OPINION:
“Green” energy is associated with a healthy lifestyle, kind of like a kale smoothie for machines. However, President Biden’s rejection of reliable fossil fuels is triggering unintentional fallout. In the name of climate change, the president’s policies contribute to Russia’s devastating war on verdant Ukraine and heightening nuclear fears. It’s the dark consequence of energy fantasy.
Russia’s tanks rolling into its neighbor’s homeland are powered by a windfall of oil revenues that have filled Moscow’s coffers beyond President Vladimir Putin’s fondest hopes. Russia’s central bank reported total 2021 export revenues of $489.8 billion, with nearly half of the riches derived from oil and gas sales and total cash reserves exceeding $600 billion.
Following 2020’s COVID-19-caused recession, rising global energy prices are partially responsible for the bounty, but Mr. Biden’s war on domestic fossil fuels has also lifted Mr. Putin’s ambitions.
By killing the Keystone XL pipeline on Inauguration Day, Mr. Biden said “no” to 830,000 daily barrels of oil. An accompanying freeze of oil and natural gas leases on federal lands has failed in federal court, but his stubborn appeals still silence the drills. Oil and gas rigs nationwide, which topped 800 immediately before the pandemic, ended 2021 at fewer than 600.
Under Mr. Biden, America has regressed from energy independence to a nation forced to import more than 500,000 barrels of oil a day — at nearly $100 per barrel — from Russia. In a Conservative Political Action Conference speech Saturday, former President Donald Trump lamented the role U.S. purchases of Russian oil play in funding Mr. Putin’s war on Ukraine: “All those tanks roaming around are very expensive, but they are peanuts compared to the kind of money he is making because of the tremendous increase in oil.”
Moreover, by foolishly endorsing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline — built to transport natural gas from Russia — Mr. Biden has encouraged Europe’s energy dependence. Germany blocked the new conduit after Mr. Putin’s attack on Ukraine last week. Still, given Germany’s phasing out of nuclear and fossil fuels, Nord Stream 2 eventually is likely to feed Europe’s craving for Russian energy.
Even as global outcry over his attack on Ukraine causes Mr. Putin to put his nuclear forces on high alert, the Islamic extremists of Iran close in on their own nuclear capability. While attempting to resurrect a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear designs, Mr. Biden is also seeking to resume buying Iranian oil, which would provide the regime with the means to stoke state-sponsored terrorism.
Energy policies that reward warmongering nations prioritize climate change over peace. Responding to the war-wrought destruction in Ukraine, U.S. climate czar John Kerry simply told BBC Arabic he hopes “President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.”
Americans of a certain vintage remember a slogan from the turbulent ’60s: “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” The same can be said of “green” policies that inadvertently fund the weaponry of war.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.