  President Trump warned the Germans in 2018 that they were growing dangerously reliant on Russian oil, prompting smirks and chortles from Berlin's UN delegation:


That then, now this:

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‘The situation is serious’: Germany plans to fire up coal plants as Russia throttles gas supplies...Germany has said the deteriorating gas market situation means Europe’s largest economy must limit the use of natural gas for electricity production and burn more coal for a “transitional period.” Economy Minister Robert Habeck on Sunday warned that the situation is going to be “really tight in winter” without precautionary measures to prevent a supply shortage. As a result, Germany will seek to compensate for a cut in Russian gas supplies by increasing the burning of coal — the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel in terms of emissions...That comes shortly after an ominous warning from Russia’s state-backed energy giant Gazprom exacerbated fears of a full supply disruption to the European Union. Gazprom said last week that it had further limited supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that runs from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Gazprom cited a technical problem for the supply cut, saying the issue stemmed from the delayed return of equipment serviced by Germany’s Siemens Energy in Canada. Habeck has rejected that claim, saying the move was politically motivated and designed to unsettle the region and ramp up gas prices...In fiery comments likely to have sent alarm bells ringing throughout European capitals, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Thursday that Russia will play by its own rules after the firm halved supplies to Germany. “Our product, our rules. We don’t play by rules we didn’t create,” Miller said during a panel session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum...The EU, which receives roughly 40% of its gas via Russian pipeline, is trying to rapidly reduce its reliance on Russian hydrocarbons in response to the Kremlin’s months-long onslaught in Ukraine.

Perhaps the Germans should have done less eye-rolling and more strategic thinking when the Bad Man was telling them the truth about their choices.  Now they've been forced into a "transitional period" (an "incredible transition," if you will?) back to dirtier coal to compensate for Russia's punitive moves.  I'll leave you with two commodities that are actually going down under the Biden administration: