As Congress struggled with yet another chaotic episode of negotiations over another catastrophic continuing resolution, all I could think was how wonderful it would be for everyone if they just shut the government down and brought an end to the Biden administration and its incredibly braindead and destructive Energy-policy farce a month early.
What a blessing it would be for the country if President Joe Bidenâs Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were forced to stop âthrowing gold bars off the Titanicâ 30 days ahead of schedule. What a merry Christmas we could have if we never had to hear silly talking points based on pseudoscience from the likes of Bidenâs climate policy adviser John Podesta or Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm or Biden himself (read, as always, from his ever-present TelePrompTer) again!
What a shame it has been that the rest of us have been forced to take such unserious people seriously for the last four years solely because they had assumed power over the rest of us. As Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead spent decades singing: âWhat a long, strange trip itâs been.â
Speaking of Granholm, she put the perfect coda to this administrationâs seemingly endless series of policy scams this week by playing cynical political games with what was advertised as a serious study. It was ostensibly a study so vitally important that it mandated the suspension of permitting for one of the countryâs great growth industries while we breathlessly awaited its publication for most of a year.
That, of course, was the Department of Energyâs (DOE) study related to the economic and environmental impacts of continued growth of the U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) export industry. We were told in January by both Granholm and Biden that the need to conduct this study was so urgent, that it was entirely necessary to suspend permitting for new LNG export infrastructure until it was completed.
The grand plan was transparent: implement the âpauseâ based on a highly suspect LNG emissions draft study by researchers at Cornell University, and then publish an impactful DOE study that could be used by a President Kamala Harris to implement a permanent ban on new export facilities. It no doubt seemed foolproof at the Biden White House, but schemes like this never turn out to be anywhere near that.
First, the scientific basis for implementing the pause to begin with fell apart when the authors of the draft Cornell study were forced to radically lower their emissions estimates in the final product published in September.
And then, the DOE study findings turned out to be a mixed bag proving no real danger in allowing the industry to resume its growth path.
Faced with a completed study whose findings essentially amount to a big bag of nothing, Granholm decided she could not simply publish it and let it stand on its own merits. Instead, someone at DOE decided it would be a great idea to leak a three-page letter to the New York Times 24 hours before publication of the study in an obvious attempt to punch up the findings.
The problem with Granholmâs letter was, as the Wall Street Journalâs editorial board put it Thursday, âthe studyâs facts are at war with her conclusions.â After ticking off a list of ways in which Granholmâs letter exaggerates and misleads about the studyâs actual findings, the Journalâs editorial added, âOur sources say the Biden National Security Council and career officials at Energyâs National Laboratories disagree with Ms. Granholmâs conclusions.â
There can be little doubt that this reality would have held little sway in a Kamala Harris presidency. Granholmâs and Podestaâs talking points would have almost certainly resulted in making the permitting âpauseâ a permanent feature of U.S. Energy policy. That is what happens when âscienceâ isnât science at all and Energy reality is ignored in favor of the prevailing narratives of the political left.
What a blessing it would have been to put an end to this form of policy madness a month ahead of time. January 20 surely cannot come soon enough.
David Blackmon is an Energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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