As we gallop toward $6 gas, I know, I know, it’s not Joe Biden’s fault — it’s important to highlight the utter silliness and stupidity of our energy policies.
The country is demanding that we stop importing Russian oil even though it’s a drop in the bucket accounting for only approximately 1% of our daily use. It appears the Biden administration is finally starting to open to this idea. Why it took so long is a mystery and another topic. The silliness comes in on who we’re asking to replace this oil. Various news reports have administration officials in Venezuela inquiring about getting oil from them to enhance our supply. Of course the old stand-by Saudi Arabia is also on the wish list. The most disturbing report is that we may actually start getting oil from Iran! Could we pick a more despicable three countries to do business with? I suppose, but I can’t think of any.
Many will claim the decrease in domestic production has nothing to do with the Biden administration. If this is true, can someone explain to me what is the reason for the decrease? Is the answer the 10-day-old conflict in Ukraine as some on the left have started to assert? How preposterous! I realize the Keystone pipeline doesn’t have anything to do with decreased output, but there must be other reasons? Perhaps it’s cancelling new oil and natural gas leases on federal lands? Detractors to this point of view will claim that oil companies already have 9,000 leases that they can tap. This is a ridiculous response since it doesn’t account for the cost of extraction on those specific leases or even if they’re viable. The Biden administration has been outwardly hostile toward domestic energy production as opposed to the last administration, which embraced domestic energy production. We were on the verge of being a net exporter and now we may ask Iran for oil?
There is no question our country, and the planet, must eventually get away from carbon-based energy. It’s unfortunate we’ve abandoned nuclear energy, but that too is another topic. However, we cannot abandon it today or tomorrow and while our carbon output has fallen over the last 50 years, we cannot hasten the decline on the backs of the poor, working class, and the economy as a whole (ourworldindata.org/co2/country/united-states).
Ironically as our output decreases and our share of worldwide output deceases, output from China and India has increased substantially, more than offsetting our decrease.
It’s no secret that the goal of the “green energy,” a laughable moniker, is that the way to hasten our way to green energy nirvana is to make the price of energy so expensive that it becomes more economical to go green. Imagine the arrogance and indifference this philosophy has cost the poor and working class of America, the people the left pretends to care about most. Gas was $3.50 a gallon in January 2020. It may not be all Biden’s fault that it’s $5.50 now but his hostility to domestic energy production sure has a lot to do with it. There can be no doubt that one administration’s hostility versus another administration’s embrace can have a significant effect on domestic prices. Thankfully we at least don’t have mean tweets to deal with.
Brian Richards
Stevenson Ranch
