By David Simon — June 13, 2022
“Perhaps the most tragic aspect of Biden’s horrendous climate policy is that not only is there zero scientific evidence that it will have any significant impact on world carbon emissions or global temperatures, the scientific evidence is strong that global warming is not harmful and instead is beneficial.”
President Biden’s climate policy is not “the root of all evil,” but it’s close. Instead of improving the earth’s climate, it is causing or at least substantially worsening several economic and national security problems.
Biden’s climate policy seeks, as he stated during his campaign, “to end fossil fuel …” To do this, he is regulatorily strangling U.S. fossil fuel production.
Biden’s restriction of U.S. oil production has driven the price of West Texas Intermediate sharply higher. It was $51.56 a barrel in January 2020, when the economy was humming before the pandemic, and about $50 in December 2020, the month before Biden took office. By January 2022, Biden’s actions had pushed it to $88.15. A month later, Russia launched its war against Ukraine and sent the price over $100.
Gasoline prices have followed a similar path, from $2.64 a gallon in January 2020 and $2.28 in December 2020, to $3.41 by January 2022. And now the price is averaging $5.00.
Diesel fuel and jet fuel prices also are sky high. They raise prices for everything shipped by trucks and planes, as well as for airline tickets.
There’s more. Plastics and many other materials are made from petroleum. High oil prices raise costs of production and prices for everything from laptop computers to Patagonia vests to, perhaps of greatest current importance, fertilizers. High fertilizer prices, of course, raise food prices.
The consequences resulting from Biden’s restriction of U.S. natural gas production may be even worse. The price of natural gas price has tripled, from about $3 per million British thermal units in June 2021 to about $9 by May 2022. This has raised not only utility bills but also prices of goods manufactured by gas powered plants.
But higher prices may not be the worst of it. The longer-term climate campaign against natural gas use has resulted in utilities having less power-generating capacity. This, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, has led electric-grid operators to warn “that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year.”
National Security
Beyond harming the economy, Biden’s restrictions on U.S. fossil fuel production also are worsening national security.
High oil prices resulting from U.S. production restrictions have been increasing the money going into Putin’s war chest. Reuters reported in April that, notwithstanding U.S. and international sanctions, “Russia expects to earn $9.6 billion more in April due to high oil prices” than it had planned before the sanctions.
Restrictions on U.S. natural gas production can only reduce the amount of liquified natural gas available to ship to European nations desperately searching for natural gas to lessen their dependence on gas from Russia.
Appeasing Iran’s terrorist regime by having the U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal has been a central tenet of Biden’s foreign policy since his first day in office. But high oil and gasoline prices have further encouraged Biden’s desire to make this dangerous deal – because he knows that returning to the nuclear deal would allow the U.S. to drop sanctions on Iranian oil sales.
Eliminating these sanctions would increase Iranian oil sales, increase the amount of oil available on the world market, lower oil prices, and lower gasoline prices. Eliminating these sanctions, of course, also would provide Iran with many more billions of dollars to fund its clandestine nuclear weapons program and worldwide terrorism.
Biden’s recent overtures to the oppressive Maduro regime in Venezuela similarly appear to be motivated by a desire to end sanctions on that regime’s oil sales, have it produce and sell more oil, and lower oil and gasoline prices.
Climate Misdirection
Perhaps the most tragic aspect of Biden’s horrendous climate policy is that not only is there zero scientific evidence that it will have any significant impact on world carbon emissions or global temperatures, the scientific evidence is strong that global warming is not harmful and instead is beneficial.
Data from three studies published in The Lancet in May 2015, July 2021, and August 2021 show that global warming saves lives. These studies by three groups of scientists from around the world, who analyzed millions of deaths in numerous countries over recent decades, tell us that that cooler temperatures kill several times more people than warmer temperatures. The implication of these studies is clear: a warmer planet saves lives.
Data from EM-DAT – The International Disaster Database (presented by University of Oxford economist Max Roser and researcher Hannah Ritchie) show that, even as the earth’s average temperature has risen by 1.11 degrees Celsius since 1920 and world population has quadrupled from less than two billion to almost eight billion during the same period, the number of people killed each year by natural disasters since 1920 has declined by over 90%.
The number of hurricanes has not increased with global warming. A 2021 U.S. EPA report states: “The total number of hurricanes (particularly after being adjusted for improvements in observation methods) and the number reaching the United States do not indicate a clear overall trend since 1878.”
More land also is not being burned by fires as the earth has warmed. Environmental statistician Bjorn Lomborg has presented data from the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, Remote Sensing of Environment, and Earth’s Future showing that the percentage of global land burned per year in 1905 through 2020 and most of 2021 has been declining.
The sea level has indeed risen, but only at a microscopic pace. The EPA reported the following in July 2021: “When averaged over all of the world’s oceans, absolute sea level has risen at an average rate of 0.06 inches per year from 1880 to 2013 (see Figure 1). Since 1993, however, average sea level has risen at a rate of 0.12 to 0.14 inches per year – roughly twice as fast as the long-term trend.” This means that at even the faster recent rate, it will take 85 to 100 years for the sea level to rise just one foot!
Small Harms
Finally, any economic harm that global warming may eventually cause likely will be negligible. An August 2019 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper (published in December 2021) estimated that world GDP in 2100 will be 1.07 percent lower in 2100 than it would otherwise be if the earth’s temperature rises by 0.01 degrees per year through 2100.
In the extreme case, the working paper estimated that world GDP will be 7.22 percent lower in 2100 than it would otherwise be if the planet’s temperature instead rises by 0.04 degrees per year (almost four times the actual rate of increase since 1920).
This may sound like a big deal, but a little context shows that if it happens it will be insignificant.
World Bank data (presented by Macrotrends) show that since 1960, as the earth has warmed by 0.87 degrees, world income per person (adjusted for inflation) has skyrocketed from $445 in 1960 to $10,926 in 2020. This increase reflects an average growth rate of about 5.48 percent per year.
With just a 2 percent per year increase in world income per person from the 2020 level (without accounting for any reduction as a result of global warming), in 2100 world per person income will reach $53,269 (adjusted for inflation). The NBER working paper’s 1.07 percent reduction would lower this number to $52,699. The working paper’s extreme 7.22 percent reduction would lower it a bit more, but would still leave it at $49,423 – about five times today’s level.
Conclusion
It’s time to reject Biden’s dangerous virtue-signaling policy and instead deregulate fossil fuel production.
—————————
David M. Simon is a senior fellow at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and a lawyer in Chicago. For more, please see www.dmswritings.com. His previous posts at MasterResource can be viewed here.
The son of Julian Simon is carrying on his tradition of facts, facts, facts.
The only problem is Mr. Simon believes human-caused global warming is real.
In addition, Biden has created a global shortage of crude and natural gas, which not only plays straight into Putin’s hands but has also weakened western economies, with direct consequences for the States. Add to that inflationary pressures and the world is heading for a big recession.
What Western politicians don’t appreciate is that fossil fuels are the underlying foundations on which solid economies are built; and without strong economies there’s no wealth to build the hospitals and public services needed.
Biden, Boris, Macron and the rest are truly a bunch of moronic idiots. By all means aim for net-zero but do it on a realistic timescale. The idea that what’s being done now will have any measurable impact on climate change is pie-in-the-sky nonsense.
“ By all means aim for net-zero but do it on a realistic timescale.
It’s not realistic. There is no net zero. It’s a campaign slogan of stupid.
By all means aim for net-zero …
__________________________
Please stop buying into the bullshit.
All those who believe in net zero should stop exhaling CO2, right now!
“Net Zero” = zero energy.
So unless you like Stone Age living, there will never be a “net zero.”
Imagine the stone age without fire.
“By all means aim for net-zero but do it on a realistic timescale.”
Why?
“A realistic timescale”
Yes, yes indeed! Let’s see now, something like 2 billion years left on the sun’s warranty, so let’s ramp things up for 2 billion years and then reverse hockey stick down to zero. That should be realistic.
And no worries—after 2 billion years, commercialized fusion will only be 40 years out.
Biden said everyone who voted for Trump has to be punished, and here we are.
Did he whisper the part where he said, “And everyone who DIDN’T vote for Trump will ALSO be punished!”?
It is one thing to be a moron. It is another thing to be a partisan hack.
But it takes a special kind of politician to punish his political allies along with punishing his political opponents.
Biden makes Carter look like an economics genius!
Give credit where it is due, to Ron Klain, Chief of Staff. This is Mr. Klain’s Regency.
“Did he whisper the part where he said, “And everyone who DIDN’T vote for Trump will ALSO be punished!”?”
Remember, it was Jim Jones who ordered his cult followers to drink the Kool-Aid!
His point is America is collectively guilty, and he is punishing America.
Demand reparations NOW!
If they voted more than once, do they have to pay extra?
What about those who did not know that they voted for Biden?
Facts, facts, facts. Everyone, with their head not in a dark place, should know by now that the entire leftist movement is a religion, a cult along the order of the “Jonestown” massacre. The adherents do not care about facts or data which show how ridiculous and self-defeating the ideology truly is.
This article lays it out in simple easy to understand terms and references to back it up. Most of the folks are seeing it for what it is and those who refuse to acknowledge that are in for a rude awakening.
The American people were dozing. The left has poked the bear and there will be consequences. One way or another. Peacefully, I hope. I’m too old for anything else.
There you go, thinking like an Enlightenment guy. But we are now in the new, improved, exciting Post Modern Age.
Unfortunately, the so-called “conservatives” of the Republican Party, who are crying crocodile tears over the price of gasoline and diesel, are just as pro “renewable energy” as the Democrats, with their own plan for their own subsidies for their own cronies.
They had their chance to end all of this in the 2017-18 Congress when they had the power to withdraw the GHG finding of Endangerment and ban any CO2 or GHG regulations. They did not.
Yep
‘They [Republicans] had their chance to end all of this in the 2017-18 Congress when they had the power to withdraw the GHG finding of Endangerment and ban any CO2 or GHG regulations. They did not.’
So true. And now 10 Republican Senators are playing ball with the Democrats to implement unconstitutional ‘red flag’ laws. Goes to say that the current downward spiral will continue well past 2022/24 unless people get their minds straight on electing people whose highest priority is personal liberty rather than receiving an ‘attaboy’ or any other figurative pat on the fanny from the likes of the NY Times.
There is nothing inherently unconstitutional about a properly written red flag law. The key is to make sure it is properly written and walk away if it is not.
Curious as to what you mean by ‘properly written’. Almost by definition, red flag laws negate due process by placing punishment ahead of conviction in a court of law under a legal statute. But I could be wrong, since I never had the privilege of attending law school and taking a constitutional law course.
When was the last time any of our legislators ‘walked away’ from, or even bothered reading, a badly written bill?
As bad as things seem to be, apparently they have always been that way. Mark Twain observed, “If you don’t read the news, you are uninformed. If you do, you are misinformed.”
“The Fourth Estate has become a Fifth Column.”
Government seizure without due process, is by definition, unconstitutional.
There is no way to “properly write” one.
And one obvious red flag would be posting a comment on some blog or social media site that disrespects the Commander-in-Chief, or disparages government in general, or questions The Climate Crisis ™
#FJB! #BlankLooksMatter
#terminateCongressCritters
#noClimateCrisis
I live in California, where we have the “first-two” primary system. We get a lot of races in the general election that are democrat against democrat. Swell system.
Basically, the primary system is working as designed.
Yes, the general election is racis!
Um, no. The Republicans did NOT have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, so attempting to rescind the endangerment finding and place “climate change” off limits to EPA regulations would have been strangled.
The endangerment finding was regulatory, not legislative. There was no need to get congress to do anything.
Unfortunately, since it was regulatory, the next Democrat administration could re-install it just as easily.
Perhaps more importantly the chance was missed to kill Paris dead, by puting it up for radification.
Unfortunutely, it would have been highly risky with useless idiots like Romney in the Senate.
“Unfortunutely, it would have been highly risky with useless idiots like Romney in the Senate.”
Yes, “risky” is a good description. Our Republican representation is a little weak. Certainly when it comes to human-caused climate change. Senator Jim Inhofe of my great State of Oklahoma is about the only Republican who challenges the basic concept that CO2 is causing the Earth’s climate to change. And he’s retiring this year.
I think most of these weak sister Republicans are going to be replaced in November. That would include most of those who voted for a “Red Flag” law.
Although, Senator Cornin, said yesterday that the Red Flag law they were talking about would not be a national Red Flag law, so it’s a little confusing as to what this Red Flag law would do at the present time. The bill is not finalized yet.
Democrats would use a Red Flag law to attack their political opponents. Like they do with everything else.
Radification, something like raticalization I suppose.
The rate of relative sea level rise as measured by numerous tide gauges all over the worlds coasts has not increased since 1993 but has been steady for over 100 years to this day. EPA sees an “increase” by splicing satellite-measured sea level rise on to the tide gauge record beginning in 1993 and ignoring the tide gauge record thereafter. As the discrepancy between these two measurement methods continues to grow it will eventually establish beyond question that the satellite record is simply wrong for reasons probably known by its creators but not told to us taxpayers.
The main issue for the “climate-concerned” is that sea levels are rising continuously, so pointing out “no acceleration” will NOT put you in a position to win the argument or make a point to anyone listening. You are better off pointing out a graph of sea level rise over the last 20,000 years and that it has been relatively stable for 7000 years, followed by pointing out that we keep filling and building sea shore developments even though we know this, so obviously a foot a century isn’t really important to society as a whole. That will cause them a bit of rethink time, instead of continuing to spout what they have been propagandized.
I wonder if one day that
You’ll say that, you care
If you say you love me gladly
I’ll gladly, be there
Like a puppet on a string
The number of hurricanes has not increased with global warming.
A 2021 U.S. EPA report states: …
_____________________________________________________
Facts don’t matter, the so-called Main Stream Media will continue to lie.
Here’s CBS 60 Minutes from two weeks ago:
The oil spill that’s lasted since 2004
The opening sentence says:
“The hurricanes keep coming –with increased force and increased frequency.”
The bullshit never stops.
Yep, repeat a lie.
The opening sentence says:
“The hurricanes keep coming –with increased force and increased frequency.”
The bullshit never stops.
*****************
All the MSM has to do is to look at the hurricane data graph from Dr. Ryan Maue to see that the frequency and intensity of hurricanes have not be increasing. But no, instead they keep blindly repeating the falsehoods they hear from each other.
Mass hysteria and groupthink are nothing new in human history. It is sadly still with us today.
Global Tropical Cyclone Activity | Ryan Maue (climatlas.com)
And, they are currently doing the same thing with the debate about gun control. They intermix uninformed opinion pieces in with actual news (at least as how they see it).
In every shooting incident, the bad guy with a gun was stopped by a good guy with a gun. Sometimes the good guy was a civilian. Other times the unfortunate victims had to wait for a police officer to arrive.
BTW, did I mention the same guys who want to dis-arm the law abiding, also want to get rid of both cops and jails?
And give guns to Ukraine 😉
Then we can go back to the old ‘Hue and Cry’ and put the liberals at the front of the posse. They can choose whether or not to be armed.
How long ago did government try to outlaw certain drugs?
How successful has that been?
Why does anyone think that outlawing guns will be any more successful?
Prior Restraint laws are the wrong approach to solving anything.
“Mass hysteria and groupthink are nothing new in human history. It is sadly still with us today.”
The difference today is we have mass communication. Mass communication, that for the most part, is controlled by radical Leftists who constantly lie to their listeners with the objective of foisting their radical leftist political ideology on the rest of us.
They fool millions of people. And now we have millions of fools wandering around the planet deluded by delusional radical leftists. And we now see the results of listening to such foolishness as our economies fail and our freedoms fade away.
The radical Leftwing Media is the most dangerous organization on the planet to free people. Free people cannot govern themselves properly if all they get are constant lies about the reality they live in. And they are not governing themselves properly as obviously, too many fools (Democrats) are being elected to public office.
Propaganda works. When the Bad Guys control it, we are in trouble, and the Bad Guys do control it now.
Biden is doing what he has always wanted to do, The result of most extensive and inclusive voter fraud in US history, Biden’s words.
Trump’s response:
https://twitter.com/mazemoore/status/1536353154731745280
That is awesome
Omg red flag! Red flag!
🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩 🚩
The most fundamental rule for any healer is “First, do no harm.”
Joe Biden is NOT the “doctor” that the USA needs to cure its problems, let alone those plaguing the world right now.
Ah, but he’s married to Dr. Jill
If I was married to a brain surgeon, would you allow me to perform your brain surgery?
All the money put into the renewable scam was done to appease the Greens. It will never be enough because they can’t be satiated. So all the money does is buy more time and kick the can down the road while the average person loses.
I am still at a loss for the “why?”. I get the people in charge as they line their pockets but the average people that push this agenda just ultimately suffer along with the rest of us.
Somedays I feel like Mugatu!
Acolytes of the ‘True’ religion. Belief does not require facts.
A crucial point is absent from this assessment:
I believe Biden, in his confused state, has no clue what is really going on.
He is merely a puppet.
We need to know who his faceless puppeteer is who does not have the courage to show his or her face.
That is the person who needs to be exposed.
I think Biden is being handled much like Woodrow Wilson after his stroke: nobody really knows what to do, so a lot of staffers try a lot of things, and the degree to which they get walked back depends on the nature of the reaction among other staffers. It’s a very volatile situation. changing hourly, even minutely, entirely unpredictable.
Not to mention the senior U.S. Senator from California.
It is widely known that Senator Feinstein is non compos mentis.
The mentally infirm leading the mentally infirm.
the person you are looking for lives in marthas vineyard.
“Biden, in his confused state, has no clue what is really going on. He is merely a puppet.” That’s why he’s there. 2000 Mules proves the election was a fraud with stuffed ballots. They just needed someone who would be easy to manipulate. He’s an embarrassment.
“He’s an embarrassment.”
He’s worse than that.
That is the person who needs to be
exposed.shot.Red flag, mister. No guns for you!
Speaking of fertilizer cost, I noticed not any fertilizer spreader trucks in the fields this year. Not fertilizing will have consequences.
Furthermore, it is now costing farmers about $7k a week to operate one tractor. This is just the beginning of the disaster world wide.
What will happen if the fuel for a harvester to harvest a crop exceeds the sale value of the crop? Farmers are not stupid.
I will be very surprised if any of these policy diasaters have any effect upon the concentration of atmospheric co2. Even if the alarmist belief system wasn’t nonsense the green policies would not do anything they say.
This is prove that it’s a idol religion.
This calls for a tee shirt.
Climate Change?
It’s the Sun Stupid!
Prices go up, prices go up: that’s what the green new deal wants.
Middle class living standards go down.
Working class living standards get precarious.
The climate has been getting worse since the beginning of TV , then much worse after the internet came online , it is now catastrophic with smart phones everywhere .
Moore’s Law causes climate change?
If it weren’t so serious, it would be funny, the way so many people talk about Biden as if he was actually the one on charge!
One could only wish all of this nonsense could be laid at Biden’s feet. Or even Al Gore’s. Unfortunately, it’s become a “Western” propaganda effort to keep burgeoning economies in a constant state of “almost industrializing” while redistributing Western taxpayer dollars as payoff to these burgeoning economies for self-limiting their potential full economic growth/success. It’s a dirty, cheap way of managing other nations’ workforce and natural resources while preening to the “West” in the name of virtuous fighters for, and munificent caretakers of, the “global” environment.
It’s the biggest shill slash shell game slash propaganda effort in human history. If there wasn’t so much money in perpetuating the CAGW scam, we’re talking hundreds of billions in American dollars here, the farce would have been laughed out of polite conversation before this monstrosity of ignorance ever got to the point of being accepted as “The biggest threat modern humans have ever faced”, UN Security Council. – Feb. 2021
Right on! Forty years ago, I heard that welfare was rich people’s way to make money pretending to
help the poor & the middle class would foot the bill. As you’ve said, the CAGW scam’s that & more!
Most of the money spent on “welfare” is spent on those who manage the system. Only a tiny fraction of the money actually makes it’s way to the “poor”.
In addition to that, most of the “poor” in this country would middle to upper middle class in almost any other country on this planet.
That is probably true of most charities as well.
Private charities are required to post figures on how much of their donations are consumed by the charity itself.
Too bad government “charities” aren’t required to do the same.
Related note: While working in 95 F temps in full sun in the yard, I began to wonder why Biden was giving nuclear freedom to Iran when he should be building them solar panels – they have a lot of sun and a lot of open space. That, or does he not believe in renewables and is intent on giving them nukes?
I won’t wait for him to answer.
Usually, when he doesn’t have a logical answer, he yells in the face of the person who asked the question.
He sure does yell a lot.
It’s a puzzle as to why Biden wants to allow the Mad Mullahs of Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them.
Obama started this kowtowing to the Mad Mullahs, and I guess Biden bought into the thinking. Obama and now Biden are some of the world’s terrorists best friends. I wonder if any terrorists have managed to slip across the American southern border?
Why would any rational person ever elect another Democrat? They screw up everything they touch. Bigtime. Look at our current situation for an example. Every action they take makes things worse, not better.
Perhaps Biden actually believes the Mad Mullahs when they say their only goal is the destruction of Israel.
Yep. Europe should be quaking in their boots. Iran on side, Russia on the other, both with nukes. Anyone who thought Hitler and Mussolini were bad for Europe hasn’t seen anything yet!
That might explain it. 🙂 Obama and Biden don’t have much love for Israel.
To think that man can control the climate is incredibly delusional thinking. But when you think men can become women because they feel that way, delusional thinking is a hallmark of your political side – the Democrats.
Believing that men can get pregnant and give birth is even more delusional.
Amongst our weaponry; The Grand strategic decision to continue to dominate the world by appearing to be short-sighted and stupid. – Might have thought Joe Biden at one time.
Stupidity can be very expensive so can insanity and dementia.