I can’t think of a better topic for this installment of my Exactly Wrong series when much of the United States is in the grip of a “polar vortex” or “Siberian air mass”. In other words, it’s cold. Damn cold. As I sit in my natural gas heated home here in Oklahoma City, the outside temperature is 2 degrees Fahrenheit with a -11 degrees wind chill. In Parker, CO, where I lived for many years, it is -5 degrees.
Most of the people in this affected region are able to remain alive and warm due to two things: combustion of natural gas to heat our homes, and electricity generated mostly from fossil fuels. This is an incontestable fact, and what’s more: the so-called “renewable” energy sources so beloved of the Left do not work in these conditions. Wind turbines freeze. Snow covers solar panels and/or the sun doesn’t shine.
The fact is that without fossil fuels – one of the three Pillars of Modern Life – we would be burning wood, garbage or animal waste to keep warm. As a matter of interest, I heard from a person who lives there that people in Austin, TX were burning their furniture inside their homes for heat when winter storm Uri hit in February 2021 because the supply of natural gas was disrupted, and solar and wind power completely failed.
Given the vital importance of fossil fuels to enable and power our modern life and the promotion of human flourishing, you would think that everybody would support the responsible harvesting and use of fossil fuels and indeed all forms of energy including geothermal, hydroelectric and nuclear power (and yes, even so-called “renewable” energy when it’s economically feasible and free from coercion, mandates and other government force, if ever).
Alas, it is not so…
The Left’s War on the Oil and Gas Industry
In researching this essay, I found a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform titled “Democrats’ War on Domestic Energy Production and Its Impact on the American People” (“Report”). I encourage everyone to read it to see what they’ve done in more detail.
This report, written by the Republican minority, outlines how the Democrats under President Biden (D) have:
- Closed the Keystone XL pipeline.
- Contributed to skyrocketing gasoline prices.
- Contributed to consumers paying higher home energy bills.
- Banned oil and natural gas leases.
- Pushed through new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules.
- Passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which will decrease domestic energy production.
- Substantially decreased the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
- Asked OPEC+ to delay production cuts.
- Vilified the United States’ energy sector.
- Rushed green energy policies.
On his first day in office, President Joe “The Big Guy” Biden (D) cancelled the cross-border permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. This move deprived America of what would likely be as much as 900,000 barrels of oil a day coming into U.S. markets and costing almost 60,000 direct and indirect jobs and sending 11,000 workers building the pipeline to the unemployment line.
Ironically, according to Forbes, the Obama/Biden (D) administration in 2014 recognized the need for increased pipeline capacity to increase imports of heavy crude [oil] from Canada, and the lack of this pipeline capacity meant that the industry had “…dramatically increased imports of the crude by truck or rail.” Of course, both means of transportation are much more expensive and riskier than pipelines, but that doesn’t matter to Democrats. In fact, when trains derail or other accidents happen, they move to further impair those modes of transportation as well.
Under the Democrats, nearly 55 million people struggled to pay their energy bills in 2021. “Since President Biden took office, the price of heating oil has risen 74.5 percent alone.” 1
With the record inflation under Joe Biden and the Democrats, and wages not keeping pace with inflation, high energy prices put even more pressure on lower income peoples’ budgets.
According to the Report, “Through a pair of executive orders, President Biden directed a pause in federal oil and gas lease sales. On his first day in office, President Biden halted leasing activity in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Bering Sea, and the Arctic. Then a week after taking office, President Biden issued Executive Order No. 14008 directing the Department of the Interior (DOI) to pause all new onshore and offshore oil and natural gas leasing.”2
Of course, this cost the American economy hundreds of thousands of jobs, a GDP hit in the billions, lower tax revenues for oil and gas producing states, and higher carbon dioxide emissions.
Using the unelected and unaccountable federal bureaucracy, the Biden (D) Administration has put in place increasingly burdensome regulations that create uncertainty, disincentivizes capital investment and discourages new energy projects.3
Through increased regulations via NEPA, the EPA, the DOI, and the SEC, Democrats have made it increasingly more difficult and more expensive for oil and gas (and other disfavored industries) to do business.
Through the most misleadingly named Act in history – the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – the Democrats have “…actually make natural gas and oil more expensive, cause electricity to become less reliable, raise business and household taxes, discourage future investment, make it harder for companies to develop on federal lands, grant the EPA more power to restrict fossil fuels, and give more power to anti-fossil fuel activists.
The IRA’s tax provisions hurt oil and gas companies and discourage investment in the future…The IRA further imposes additional unfavorable corporate taxes that could negatively impact oil and gas companies and suppress investment in domestic production.”4
In order to mitigate the electoral risk to Democrats of higher energy prices in the 2022 election, Biden and the Democrats raided the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). In November 2021 and subsequently, Biden has released more oil than all his predecessors combined.5
The SPR is now at its lowest levels since it was established, holding only enough reserves to support US energy consumption for 50 days in case imports cease.6
At the same time that Biden was raiding national assets, he was also debasing himself and the United States by begging the likes of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, Saudi Arabia and others to increase or at least not cut production to boost supply in an effort to hold prices in check.
Biden (D) wanted to do anything but unleash American oil and gas, which employs thousands of American workers, generates billions in GDP, tax revenues for states and produces natural resources we literally cannot live without.
Because of government hostility and the uncertainty it creates, investors have made it clear to exploration and production (E&P) companies that they prefer return of capital via dividends and share buybacks over increasing production. Companies that flout their owners run the risk of lower share prices. As the Wall Street Journal reported in 2022, after a major oil producer issued guidance stating that they would increase their capital spending modestly in favor of capital returns, it’s clear that “Like many in the industry, [the company] obviously believes it’s better to return capital to its shareholders than to reinvest in the business. The reason is the Left’s incessant demonizing of the fossil-fuel industry, leading to near pariah status, which has succeeded in driving capital away from the industry.”6 [Emphasis mine]
As the Report states: “President Biden vilifies American energy producers by blaming them for price increases caused by market forces and global instability, while also gaslighting the American people by calling for more oil and gas production which the Administration had previously made every effort to oppose.
Over the fourth of July weekend in 2022, Biden demanded gas stations lower gas prices, deflecting blame instead of taking responsibility for his failed energy policies that led to record gas prices in the first place.” He threatened and reprimanded oil and gas companies, refiners and gas stations in a manner more suited to a child or a tyrant than an elected executive. (For more on this topic, see my essay Prices and Profits – Oil and Gas in the Real World).
The final bullet point of the Report is that Democrats are “rushing” green energy policies. President Biden (D) and the Democrat party propose to completely replace oil and other fossil fuels with so-called “renewable” energy sources by 2050, a mere 26 years away. As the Report states, “…even a 95 percent reduction in American carbon emissions by 2050 would have devastating economic impacts, estimated to cost the United States 11.9 percent of its gross domestic product annually.” 7
Not only that, to meet the goals of the Paris climate accords, the U.S would have to increase current “investments” from $1,100,000,000,000 to $3,400,000,000,000 annually until 2030.
I’ll do some math here. Taking 2022 US GDP of $25,439,700,000,000, 11.9% of that is $3,027,324,300,000. Adding in the current investments ranging from $1.1 billion to $3.4 trillion cited above, that means it would cost us from $4.1 to $6.4 trillion per year, or from $25,000 to $39,000 per U.S. taxpayer. I don’t want MY tax bill to go up by that much. I’m pretty sure you don’t either. And of course, this is ON TOP of the additional trillions of dollars in transfer payments, support of illegal immigrants, student loan debt erasure, free stuff and other crazy ideas that the Democrats are pushing. In their childish fantasy world, maybe it makes sense, but in the real world where the rest of us live, it is a recipe for sovereign default, economic disaster and hardship on a scale not seen since the Dark Ages.
Why The Insanity?
Now that we’ve described the insanity (a word I do not use lightly, but given the sheer irrationality of what the Left is doing, it fits perfectly) of Joe Biden (D) and his morally and intellectually bankrupt Democrat party, let’s look at WHY they are doing it.
The simple reason is that they have been captured by one of the mass delusions that have plagued humankind throughout history. This one happens to be related to the Earth’s climate, which they believe human activity is harming.
It’s impossible, really, to calculate the harm they are doing to our society via this cult-like belief system. And yes, it is a cult. It’s a cult with its high priests (Al Gore) and priestesses (Greta Thunberg), its canon, its imperviousness to actual science and real-world results, its complete intolerance to opposing ideas, theories and viewpoints, and its shrill insistence that they are right no matter what.
This belief, which permeates our society, drives bad public policy, harms children in many ways – from exploiting children in third-world countries to mine the rare raw materials needed to make the batteries their fossil free fantasy requires – to inculcating in our children a fear of the future that drives many to suicide, the decision to not have their own children when they grow up, and so much more.
They expect everyone to be on board with their beliefs, and those of us who are not are shamed, vilified, and persecuted. Any scientist who dissents from climate orthodoxy loses employment opportunities and grant funding. Some of the aforementioned high priests make boatloads of money off of the “green” agenda. They all have enormous “carbon footprints” and fly their private jets to small towns in Switzerland where they preen and compliment each other for saving the earth, chortling about how much money they want government to take from you by force and the giant wealth transfer from the developed world to the undeveloped world they promote.
To learn more about this phenomenon and to gain some factual information, I highly recommend watching A Climate Conversation, an excellent documentary featuring our own Kim Monson.
Conclusion
Instead of my usual exhortation to vote Republican in the next election, I invite you to participate in a thought exercise instead.
Imagine that you are hosting a dinner party in your home. Your spouse and your young children will be there, and this is important, because you are vetting someone who will be in charge of your assets and the future of your children while you are on an extended absence.
One person you are thinking of is known to be frugal with money and respectful of property. They have demonstrated that they value children and want to help them realize the best future possible. They have a successful record of managing other people’s affairs, and you have every reason to believe that will continue. They respect science and the real world we all live in. They support energy abundance not just for Americans but for the billions of people who have none. They are pleasant and respectful. They share your same values and respect for Western Civilization.
The other person believes that the money you’ve earned and the property you own is theirs to do with what they want – namely use it to fund vast, expensive and ineffective programs, and to give to others who have not earned it. They don’t like children, and through extensive propaganda about a “boogeyman” work to instill fear in them. Because they deny scientific reality, they want to convince your boy that he can be a girl or vice versa. Then, even more unbelievably, they advocate for your child to have life altering drugs and surgeries to attempt to validate this delusion. This person wants you to shiver in a cold, dark hovel, burning animal excrement for fuel while you burn rags dipped in animal fat for light. And to top it all off, they are loud, overbearing and strident in their irrational beliefs, tolerating no dissent or disagreement, even to the point of actual intimidation and violence.
Who would you select? The first person or the second? Now apply that to voting. Vote all people of the second type out of office. They are Unfit to Govern.
Notes
- https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Republican-Staff-Energy-Report.pdf page 18
- Ibid, page 18
- Ibid, page 20
- Ibid, page 21
- Ibid, page 23
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-energy-companies-wont-produce-oil-natural-gas-biden-administration-fossil-fuel-inflation-prices-11654720932?mod=saved_content
- https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Republican-Staff-Energy-Report.pdf pages 26-27
Other essays on this topic:
The Role of Fossil Fuels (In Honor of Earth Day)
Prices and Profits – Oil and Gas in the Real World
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