OPINION:
Vice President Kamala Harris should be commended for completing with grace what must have been an all-out awkward role of certifying the electoral counts of the man she lost the presidency to — a man, by all accounts, she believes to be totally unfit to serve as president.
But that’s the calm before the storm. Once President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, watch as the Democrats dig up their deep fury and unleash, as Sen. Chuck Schumer might say, a whirlwind of retribution. After all, Trump didn’t just win. He won big. And in Democrat Land, he should be in jail right now.
Trump is the guy who never should have won in the first place — never mind the second place — and for that, to Democrats, anyway, he must pay.
It’d be great if the seemingly sane and smooth transitory nature of the certification process continued into the new year’s politics. But anyone who’s watched politics for more than a blink knows Democrats are already campaigning, already hunkering, already plotting how best to hurt Trump.
And don’t Sir Trumpster himself already know it.
“Biden is doing everything possible to make the TRANSITION as difficult [as] possible, from Lawfare such as has never been seen before, to costly and ridiculous Executive Orders on the Green New Scam and other money wasting Hoaxes,” Trump wrote on his Truth social.
President Biden is banning new drilling off the East Coast — the entire East Coast, as well as, oh yeah, the West Coast of California, Oregon and Washington state, too — as well as, oh yeah, off Alaska’s coast and oh, yeah, off the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico.
What the flip, Joe.
Are Americans to start chopping wood to heat their homes this winter? Or grease their squeaky bicycle wheels to commute to work? Curious minds want to know.
Here’s the White House fact sheet on Biden’s bans: “[He’s] protecting approximately 334 million acres of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf from Canada to the southern tip of Florida, and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico … [and] nearly 250 million acres of federal waters off the West Coast … [and] 44 million acres of the Northern Bering Sea in far northwest Alaska,” the statement reads.
It’s all about the fish and sea birds and seals and sea lions, dontcha know.
“With [these actions], Biden has now conserved more than 670 million acres of U.S. lands, waters and ocean — more than any president in history,” the fact sheet stated.
Another way to look at that: Biden has seized and halted human activity on more U.S. lands, waters and ocean than any president in history.
This is great for fish — but not so great for American humans.
Federal bans on energy sector production always carry huge costs for citizens.
The North Dakota Petroleum Council, for instance, estimated a ban on oil and natural gas development would “severely harm the economies of eight western states” and lead to a loss of 72,818 jobs and of $19.6 billion in wages. The trickle-down effect would decrease tax collections by $10.8 billion, leading to cuts in government services and ultimately, by 2040, a reduction in workforce of 351,000 across the West.
Ouch.
Such regressive policies are the stuff of elitist politicians who rarely suffer the consequences personally of what they create.
Climate change alarmists have been calling for years for Democrats to get tough, get tougher, get as Green New Deal tough as they can on zero-emission goals and anti-development, anti-production agendas — all supposedly to save the planet from exploding. The 12-year doomsday clock on this rarely changes. But it’s only America that’s roundly condemned for failing to do the far left’s bidding on carbon emission controls and other environmental regulatory crackdowns. China has carte blanche to pollute. India has dodged much of the criticisms.
“Dear Americans, stop using China and India as climate change scapegoats,” The Logic of Science even wrote, back in 2018.
Democrats seem to side with that chastisement.
But by and large, Americans want energy that’s affordable.
In July of 2024, a Heartland Institute/Rasmussen survey showed “more than six in 10 U.S. likely voters favor law that would ‘dramatically increase’ fossil fuel production to reduce sky-high energy prices.”
These are the Trump voters.
That Biden has in the final hours of his presidency made it a bit harder for Trump to represent the will of the American people on energy policy shows an utter lack of respect for the American people. It’s Biden’s final gasps — his final grasp at relevancy and power.
“Fear not,” Trump wrote on Truth, “these [Biden] ‘Orders’ will all be terminated shortly, and we will become a Nation of Common Sense and Strength. MAGA!!!”
Yes. Just a few more days — just a couple more weeks.
The Biden damage will soon come to an end. But the Democrat anti-MAGA madness will just be starting.
• 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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