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Biden's Green Energy Plan Declares War on American Energy
Townhall.com ^ | April 13, 2021 | Stephen Moore

Posted on 04/13/2021 4:35:54 AM PDT by Kaslin

Am I the only one who finds it head-scratching that President Joe Biden, who wants to spend $2 trillion of taxpayer money on "infrastructure," is the same president whose first act in the White House was to kill a multibillion-dollar oil and gas pipeline that would create some 15,000 jobs? The Keystone pipeline that he canceled was vital to our energy infrastructure and wasn't going to cost taxpayers a penny.

The Biden infrastructure plan is a head fake. The agenda here isn't about creating "millions of new jobs." It's a declaration of war against one of the largest sources of new jobs in the United States: our domestic energy producers.

Some 80 percent of our energy today comes from fossil fuels, and well more than half of it comes from oil and natural gas.

I wonder if Joe Biden -- or anyone on his energy team -- knows that. Do they know that in the last week of 2020, during President Donald Trump's final weeks in office, the United States imported zero barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia for the first time in 35 years?

America became the world's largest energy exporter under Trump, and it wasn't because of big conglomerates such as Exxon Mobil Corp. or BP, who do a lot of their drilling outside of the U.S. It was "wildcatters," with their hydraulic fracturing operations entirely situated within the United States, that nearly doubled domestic drilling. Such smaller enterprises don't have complex "global footprints."

As a White House economics adviser, I used to discuss energy policy with Trump. I would tell him that we should strive to make America "energy-independent." But he would chastise me and insist, "I want to make America energy-dominant."

This saved the country more than $200 billion a year -- money that used to flow to the Saudis, Iran and OPEC nations, many of whom hate us. Trump wanted our oil and gas to come from Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and he consulted regularly with on-the-ground experts such as Harold Hamm, the president of Continental Resources and the largest driller of the Bakken shale in energy-rich North Dakota.

When America eliminated its dependency on foreign producers, it also lowered energy prices for the poorest Americans, with gas prices in many states falling to below $2 a gallon. As I write, the gas prices are hitting $4 a gallon in many states.

The quest for energy dominance also yielded massive job gains. The number of Americans directly employed by oil and gas producers hit 800,000 last year. The domestic oil and gas industry accounted for a larger share of all new jobs created in the first five years coming out of the 2008 financial crisis than any other industry. Many truckers and drillers in the oil patch make $100,000 a year or more -- far more than workers installing solar panels.

Biden and his media and technocratic allies view domestic energy production as a villain to vanquish. They are prepared to sacrifice the industry and its workers on the altar of climate and "sustainability." The left sees job losses in this industry as a small price to achieve its -- unreachable -- goal of zero carbon emissions by 2035.

As a presidential candidate, Biden promised he wouldn't push those workers into unemployment, and he even went so far as to endorse fracking. Now he's banning drilling on federal lands in many states, even though we have tens of trillions of dollars of energy resources.

Let's have a grown-up discussion on energy policy. The U.S. is going to continue to use oil and gas for decades to come. Today, only 10.7 percent of our energy comes from wind and solar power. Approximately 2% of the cars on the road are electric vehicles. Even if that were to rise by tenfold over the next decade, we will still have 80% of cars using good old gasoline. If we don't produce the oil and gas here, we are going to fill our tanks with oil and gas from the Middle East or Russia.

Biden must put jobs first and stop treating our domestic oil and gas producers as the enemies of progress. Oil and natural gas power our computers, our cars and trucks, our factories, our furnaces, our cellphones -- and all that our $22 trillion industrial economy encompasses. To "build back better," let those producers be part of an "all-of-the-above" clean, cheap and reliable all-America energy policy.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: climatealarmism; greenenergy; joebiden; keystonepipeline

1 posted on 04/13/2021 4:35:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: All

Oh well, America’s energy sector should have done more to help DJT get reelected.


2 posted on 04/13/2021 4:38:45 AM PDT by JonPreston (Q: Never have so many, been so wrong, so often)
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To: Kaslin

Biden is a psycho, pedophile moron while Harris is just a laughing and grinning fool. The mother of all jesters. Way to go to that “80 million, voter mail in morons who elected these clowns.


3 posted on 04/13/2021 4:40:11 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (You can vote your way into socialism but you have to shoot your way out of it.)
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To: Kaslin
(title) :" Biden's Green Energy Plan Declares War on American Energy "

Should read:" Biden's Green Energy Plan Declares War on American Energy Prosperity "

4 posted on 04/13/2021 4:44:42 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
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To: Kaslin

Anyone who wants to see this Biden cabal in charge of this, or any other industry, is a lunatic. Better to just put it all on ice and hang up Trump “Miss Me?” billboards.

There is a bit of a good-cop / bad-cop racket with the Republican / Democrat shtick. The Democrats rape an industry, dumping the wealth into their Union coffers and overseas bank accounts. When there’s no money left, the Republicans come along and try to rebuild the industry.

Read Atlas Shrugged. There’s no point in doing work for the bad guys.


5 posted on 04/13/2021 4:52:02 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: Kaslin

The energy needs of an industrialized society can be met ONLY by petroleum products, coal, oil, gas, that are under the ground. They cannot be met by solar/wind power.

So the intention of these people is to destroy our industrialized society and reduce it to the level of some turd world country.

Prepare to freeze in the dark.


6 posted on 04/13/2021 4:57:58 AM PDT by I want the USA back (I have ZERO confidence in my government, and almost zero in the medical industry.)
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To: Kaslin

Joe Biden can’t stop chewing his crayons. This was decided by the Coup organizers to reward our enemies and begin the process of enslaving the peons the Cabal detests and want dead. That’s right, they want us Patriots dead.


7 posted on 04/13/2021 5:00:36 AM PDT by Shady (Prince Andrew must be dethroned...ASAP.. )
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To: Kaslin

Jimmy Carter II on steroids.


8 posted on 04/13/2021 5:39:24 AM PDT by DownInFlames (G)
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To: Kaslin

Just another biden boondoggle.

I checked into this a while back. A relative was complaining about a $350 electric bill for a travel trailer in Vegas during spring, when it still hadn’t hit 95 degrees yet. Our typical bill here in east texas, mid july was around $150 with the AC running 24/7.

“Renewable” does not mean cheap. Our local cost then was $.07 per KWh according to our bill. I didn’t see the vegas bill, but both solar and wind averaged $.24 to $.27 per KWh at that time. Typical range of coal and natural gas is $.04 to $.07 per KWh.

WHY?

Both are not reliable at all. In low or no wind, you get no power generated. In high wind the blades have to be stopped and tied down or the turbines can be damaged. No power generated. (I think they probably lock down the gearbox, rather than actually tie down the blades.) Maintenance is 4 times that of coal and natural gas. Or more.

Solar does not provide any power at night or on overcast days, solar panels have a life span of about 10 years, and maintenance is high, 4 times that of coal or natural gas or more. With only about 15 to 20% of their power provided by “renewables”, Nevada bills were 3 times what they were here.

What will the bill be on nothing but solar and wind?

I distinctly remember this winter in Texas, I’ve seen the news stories about rolling blackouts in wackifornia, what’s it going to be like if we allow the liberals’ renewable utopia to take place?

And has anybody even thought about how much coal and natural gas it takes to BUILD those windmills and solar panels? They are nowhere close to self replicating yet. Know how much concrete and steel goes in to ONE windmill? According to an article I read 3 or 4 years ago, about 100 tons of coal, just to produce the concrete and steel to build one. It didn’t say anything about how much energy goes into production of a solar panel.

And that’s before we consider how many birds are killed by both solar farms and windmill farms every year. One type of solar farm creates such a hot spot above it due to the concentrated reflection, birds are literally cooked in midair flying across, and they have to hire people to gather up the carcasses every day. Birds of all descriptions fly into windmill blades and break their necks. Including eagles and every other endangered species that flies by.

Or the noise created by windmills. People residing close to windmill farms are not happy about the nonstop, low pitched noise they hear.

Just a liberal boondoggle.


9 posted on 04/13/2021 5:53:12 AM PDT by Paleo Pete (We're headed for hell in an imported handbasket.)
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To: Kaslin

When America eliminated its dependency on foreign producers, it also lowered energy prices for the poorest Americans, with gas prices in many states falling to below $2 a gallon. As I write, the gas prices are hitting $4 a gallon in many states.


10 posted on 04/13/2021 6:40:47 AM PDT by MarvinStinson ( )
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To: Paleo Pete
solar panels have a life span of about 10 years

More like 20-30 and many have 20 year warranties but batteries which cost as much as the panels have a short lifespan. Charge controllers and inverters may last ten years. LED lighting, who knows. We made our golf cart batteries last eight years which is more life than most people get out of them. Golf cart batteries are the cheapest and most readily available true deep cycle. Marine batteries aren't true deep cycle, even if it says deep cycle on the label. Fork lift batteries will last 20 years but are expensive, huge and heavy weighing a few hundred pounds. Batteries made specifically for solar are cost prohibitive as are Tesla made batteries. You never really get a ROI from solar power. We has a small setup because we knew we'd be living off grid for a few years so it was worth it for us. Always had cold milk for the kids and meat and veggies in a 12vdc freezer/fridge that was a true fridge with a compressor and freon, not one of those 12vdc coolers. We ended up being off grid for 5 years and the charge controller crapped out three days before we got electric service installed so I just ran the generator a lot for those three days. Total cost of everything was $1600 which works out to $27/mth for minimal electricity. Electric co-op charges a $25/mth maintenance fee even if zero kwh is used. So $25/mth for a little electricity compared to no electricity was definitely worth it for us. If you live in a place where electricity can't be brought in or would cost a 5-6 digit price tag for installation, like in the mountains, solar is worth having. We had LEDs that I collected in the electric sign business and they're still going strong after 12 years. Batteries, fridge(china), charge controller, inverter(china) all failed at around 7-8 years. Solar panels are still good but I'd have to spend $500 on batteries and $200 for a charge controller to get the system back up and running. The LED lights are running off an RV converter/charger right now and even just a couple of golf cart batteries would give us lighting and run/charge electronics during short term power outages. Might do it someday because it is nice to have modem/router, cordless phone, TV, streaming, DVD and lighting and keep our laptops, cell phones charged when the power goes out. Where it really gets stupid is; I'd have to have a $40k system to be able to run my small, 220 volt mig welder and/or 220 volt table saw. Same with our electric range, electric dryer, electric water heater. I could swap those to propane appliances and use a generator to run the welder and table saw if I really wanted to be off grid but I kind of like having electric service. The only cost effective way to do wind power is to build your own turbine from scratch because the retail ones are either too small to do much of anything or cost a 5 digit price tag. Only about 10% of the USA is worthwhile for wind power to get a ROI or make a good amount of electricity. When/if they can make affordable batteries and charge controllers and inverters that last 30 years, then alt energy might be worthwhile.

11 posted on 04/13/2021 7:26:41 AM PDT by Pollard ( )
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To: Pollard

They advertise 20-30, but the reality is much less.


12 posted on 04/13/2021 8:45:55 AM PDT by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: ridesthemiles

Do you really think companies like Samsung or GE are warrantying their panels for 20 years if they won’t last that long?


13 posted on 04/13/2021 8:59:56 AM PDT by Pollard ( )
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To: Kaslin

Biden has quickly ended American energy independence and will push wind and solar while killing off fossil fuel and nuclear power. Look for Texas like blackouts covering large parts of the country anytime there is increased demand for electricity. Get used to sweltering or shivering in your darkened homes, no water coming from the tap and all those electric vehicles sitting abandoned for lack of a charge.


14 posted on 04/13/2021 11:16:39 AM PDT by The Great RJ ("Socialists are happy until they run out of people's money." Margaret Thatcher)
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To: I want the USA back

Believe there may be the possibility of a practical not-fission, not-fusion, and adamantly not cold-fusion; but, technically a nuclear energy source that uses small amounts of common hydrogen as the starting material for the process. The published scientific papers available indicate the catalysis of Cosmic-ray like unstable particle-bursts from highly condensed matter. These heavy particles ultimately decay to electron-like charged particles and fast electrons, from which known techniques can be applied to extract electrical energy directly.

A device would require shielding, as there is some Gamma Ray production while in operation. Fortunately, there is a lack of Neutron production. A preliminary experiment conducted in 2015 after the accidental discovery of this process, was found to be able to generate approximately 500 Joules per second as heat dissipation from an input of 4 Joules of stimulus. A dissipation of a Joule per second in electrical terms is a Watt per second.

Assigned and pending patent agreements with other parties, dealings brokered through a University (assignee) and bureaucracy of government entities compete for control. Also does not help that there are only two known independent replications of the effect by those exploring applications.

The primary investigative party has decades of depth of cited publications, but unaffiliated academic replications have fallen short upon publication of results, if any. This has stalled issue of at least one patent in the EU, the examiner seeking corroboration from an independent source.


15 posted on 04/13/2021 12:28:09 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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