OPINION:
President Biden announced his administration was going to ban fossil fuel drilling from 16 million acres of federal land in Alaska.
That’s code for “watch your energy bills skyrocket.”
And the administration is actually bragging about it.
“With these actions, President Biden continues to deliver on the most aggressive climate agenda in American history,” the Department of Interior said in a statement. “He has made the United States a magnet for clean energy manufacturing and jobs. He secured record investments in climate resilience and environmental justice.”
Environmental justice?
How just is it for Americans to pay needlessly high prices for their energy needs at a time when energy is already hiking due to lingering COVID-tied supply chain issues, Russia-Ukraine conflicts and other policies from this White House that have led to record-high inflation? America’s teetering on a fiscal cliff, suffering from a steady dole-out of taxpayer-funded stimulus dollars; an open border that brings in massive numbers of entitlement-seeking illegals; and a federal debt level that’s skyrocketed to the point where it will cost taxpayers a total $395.5 billion to service this fiscal year alone. These are Biden’s biddings.
These are Democrats’ doings.
In Biden’s first year in office, he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, putting an immediate halt to thousands of jobs while oddly enough, contributing to pollution. As Rep. Clay Higgins, Louisiana Republican, wrote on his government website in February 2021: “Moving petroleum products by rail or truck results in as much as six times more pollution than moving it by pipeline.”
That wasn’t Biden’s only disastrous energy plan put to effect, though.
He put America back into the Paris climate agreement, leading the nation down a nearly endless path of environmental regulations.
He created federal positions for climate cronies so they could exert great influences on environmental policy, without having to go through the bother of accountability, Americans for Prosperity noted.
He signed executive orders to force all the federal agencies to think climate control policy first, government mission second — so that even the Securities and Exchange Commission became a green tool of mandates on businesses, insurers, retirement fund companies and the like.
He adopted a Marxist-like Build Back Better campaign that mirrors the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset vision that will weaken the free market by setting the corporate model as social justice first, dollars-and-cents profits second.
And more.
Hasn’t Silicon Valley Bank, with its failed multimillion-dollar investments in green tech, just shown us the error of such policy foolhardy ways?
Biden may have just given the go-ahead for ConocoPhillips to drill at three sites in Alaska — the Willow oil project. But the approval was for far less land than what company executives requested. And with this administration, with Democrats in general, on energy production it’s always one step forward, 10 steps back. Willow is the bone tossed as a concession. The real story is Biden blocking almost 3 million acres of the Arctic Ocean, and severely limiting drilling in 13 million of the 23 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve — you know, the place that was set aside more than a century ago for, get this, petroleum production activities? It’s in the name, Joe.
Ah, well. Tra la la la. More rules, more regulations, more controls, more costs. No bread? Eat cake.
At some point, it should be acknowledged, though, that the people are suffering enough.
In September of 2022, the Biden effect had already left Americans with an average loss of $4,200 a year in spending power, according to a Heritage Foundation analysis.
In January, that dollar amount climbed to $7,400 per family — more than a month’s salary for many.
To the Biden family — to politicians who live off the taxpayer dime and dollar — a few bucks more here for gas, a few bucks more there for shipped-by-truck groceries, a few dollars more here and there for heat and air conditioning, and the price of an airline ticket to grandma’s funeral or bus ride to that second job may not mean much. But a lot of Americans are barely keeping their households in the black, and have little or no savings in the bank.
“As the cost of living surged in 2022,” CNBC wrote on Jan. 31, “the number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck jumped to 64% as of December. … Compared with 2021, 9.3 million more Americans said they are stretched too thin.”
Democrats may care more about trees and wildlife than about people. Biden may care more about doing the bidding of his puppet masters than about American citizens.
But 64% is a majority voting block.
Biden ought to take a peek around his handlers and gaze at reality. Americans almost always vote with their pocketbooks and wallets.
Today’s drilling ban is tomorrow’s Republican White House.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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