Add to that extreme environmental laws that forced mining, timber, refineries, power plants, etc to shut down and impossible to open new facilities. A healthy environment is good, but when carried to extremes, jobs disappear. And the loony left envirowackos are never satisfied — they just keep ratcheting the enviro laws further and further until nothing can be permitted,built or operated. That’s how they are effectively outlawing ICE vehicles now.
The other side of the coin is the research that was offshored to Wuhan in 2015, to get around regulations that were enacted after several lab leaks here. We’re still paying for that mistake, and far more than it would have cost to follow regulations here.