The Green Fleecing of America

Remember the Beatles song, “Day Tripper”? You know, the 1965 tune, forever in rotation somewhere, that includes the lyric, “It took me so-o-o long, to find out. And I found out.” Well, that’s the way I feel about green energy. I found out. Call me slow if you wish, but I can explain.

You see, I was always puzzled as to why the greens—starting from the top with Joe Biden and his must-hire from the donor class, climate envoy John Kerry—have been so adamant about “de-carbonizing” the U.S. and yet have been so uninterested when the rest of the world keeps “carbonizing.” If someone wants to use a gas stove in the U.S., the greens are noisy in opposition, and yet when China builds a slew of new coal plants, they are silent. And, as some say, silence means consent.

According to a new study from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, China permitted 50 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity in 2022, up 50 percent from the year before. (A gigawatt is a billion watts, enough to power a few hundred thousand homes, depending on the weather.) And Semafor adds “all signs indicate that the surge will continue this year,” such that China will be building new coal plants, every two years, equivalent to existing U.S. capacity.

So what’s the Biden administration doing about this coaling up? Nothing! (Unless you count waiting a week before shooting down an intruding Chinese balloon as something.)

But seriously, why the silence?  If, as Biden likes to say, “Climate change is literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world,” doesn’t that call for doing something drastic? And shouldn’t China be equally alarmed?  Doesn’t Beijing  follow the science?

Yet the Chinese communist regime has managed to stay calm, even as it engages in what Semafor calls a “frenzy” of coal-plant building. The Chinese communists say they’re going to deal with climate change, on their own timetable.  In 2021, maximum leader Xi Jinping said to the United Nations, “China will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030.” Got that? He said they “will strive.” As in, we’ll keep building more coal plants like crazy till 2030, and then we’ll “strive” to stop. You trust us, right?  Now, no more questions.

When the Chinese communist regime talks like this, what does the Biden administration do in response? It says something nice about China’s good intentions, albeit maybe they still have some work to do. That’s it. And then the Bidenites go back to work on what they really care about—killing carbon energy in the U.S.

Just on February 24, PJM, a consortium of power companies from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, supplying 65 million customers, issued a report finding that new Biden environmental rules would force the “retirement” of coal and natural gas plants between now and 2030. (You know, the way Blade Runners “retired” Replicants in the 1982 Harrison Ford movie.) As PJM put it, “Retirements are at risk of outpacing the construction of new resources.” Other close observers make the same finding; as Brian Gitt says, “Expect soaring electricity prices & more frequent power blackouts.”

We’re witnessing a slow motion train wreck.

Expect soaring electricity prices & more frequent power blackouts.

Over reliance on wind & solar cause suffering to the poorest among us—a high cost for false moral comfort. https://t.co/i0MdUMRi9c

— Brian Gitt (@BrianGitt) March 4, 2023

And there’s still more zealotry from the greens, of course. We are supposed to get rid of our gas stoves, and our cars (even the electric ones) and adjust all our appliances. Again, why? So we can reduce our CO2 by a piddling amount while the Chinese are swamping the atmosphere with oodles more CO2? What’s up with that? What sense does that make?

Here’s what I used to think about green thinking: I thought they were sincere but misguided, focusing on strange distant goals as opposed to real-world needs.  Furthermore, I thought many of them were moved by a kind of spiritual belief.  In fact, back in 1997, I wrote a piece in which I argued that the greens were ensorcelled by New Age romantic poetry, which I dubbed “enviromanticism.” We all know, or have read about, green activists who are genuinely moved by some lyrical, mystical faith.  It’s hard to argue with them, for the same reason it’s hard to argue religion with anyone. And we can add that this sort of metaphysical thinking has penetrated deep into the elites, and even into middle-class suburbia.   And of course, some are simply hysterical, as in the case of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who blurted out in 2019, ‘The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.”

But if the green movement were nothing but hippies, housewives, heiresses, and hysterics, it wouldn’t be nearly as strong or as big as it actually is. One green consultancy