If there is one thing President Donald Trump is good at, it is promoting his administration's accomplishments. For whatever reason, the one area that he has not concentrated too much on has been the energy file. The United States has become energy independent since Trump first entered the White House. It is a feat that many previous presidents were unwilling or unable to accomplish. Not only that, but businesses and consumers are saving money on the many regulatory rollbacks.
While he has not hugged any trees nor bought a Prius, Trump has overseen an economy that has slashed its CO2 emissions without any significant change to federal environmental policy. Why has the president not tweeted enough about these victories? The answer to that question is how Joe Biden may swoop in and take the lead on energy.
Joe Biden's 'Visionary' Plan
Biden is regurgitating the language of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and other climate alarmists to sell whatever it is he is peddling. The former vice president recently said in prepared remarks that "science tells us we have nine years before the damage is irreversible." But others have claimed different numbers. Climate scientists say it is 20 years, and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has placed the number at 12 years. Who knows when the world will end? The man wearing a paper bag as shorts and holding a sign that reads, "Doomsday Is Nigh" might have a better forecast.
But Biden has a plan to ensure that doomsday is not on the horizon. The presumptive Democratic nominee unveiled vital elements of his "Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice" platform. The crux of the proposal is to "reverse all the damage Trump has done" and to "go further and faster."
Like other climate plans presented by his colleagues on the left, Biden wants to be carbon-free by 2050. Some features of his initiative to accomplish this lofty goal? Well, here are just a few:
Develop fuel economy standards to ensure new vehicles will be zero emissions.
Ban new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters.
Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement.
Invest $400 billion in clean energy research and development.
Seek environmental justice for minorities, low-income communities, and indigenous lands.
A prominent feature of his proposal, Biden estimates, is that it could create as many as ten million new jobs. He told reporters in Wilmington, DE:
"These are the most critical investments we can make for the long-term health and vitality of both the American economy and the physical health and safety of the American people. When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax.' When I think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs.'"
Overall, Biden's "visionary" plan, as Governor Jay Inslee referred to it, features a $2 trillion price-tag. This comes at a time when the national debt is north of $25 trillion, and the federal budget deficit is about $4 trillion. Besides the additional fiscal pressure, could the presidential candidate's plan affect both the energy industry and the broader financial market?
An Energy Crisis?
Just like the world ending in a few years, politicians know they are mendacious when they vow they are going to produce net-zero emissions within 30 years. It is unlikely that Biden will be around by 2050, so him pledging to be carbon-free economy-wide is a moot promise without any repercussions. In the meantime, the endeavor will add burdensome regulations and costly rules to small- and medium-sized businesses that are already struggling. For large corporations, this is the cost of doing business that will hamstring the consumer.
What is interesting about Biden's plan to prohibit leases for drilling on public lands is that former President Barack Obama quietly permitted this to happen. Despite championing the environment and sounding the alarm on global warming, the Obama administration enabled oil and gas drilling, which was not a terrible policy, but it does highlight the hypocrisy.
Not only does Biden propose spending $400 billion over ten years, but he also wants to erect ARPA-C, a new research agency focused on accelerating climate technologies. Like the Solyndra scandal, green cronyists will likely get first dibs on this funding, which will inevitably lead to setbacks in the renewable energy sector and, of course, fraud.
Begging the Paris Accord to take the U.S. back will achieve nothing except for pleasing globalists and progressives who think the international treaty will save the planet. What is interesting is that the U.S. had already witnessed a significant decline in emissions, even more than members of the accord who reported increases in their carbon footprint. And this was before the Coronavirus pandemic.
How do you produce an energy crisis? By having the government overhaul the electric grid, as Biden is recommending. As part of his efforts to accomplish an emissions-free future, Biden wants to rely completely on so-called clean electricity, such as solar and wind power. But as Liberty Nation's International Correspondent Onar Åm has brilliantly reported in the past, this would be – to put it gently – difficult. Plus, as he has also reported, these options are not so green after all, as they cause regional warming by altering local wind patterns.
Central Planning
When progressives hear buzz phrases, such as carbon-free, net-zero, and climate crisis, they get a global warming feeling in their stomachs. But plenty of leftists do not understand the implications of enacting these types of environmental policies. From the agricultural sector to inevitable waste in infrastructure spending, any time governments spend big on fighting climate change, independent reviews typically pinpoint fraud, scandals, and cronyism – not to mention egregious taxation. What is worse is that many of the unfeasible ventures under Biden's policies would substitute a capitalist market approach to energy with global central planning. It would be a top-down approach to construction, land use, and transportation. If the boondoggles in the Obama administration weren't terrible enough, the same transgressions will likely be mirrored in a potential Biden presidency – that is the nature of government.
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Read more from Andrew Moran.
