Promising the Green New Deal to the left wing of his party, 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden has offered exactly what the Democrat Party wants, to reverse everything 74-year-old Donald Trump accomplished, as he approves the Alaska Pebble mine, a monstrous project opposed by environmentalists for disrupting the pristine Alaska ecosystem. Biden promises the day he takes office to reinstate the United States in the Dec. 12, 2015 Paris Climate Accord. Trump cancelled the U.S. involvement in the Paris Climate Accord June 1, 2017, citing the disproportionate economic burden and damage to the United States economy. Only two months before March 24, 2017, Trump approved the Keystone XL pipeline running through sacred Native lands over the objections of the Rosebud and Standing Rock Sioux in South Dakota. Biden looks forward to canceling the Keystone XL pipeline.
No matter how many jobs were created running the pipeline from Hardesty Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, Biden will reverse Trump’s order, not because it’s an environmental hazard but because Democrats will do everything to reverse every legislative action and executive order during Trump’s presidency. Whatever the economic impact on the economy, currently reeling from the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-19 or Covid-19 global pandemic, Biden won’t hesitate to undo any action taken by the Trump administration, even if it plunges the U.S. into depression. Biden’s environmental policy has been written by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) whose Green New Deal gives the U.S. 15 years to be a zero carbon emissions, relying only on renewable energy, like wind, solar and geothermal, something most economists think would grind the U.S. industry to a halt.
Yet in the race for the White House, Biden no longer represents his own interests but becomes a conduit for fringe parts of the Democrat Party, especially the radical left represented by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose programs for the environment, education, health care and immigration would radically change the nature of the U.S. economy. Biden sells himself as a Democrat moderate, something that doesn’t exist in today’s Democrat Party. Forces controlled by Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ocasio-Cortez promise to revolutionize American society, attempting to redistribute wealth accumulated for generations but now subject to confiscation by a new American rule of law. Bernie wants a wealth tax on every multimillionaire and billionaire in the country, changing forever American entrepreneurship—and Wall Street—as known for generations.
Transitioning to a carbon free economy would undermine most industries, certainly upend the electric car market now dominated by Tesla Motors. When you consider most electricity around the global comes from fossil fuel, natural gas, coal or nuclear powered plants, the Green New Deal would ground every electric car, diesel truck and internal combustion car in the country. Ocasio-Cortez admits that transportation as we know it would cease to exist, including trains, planes and automobiles. Natural gas-fired power plants are now 38.4% of all electricity-generated in the United States. Fossil fuel powered plants account for 62.7% with coal still generating about 23.5% of the nation’s electricity. Biden panders to Bernie and Ocasio-Cortez’s fantasies but solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear and carbon-capture storage cannot meet U.S. energy needs.
Embracing the Green New Deal to capture Bernie and Elizabeth Warren’s constituents, Biden looks for alternatives to the fossil fuel. Ocasio-Cortez is worried about the survival of polar bears not human beings. Without fossil fuels for heat and cooking, the average U.S. citizens would retreat to pioneer days, burning wood over campfires or lighting homes with torches, since kerosene lamps would be banned. Harvard University’s energy expert David Keith thinks transitioning to solar and wind would require 20 times the land currently available. “You should tilt the energy system toward low land footprints, which means focusing on solar, nuclear, and carbon capture and storage, with wind at the margins,” said Keith, dreaming, along with other academics, of a carbon free world. Biden likes placating Ocasio-Cortez who wouldn’t be able to use her hair dryer.
University professors around the globe collect guaranteed paychecks for the most impractical ideas imaginable, using computer modeling to simulate ecosystems of the future. Columbia University senior research fellow Melissa Loti at Center of Global Energy Policy said whatever inconveniences or side effects of renewable energy, it’s all worth the price of zero carbon emissions. As long as Biden lets environmental extremists fashion his energy policy, the costs to ordinary consumers, who currently can’t afford to pay their electricity or gas bills, could get a lot worse. Producing electricity at affordable prices is not the concern of academics or zealots like Ocasio-Cortez only looking a “zero emissions.” Tesla likes to boast about “zero emissions” for its electric vehicles. But truth be told, Tesla’s energy has to come from somewhere, currently 26.4% natural gas, 62.7% fossil fuel and 23.5% coal.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
