Rush Limbaugh wrote a book called See I Told You So. A best seller. I wrote Why the Green New Deal is a Bad Deal for America. It went nowhere of course. But then I’m no Rush Limbaugh. However, with respect to the effect of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and her Green New Deal on the American economy, I was right. It is a continuing disaster for the middle class. See I Told You So!
According to noted energy expert and philosopher Alex Epstein, “When fossil fuel supply goes down and fossil fuel demand goes up, fossil fuel energy prices go up. And when energy prices go up, the price of everything goes up.” Check out Alex’s new book, Fossil Future.
The government calculated U. S. inflation rate will likely exceed 10% before the 2022 mid-term elections. It will probably be the same world-wide. The primary reason for the rapid increase in the rate of inflation is rising energy costs. The cost of energy impacts everything we do as human beings. Energy has a price and for years, the price of energy has been going down on an adjusted basis. Now it is going up at an exceedingly high rate. Why?
Many would say that the increase in energy costs is due to Supply and Demand economics. If Demand rises and Supply doesn’t, prices go up rapidly. If Demand decreases, then Supply builds rapidly but prices go down more slowly. That slowness in prices coming down is due to the inertia of the Market. Unfortunately, that effect only goes one way. That’s just the way it is. When fossil fuel supply goes down and fossil fuel demand goes up, fossil fuel energy prices go up. And when energy prices go up, the price of everything goes up.
Most of America’s energy is currently being provided by fossil fuels. By most, I mean 80 percent of our energy is from coal, oil and natural gas. In America, we still have over 300 years of oil and natural gas available to us at our current rate of use. Of course, the rate of use in the United States is going up, but the rate of use in the world in general is increasing at an even higher rate, especially in China, India and the developing areas of Africa. Those are just the facts. Fossil fuels are energy dense, mobile, and available. They will continue to be able to meet the needs of an energy-hungry world for many more years. They will need to.
But we don’t just get energy from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons and hydrocarbons are used to make many of today’s useful products to include plastics and fertilizers, just to name a couple of the important benefits from fossil fuels. These benefits appear to have been ignored by the Green New Deal proponents. Cancelling pipeline projects reduces the flow of heavier oil to the refineries to make plastics. Curtailing pipelines, drilling and fracking also reduces the ability of natural-gas powered turbine generators to back up the more expensive, intermittent, unreliable power from renewable energy sources.
And it’s not just about electricity for lights, AC and EVs. We need fossil fuels for food. We need fuel for the machines that plant the crops, fertilize the crops, water the crops, harvest the crops and ship the crops to market. That takes gasoline, natural gas, diesel and coal. The Green New Deal is now disrupting the supply chain more than the Pandemic.
Most American’s don’t realize that natural gas is not only a feed stock to make fertilizer, it also serves as a heat source for manufacturing cement. Coal and natural gas are also used to provide the heat to manufacture steel and the electrical power for the saw mills. Aircraft and heavy transport vehicles like railroad prime movers and highway 18-wheelers use jet fuel and diesel. The supply chain runs on petroleum. It will continue to run on petroleum since there is no better mobile fuel. Even Tesla’s are manufactured and powered through the use of fossil fuels.
So, the Green New Deal is based on fiction. Unfortunately, its inflationary effects have been real and immediate. And its not based on Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Even the “Putin Price Hike” was due to the incompetence of the Biden Administration, in particular the Chief Executive, the VP, and the heads of the State, Defense, Transportation and Energy Departments. Every action they have taken in dealing with the Russian invasion of Ukraine—arms, sanctions and energy policy have been wrong but cheered on by the anti-American leadership of the Democrat party and media. Nancy Pelosi has joined with the radical Socialist elements (AOC and the Squad) just to stay in power. They are corrupt, incompetent and/or naïve. They need to go. VOTEdemsout2022