Five Big Problems With President Biden’s Energy-Climate Plan
By Jude Clemente
1. Oil obviously has no alternative. The infatuation with wind and solar power is an “electricity-only” one. These renewables compete only in the power sector, which accounts for less than 40% of the energy used in the U.S. and 20% globally. For example, even a Herculean surge in wind and solar capacity will effectively do nothing to lower our need for oil, namely our 400-million-gallon per day gasoline requirement.
The recent oil demand rebound illustrates the dearth of oil alternatives. Electric vehicles (EVs) account for less than 1% of America’s passenger vehicle fleet, a harsh reality that advocates in the Biden administration have chosen to ignore. And simple physics and sheer power – e.g., gasoline has 100 times the energy density of a lithium-ion battery – dictate that airplanes, heavy trucking, and petrochemicals will keep oil in the game for much longer than many apparently want to recognize. As the world’s most vital fuel, ingrained in every aspect of life, oil is even crucial to the development of wind and solar technologies themselves.
The Biden administration has pursued policies that block access to domestic oil, such as stopping the Keystone XL pipeline and a moratorium on new drilling on public lands, even as demand continues to grow. In a matter of months, then, climate policy has put the Biden administration – which has been upfront about its anti-oil policies – in the absurd position of having to ask OPEC and Russia to increase crude oil production to lower gasoline prices, while simultaneously hindering our own American industry from doing the same thing here. Biden’s anti-oil policies thereby support rogue regimes that enforce few, if any, environmental regulations and threaten U.S. national security while trampling on human rights.
https://co2coalition.org/2021/08/30/five-big-problems-with-president-bidens-energy-climate-plan/
