An intelligent U.S. president assessing the current energy situation would conclude that now might be a good time to loosen regulations on oil and gas drilling, rethink the Keystone XL Pipeline and maybe open up drilling in ANWR. After all, the world has suddenly become a more dangerous place and energy independence is essential to national security.
Nope.
With oil prices at record highs, and likely heading higher, the Biden Administration refuses to put the brakes on their green agenda. President Joe Biden and his minions have made it clear they’re not about to let a little old war in Ukraine get in the way of their green dreams.
Brian Deese is the current director of the National Economic Council. Commenting on the path to energy independence outside the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Deese’s words recalled the old slogan, ‘If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bullsh**.’
“The only viable path to energy independence for the American economy is to reduce the energy intensity of our economy overall. And ultimately to reduce it to zero and get ourselves to a position where we’re no longer reliant on fossil fuels. That’s a long-term project. But what we’re seeing today, and the geopolitics and the economic pain should only reinforce our efforts to try to move there more quickly,” Deese said.
Biden economic advisor Brian Deese: “The only viable path to energy independence” is to reduce fossil fuel use to “zero.” pic.twitter.com/49q1Nav5hC
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2022
Deese’s full remarks can be heard in the following clip:
National Economic Council Director Brian Deese says the Biden administration will do whatever is needed to mitigate the economic impact of Russia sanctions https://t.co/E7ZaVUCcil pic.twitter.com/dmUrVxxggV
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) March 8, 2022
Deese was, of course, parroting the latest Democratic talking point which we’d heard earlier in the day from Biden himself during his announcement of the U.S. ban on Russian oil imports. Biden said, our present situation “should motivate us to accelerate a transition to clean energy.”
First, most non-economists don’t understand the concept of “energy intensity.” At least I didn’t. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, it is “the amount of energy used to produce a given level of output or activity. Using less energy to produce a product or provide a service results in reduced energy intensity.”
This intellectual giant is telling us that while green energy will not supply all the energy America needs today, advances in technology over the next 10 or 15 years will get us there. While we may feel some economic pain today, that pain will spur us to get there quicker.
His trite words fail to provide even the hint of a solution to our current predicament.
The U.S. had reached energy independence under former President Donald Trump. Due to the reckless policies of the Biden Administration, we quickly squandered that status.
Deese admits that achieving energy independence through green energy is a long-term project. He’s aware that the energy derived from windmills, solar panels and other renewables is insufficient to power the U.S. economy. We cannot force everyone to drive an electric car.
The left’s green energy dream is simply not possible right now. Perhaps, with advances in technology, it will be one day.
Until that green utopia becomes a reality, we need to work with the resources that are available to us right now.
Had Biden been a reasonable man, he would have recognized that energy independence is essential to national security and he would have maintained it even while pursuing alternative energy.
We could return to that status fairly quickly by revving up domestic oil and gas production. But this administration’s obsession with climate change is making that impossible.
The world is in crisis. The U.S. is in crisis. That rainy day is here and Deese is telling us to reduce the “energy intensity” of our economy and that now is the time to double-down on clean energy.
On Tuesday, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed at 124.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while Brent crude finished at 128.98 on the Intercontinental Exchange.
On Nov. 6, 2020, WTI closed at $37.14 a barrel. By Jan. 20, the day of Biden’s inauguration, prices had risen to $53.30 as markets braced for his administration’s coming war on fossil fuels. The price rose steadily throughout the year, topping out at 83.57 on Oct. 29.
The buildup of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border forced prices even higher and the actual invasion caused prices to explode.
Administration officials tell us that even if they took steps toward increasing U.S. oil and gas production today, there would be a lag before the energy produced would be added to supply.
But they’re wrong. Markets are forward looking. News that the U.S. was implementing plans to increase oil and gas production would get “priced into the market” and prices would immediately start to fall in anticipation of an increased supply.
That’s Finance 101. And Brian Deese knows that. Unfortunately, he and every other Biden Administration official are too committed to their radical agenda to admit it.
And Americans will continue to pay for it.
A previous version of this article was published on The Western Journal.
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Few think it about it, in broader terms, like how a Democrat would characterize it, as if it were a pet project a Democrat likes, like, “How many Americans who can’t afford what they already need and go without can the rising fuel and food prices will these actions by the president kill?”
That poseur of a president, and his entire administration should be removed from office, one way or another. This has gone well past a discussion about intent or green energy, or even a war in Ukraine.
Well done, Elizabeth.
Wishing something were so does not make it so. That statement reflects the plainly obvious folly of the Green New Dealers and their push to eliminate fossil fuels. Do I wish I had a car that ran on hydrogen, emitted only water vapor, and that the nation’s 150,000 or so gas stations all had hydrogen pumps selling it for the equivalent of a buck a gallon? Absolutely I do…. And yet, the current technology doesn’t support it.
This is the basic problem with the anti-fossil fuel crowd. At some point research and development will get us to a place where alternative energy sources are economically viable. To try and force that issue prematurely, which is what this administration seems hell-bent on doing, does nothing but cause needless economic hardship on everyday Americans.