A decade ago, the EPA determined the Keystone Pipeline would produce “no adverse environmental” effects. But Joe “Follow-the-Science” Biden (does anyone seriously think Biden knows anything about science or bothers to follow it?) killed the pipeline hours after being sworn in last January.
Since then, Biden has waged war on the American oil and gas industry. Scolding Americans that “we’ve already waited too long to deal with the climate crisis,” he has halted new oil and gas leases on federal lands and ordered a re-examination of existing leases.
OK, burning oil and gas has probably warmed the earth a degree or two. Or not. The science is not settled. The science is certainly not settled as to whether a degree or two would be a good thing or a bad thing. Bear in mind that for nearly all of earth’s history the temperature was much higher than it is now. That includes the last half billion years when sophisticated life evolved and the last few million years when that life evolved into humans.
It would not be unreasonable to conclude that a warmer earth is friendlier to life, including human life. Compare life in Antarctica with life in the Southeast Asia.
But we don’t really know one way or the other. And so, if people want to make the judgment that a warmer earth is a worse earth, OK, they can make that judgment.
They can even make the judgment that the way to avoid a warmer earth is to burn less oil and gas. As I mentioned, that’s not settled science, and it’s certainly not settled science as to how much reduction in temperatures we get for a given reduction in oil and gas. But again, people can make guesses if they want, and act on them accordingly. Their guesses might be right or they might be wrong, but they’re not illogical.
But here’s what is indeed illogical. Biden wants to end oil and gas production in America, but is fine with oil and gas production in Russia and in the OPEC countries. Regarding Russia, Biden has reversed longstanding U.S. opposition to a Russian gas pipeline to Germany, and is tamping down geopolitical objections in Ukraine. Regarding OPEC, the illogic is even worse. While decrying American oil and gas production, Biden’s people are jawboning OPEC to increase their production.
What gives? How can American oil and gas production contribute to global warming, but Russian and OPEC production not? I remember when unleaded gas came out. Has OPEC somehow perfected unwarming gas?
Maybe Biden’s real objection to American oil and gas production is the fact that it happens in red states. But I doubt he’s more than dimly aware of that fact.
More likely, he has no real policy at all. He just says what his many contradictory handlers tell him to say. The enviros handlers say “oil bad” while the political handlers say “high gas prices bad.”
Things will get interesting when the Republicans re-take the House next year and launch investigations into Biden’s mental state. My guess is that the Democrats hope that Biden will still be around then about as fervently as they hope Justice Stephen Breyer will be.
Which is to say, not at all.
the Aspen beat 
Your first mistake, my friend, is assuming that Joe thinks, at all. Perhaps someone is thinking, but it ain’t Joe!
The people who had a hand in getting the cognitively damaged Joe Biden into the Oval Office are running the country.
And they’ll all burn in hell.
Whoever is running this country has done nothing but destroy it. The ones in congress are also making plans to be able to continue destroying it.
Yes. The only answer to Glenn’s question “What gives?” is that the left seeks to destroy America. Discerning no logical reasons for their wish to do so, I consider them Satanic.
My exact thoughts. It is not about gas, it is about downing America and controlling its citizens.
Yes.
The ” unleaded gas ” hoax.
My father worked as an operator in one of the most, for its time, advanced oil refineries in the nation, for over 30 years.
He said refined gasoline was NATURALLY unleaded at the end of the process.
Lead was added to gas as a lubricant for better engine life on critical parts, and to allow for lower octane gas to be used and ignite smoother.
Once it was determined it was bad environmentally to see it spewed out the tailpipe, vehicle manufacturers were cajoled to produce the involved engine parts with better quality metals.
Good piece, with as many potential variants as the virus. For example,
— Covid spread by gatherings of Evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, suburban white schoolchildren, Trump supporters at rallies, residents of Texas and Florida, etc., must be locked down tight (Vax and mask them all!); WHEREAS Covid spread by illegal border crossers from myriad parts of the world, bussed to myriad cities in America, or by BLM and Antifa rioters, or by a plane full of unmasked Texas fleebaggers is a will o’ the wisp (Nothing to see here!);
— The Chewbacca horn-guy at the Capitol on January 6 should rot in jail without bail, WHEREAS every Asian-old-lady head basher should be released immediately until he’s sucker-punched at least ten more Asian old ladies and perhaps killed one or two;
— The way to achieve equitable educational outcomes is to educate absolutely no one, with no standards and at no cost so that no one has any skin in the game;
— The way to end racism is to teach racist Critical Race Theory;
And so on. Absurd (derived from the irrational), every policy now before our eyes. A team of Kafkas, Sartres, Beckets, and Orwells couldn’t write this script — truly a tale told by an idiot, with an idiot president at the helm.
Interesting times dosen’t begin to cover it today. Where can you go with reality so out of kilter. Brave New World meets 1984 oh what a collision.
Leftist logic: Better that the Russkies and the Saudis use up all their oil so that the world will be dependent on the good ol’ US of A. Once we control the major sources of oil, we will be able to tell everyone else what to do. . . Ta Dah!!!!
Or something like that.
OK, I admit that “leftist” and “logic” don’t go together, but . . .
Biden – or whoever is running his puppet strings – is trying to have his (their) cake and eat it too, appeasing the left by destroying the energy industry here and mollifying “traditional” Republicans that their gas prices do not skyrocket to $8 a gallon until then.
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