Sow the Wind (Power), Reap the Whirlwind

Member Group : Jerry Shenk

 

The Law of Supply and Demand is as consistent as gravity.

Americans who understand the benefits of ample supply – seventy percent – favor producing more domestic oil and gas.

Nonetheless, President(ish) Joe Biden, his administration and congressional Democrats think voters will 1) buy their fraudulent excuses for the soaring costs of fossil fuels, and 2) overlook the shortcomings of the alt-energy schemes they imagine will provide “energy independence.”

Today, energy prices are wrecking America’s economy.

Characteristically, Joe “The Buck (Never) Stops Here” Biden blames others, including Russia/Ukraine: “Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump … I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here at home.”

Biden also claimed, falsely, “It’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production,” before blaming energy companies:

“To the oil and gas companies … we understand Putin’s war against the people of Ukraine is causing prices to rise. … But it’s no excuse to exercise excessive price increases or padding profits … to exploit this situation or American consumers.”

Biden’s finger pointing is shamelessly dishonest.

Energy prices took off more than a year before Russia invaded Ukraine.

During the 2020 primary, candidate Biden promised, “No more drilling… No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period. It ends.”

Biden voters approved.

Then, on his first day in office, Biden signed executive orders limiting fossil fuel exploration, cancelling leases on federal land, killing the Keystone XL pipeline, and began pressuring lenders to restrict financing for exploration and production of fossil fuels.

Energy prices climbed immediately, and, today, are more than two times higher.

Abnormally-high energy prices are intentional, a result of artificial scarcity and market manipulation that are parts of a broader left-liberal war on conventional energy being waged to fundamentally transform Western society.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did increase prices somewhat, but Joe Biden’s executive orders and his fealty to fellow Democrats’ “Green New Deal” had already made it far costlier to feed families, heat/cool homes, drive vehicles, run businesses, and live normal lives.

The president appears unconcerned about the impact his policies have on households, and his assumption that ordinary Americans are stupid enough to take his deceitful excuses at face value and give him a pass only adds insult to injury.

Speaking of insults, part-time Secretary of Transportation Pete Budegieg condescendingly instructed Americans upset by record gasoline prices to buy electric vehicles (EVs).

Problem solved, right?

Currently, average EV pricing – after generous government subsidies – is $56,437.00. The average 2022 income for full-time workers is estimated at $53,490.00.

Additionally, the estimated cost breakeven point for EVs over gasoline-powered vehicles is fifteen years.

Worse, Biden’s/fellow Democrat’s desire to use wind and solar power to supply America’s total energy needs is naïve – and dangerous.

Apart from being intermittent, inherently unreliable and grossly expensive, solar panels and wind turbines require tremendous amounts of copper, nickel, cobalt, rare earths and other minerals, including lithium for storage batteries.

The International Energy Agency reports that, with the exception of lithium (Australia), China enjoys substantial leads in deposits of and extracting those elements – and China dominates the processing of all of them.

China controls over 70 percent of the world solar panel market. Seven of the ten largest wind turbine manufacturers are Chinese, and China controls 60 percent of global wind turbine production.

If solar panels and wind turbines performed adequately, China wouldn’t be building dozens of new coal-fired generation plants.

Even if relying on wind turbines and solar panels were feasible, doing so would effectively turn America’s energy sector – our economy – over to a dangerous geopolitical rival, and make the U.S. almost totally dependent on the Chinese Communist Party.

In a sane world, everyone could agree on nuclear power – a la France and Finland – as a far cheaper, more practical energy source. But America’s national suicide climate cultists reject zero-emission nuclear power, too.

America was the world’s largest oil producer before Joe Biden took office. The U.S. and Canada have tens of billions of barrels/cubic feet of accessible fossil fuels – centuries of supply – underground.

Remember, seventy percent of Americans want to extract and use ours.

Their callous disregard for ordinary Americans is another reason Joe Biden and the Democrats who support his energy policies will reap the whirlwind in November.

https://www.pottsmerc.com/2022/03/14/jerry-shenk-sow-the-wind-power-reap-the-whirlwind/