Gas Pains
Thanks to Biden and the radical left, the Russia/Ukraine conflict has sent already high gas prices soaring.
The Russia/Ukraine conflict is not an easy one to figure out. Most American’s are under the impression that if Russia wanted to, they could basically annihilate Ukraine. But for reasons that will remain a puzzle for now, they seem to be prolonging the inevitable. Winston Churchill defined Russia as "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." No one’s quite sure what Russia’s endgame is in the Ukraine. They win some battles easily and have taken some big losses in some others.
So far, the biggest consequence of the war for most American’s has been the steep increase in gas prices, to go with the already steep ones since Biden took office. As is often the case in world conflicts, the price of natural gas and crude oil go up. Crude oil is above the critical $100 a barrel price. That’s 5x higher than what it cost during the Trump presidency. Prices at most pumps have gone up nearly $2 a gallon…a tax that the ruling elite can absorb, but what about the underclass? Our poorest citizens often have to commute the farthest to get to work. On average, it means a $2,500 hit by the end of the year. In addition, natural gas prices have almost doubled since Biden took office. Biden and his like-minded lackeys are so beholden to the climate activist wing in the Democratic party, that they refuse to see the gathering gloom ahead of them. Inflation, which to a great degree hinges on fuel prices, is the top reason given by voters for Biden’s abysmal polling numbers.
From cancelling major pipeline projects via executive order to refusing to schedule and hold court-ordered federal lease sales, to the implementation of an array of onerous new regulations at the Interior Department and the EPA, this administration has been waging war on the U.S. oil industry since literally the day it took office. We’ve chronicled Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s disdain for the average American, when she laughed at a reporters question about re-opening the Keystone Pipeline in the US once prices started to rise. She basically was saying that it was the Saudi’s fault, not the fact that the Keystone Pipeline was turned off during Biden’s first day in office. And just yesterday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegieg was asked why he can’t turn the Keystone spigot back on, at least while the conflict lasts. He said it would be “galloping after permanent solutions to immediate short term problems.” And then he comes clean. “The president has laid policies that are going help cushion the impacts of any volatility in energy markets in the future by building up more of a diversified and homegrown energy base for this country.” That’s obviously code for renewable energy…which to date is not cheaper, and definitely not more reliable.
Besides opening up closed pipelines, there are many options the administration is refraining from considering. For reasons that can only be traced back to the hippie days of the progressive elite (think Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer) the Democrats will not allow the construction of new nuclear energy plants. Nuclear is the cheapest, and like wind and solar it has no emissions. Unlike wind and solar it provides consistent, dependable power.
As for safety, it almost requires deliberate intentions to mess one up, as there are redundancies on top of redundancies to prevent anything going wrong. In reality, the nuclear waste everyone worries about are used fuel rods. All of the used fuel from U.S. nuclear plants can fit on a football field stacked just 50 foot high. There ought to be someplace in America where we can dispose of them.
Wind and solar generate energy for just a fraction of the year (about 30%) which is why, when they are not producing, they are mostly replaced with fossil fuels (coal and natural gas) generation, something even some anti-nuclear groups are starting to acknowledge.
That brings us back to fossil fuels. I’ve said numerous times that most American’s have a conservation ethic. For some, electric vehicles (EV) work. And for some they don’t. By stubbornly trying to limit the supply of domestic gasoline, causing a huge increase in the price, just to promote an EV-only utopia is both unfair and unrealistic. Unfair because there are millions of Americans who either can’t afford a new EV, or whose situation does not work with the limited range of EV’s. And unrealistic, because many of todays supply chains are dominated by China, which is not exactly our closest friend. China, for instance, currently controls 80 percent of the lithium battery supply chains. Biden’s pigheaded approach will not only cause American’s to spend more than they need to for gas, but it will likely be the determining factor in the Democrat’s demise come November.
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EVs are a fad—they still have to be charged using electricity that comes largely from fossil-fueled power plants. Nuclear power is something that we should revisit…. the small plants used in France are reliable and produce even less waste. The ultimate answer is hydrogen, which has its byproduct pure water (killing two birds—tremendous power and fresh water that can be distributed to areas where its needed). It’s volatile, but I hear strides are being made. In the meantime, why are we suffering at the altar of “climate change”? We can be responsible and phase in changes over time that reduce emissions and our impact on the environment, but unleash the American energy engine! The natural gas produced by fracking burns clean and is available in large quantities domestically. The infrastructure is in place. Create jobs, reduce the cost of power, improve our security—that seems like a solid platform. Meanwhile, we fund Putin’s war machine (and its massive carbon footprint!) by having to grovel for Soviet oil. Biden is so far out of his league in so many areas, but the damage he is doing to this country by his misguided decisions about energy policy have put us in a hole that we may never get out of. Let’s Go Brandon!