The chits for years of inflationary green energy policies are coming due to record-high energy prices and unreliable electrical grids.
Average national gasoline prices have soared to a record high of $5 a gallon. The price of natural gas, which heats many homes in America, has roughly tripled over the last year. And electric grid monitors nationwide are warning of blackouts and brownouts this summer. These effects on ordinary residents’ living standards require an immediate national environmental policy rethink, reflecting a new appreciation of cheap, reliable energy.
While Russia’s war on Ukraine and easy monetary policy have contributed to rising energy prices, policymaker opposition to traditional energy production and distribution is also a big reason for price increases. The Biden administration canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, banned oil and gas leases on federal land, and implemented numerous new burdensome regulations on production. Last year’s federal infrastructure legislation created a state carbon dioxide reduction mandate. Net-zero requirements at all levels of government and from many institutions reject traditional energy.
This matters because the price of energy is ultimately a function of supply and demand. On the same basis, however, policymakers can immediately help lower energy costs by reversing costly green policies. They should strongly champion oil and gas development and distribution.
Unfortunately, President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act last week to boost green energy. Yet, given the capacity constraints of solar and wind power, this constitutionally troubling action will only make a marginal difference in electricity prices. Democrats appear to have few answers. Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow has suggested people should purchase expensive electric vehicles to overcome high gas prices. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has urged people to take the bus (but will he join them?).
Instead, the public has been told again and again that a green energy revolution is needed to stave off the “climate crisis.” However, the clear consensus among energy experts at the Steamboat Institute’s recent Energy and Climate Summit is that officials are ignoring the benefits of fossil fuels and presenting the consequences as catastrophic.
The share of global carbon dioxide produced by the United States has fallen by nearly half, from 24% to 13%, since the year 2000. Expensive policies that address this small share of global CO2, while giving other big economies such as China and India free rein to keep on emitting, will not meaningfully affect climate change but will have a significant impact on our quality of life.
Sadly, such views are verboten in polite company. Energy experts who espouse them are routinely maligned as “climate deniers.” For too long, environmentalists have portrayed green energy policies as a free lunch. Runaway prices and reduced reliability are the bills that are now arriving. A new environmental and energy policy approach should begin with the consensus that there is no dichotomy between cheap, reliable energy and saving the planet, yet there is one between aggressive green energy policies and our continued prosperity and living standards. We are seeing the latter play out in real-time.
Jennifer Schubert-Akin is the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of the Steamboat Institute.Â
