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 project and maybe open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 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 its anti-fossil-fuels 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 director of the president’s National Economic Council. As he commented 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 mind-numbing, incomprehensible, hogwash.”
“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,” he told Bloomberg.
“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.
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Deese was, of course, parroting a Democratic talking point that we’ve heard frequently in recent years.
Biden himself made that point during the presidential campaign and doubled down on it Tuesday during his announcement of the U.S. ban on Russian oil imports, saying our present situation “should motivate us to accelerate a transition to clean energy.”
A few things must be addressed here.
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 now, 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. Because of the reckless policies of the Biden administration, we quickly squandered that status.
Deese admitted 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 green 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, 2021, 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 others in the Biden administration are too committed to their radical agenda to admit it.
And Americans will continue to pay for it.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
