This Independence Day weekend, the 246th, America is in turmoil, both domestically and overseas due in large measure to federal climate change policies.
America’s multiple crises are mostly self-inflicted by our ruling political class, and it’s likely to continue well before any improvement.
Consumer inflation is the worst it’s been in 40 years, and there are no signs it is abating. Many economists and business leaders believe the American economy is shrinking, that is, a recession is well underway, defined by two consecutive quarters of net decrease in the gross domestic product.
Overseas, the bloodiest conflict on European soil since World War II is four months old following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s cruelty was made easier by the climate policies and lack of deterrence from the Biden administration. From day one, President Biden’s policy to “fight climate change” has been to restrict domestic oil, raise its price, and force Americans to “transition” to electric, wind and solar energy – though none of which can function without fossil fuels. Higher oil and gas prices financially empowered Russia to launch its takeover of Ukraine.
One of the vital means by which America won the Cold War was by tanking energy prices worldwide in the late 1980s, which starved the Soviet economy of hard currency. Rather than ineffective economic sanctions, President Biden could flood the market with U.S. energy and cripple Russian’s war machine. Except he won’t.
On the other side of the globe, China continues to expand its power and reach, including in the United States. China’s Wuhan military lab created the worst public health crisis in a full century that killed outright, or hastened the death of, one million Americans and millions more worldwide. Now, the Biden administration is further enriching China by making the U.S. more dependent on Chinese-produced solar panels and wind turbines.
Back home, the United States Supreme Court is under vicious attack by prominent Democratic politicians as “illegitimate” since they disagree with its recent high-profile rulings. Among them is West Virginia v. EPA, where the Court struck down the Environmental Protection Agency’s claimed authority to implement the so-called Clean Power Program to reduce carbon emissions.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who is 1/1024th Native American, said, “our planet is on fire” and the Court “destroyed the federal government’s ability to fight back.” Actually, Congress can “fight back” by enacting laws. You know, democracy. MSNBC house nitwit, Chris Hayes, spoke for many vapid commentators by asserting the Court “is a threat to the planet.”
Justice Elena Kagan, an appointee of President Obama’s, who wrote the dissenting opinion, warned: “children born this year could live to see parts of the eastern seaboard swallowed by the ocean.” This is a classic example of judges using sophomoric talking points rather than the facts and the law. Will the Obamas now sell their ocean-front property on Martha’s Vineyard?
The running theme in this and other cases is democracy, the very thing these same critics of the Court claim their political opponents threaten. Real democracy is deferring legislative issues to Congress and the states, including regulating carbon emissions, rather than to unelected EPA bureaucrats.
Presiding over this growing collection of catastrophes and climate hysteria is our 79-year-old president, Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
When Mr. Biden was in Madrid last Thursday a reporter asked how long American drivers would have to “pay a premium for this war” in Ukraine with high gasoline prices. The president’s response, “As long as it takes so Russia cannot in fact defeat Ukraine and move beyond.” He went on to blame “Russia Russia Russia Russia” for high gasoline and food prices.
This is absurd and backwards. President Biden can lower inflation this afternoon by abandoning his fruitless climate policies and unleashing American oil, gas, and coal. Not only would that bring immediate economic relief to Americans, it also would diminish Russia’s ability to finance its Ukraine invasion and hasten a truce.
No one in power in the Biden administration or in Congress has any thought of lowering energy costs. White House climate czar Gina McCarthy is thrilled that workers in the oil and gas industry are losing their jobs and Climate Ambassador John Kerry recently said “we absolutely don’t” need to drill for more fossil fuels.
This Fourth of July it is not a pretty picture in America as President Biden doubles down on his destructive climate change agenda with high energy costs fueling domestic inflation and foreign aggression by America’s adversaries.
Sadly, none of this is going to change for the better any time soon. Happy Fourth.