The word “existential” seems to be a favorite of climate alarmists. The word conveys the idea that the existence of civilization is at stake. The alarmists have convinced many that some very nasty medicine is going to be required to save us.
The cure can be worse than the disease.
As part of their treatment regimen, team Biden has pledged to cut carbon emissions from fossil fuels in half (of 2005 level) by 2030, just eight years and two months from now. They plan to accomplish that draconian feat by strangling the mining, transport, and sale of fossil fuels, following the lead of their European chums.
Permits for fuel pipelines are being denied or revoked. Coal and gas power plants are being shuttered. Drilling permits are being withheld. Financial institutions are being squeezed to withhold financing for projects involving fossil fuels. Our government is hell-bent on controlling the energy market supply and demand. A recent example is the newly-constructed Spire natural gas pipeline in eastern Missouri that has fallen prey to the fossil fuel hysteria.
To fill the energy gap created by the rapid elimination of fossil fuels, wind power has become their go-to. Just one problem: Wind farms are becoming more and more difficult to build due to conflicts caused by not-in-my-backyard resistance. Since 2015 more than 300 wind projects have been restricted or rejected by local communities and their land-use policies.
The Biden team attempted to address that problem last week by announcing the federal government will open the east and west coasts to off-shore wind projects. I may be a naïve Ozark farm boy, but I’m smart enough to know wealthy elites are concentrated near the coastlines. They will not allow that to happen.
The heady plan is to result in 30 gigawatts of off-shore electric generation by 2030 (the Cinderella tale is more believable). Note: The off-shore Cape Wind project planned for Nantucket Sound was scrapped in 2017 after 16 years of fighting for approval. Presently the U.S. has just one off-shore wind farm, Block Island in Rhode Island. It is rated at 30 megawatts, one-thousandth of the Biden off-shore power proposal.
The Texas freeze-up and the California rolling blackouts should have provided ample warning of our nation’s perilous energy status, but climate alarmism is fueled by emotion, not logic. Currently, every aspect of our economy and day-to-day lives relies on energy harvested from fossil fuels. For our nation’s leaders to deny us those life-sustaining resources before viable energy alternatives are available is a pernicious deed.
Whoever controls the carbon controls the world, and they know it.
Ron Boyer is a member of the Missouri Air Conservation Commission.