Stephen Moore:

Here’s an amazing but true statistic. After more than a decade of declining carbon emissions here in the United States, in 2021, President Joe Biden’s first year in office, emissions rose.

In other words, not only have Biden’s energy policies been a disaster for our economy and national security as we have become more dependent on Russia and Iran, but they haven’t worked as a global warming solution.

To understand the utter futility of Biden’s “renewable energy” crusade, we must go back about 15 years in time to when the amazing shale revolution, thanks to energy pioneers such as Harold Hamm of Oklahoma, the man who drilled the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, began. These new drilling techniques have vastly expanded America’s natural gas production over the past decade and turned America into the world’s leading oil and gas superpower.

Because clean natural gas production soared and replaced coal as the No. 1 source of power generation, not only did America get rich off these bountiful resources, but we also reduced our greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, over the six years covering 2014 through 2020, we led the world in our reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. Our emissions fell by 22%. That was more than the Obama cap-and-tax plan would have reduced these emissions.

Ironically, the 10-year trend of declining carbon dioxide emissions actually ended when Biden took office. The conventional explanation for this is that as the economy opened up after COVID-19, emissions rose. People were flying less and driving their cars a lot more.

But that is only part of the story. Iconoclastic environmentalist Michael Shellenberger explains the bigger story:

“In 2021, emissions in the U.S. increased mostly because of increased coal use, *not* because of higher econ growth. Why? Because nat gas became more expensive. Why? Because of inadequate supply. Why? Chronic ‘under-investment in production & pipelines, thanks to ESG & climate activists,’” he wrote recently.

We need to add Biden’s war on fossil fuels to that mix. The Energy Department data confirm that in 2021, coal use rose in the U.S. and natural gas consumption fell. That was because Biden’s Green New Deal agenda made coal a more attractive alternative in terms of costs.

So Biden’s agenda has backfired. More evidence rolls in from the rest of the world. Germany has acknowledged that it will burn more coal in the years ahead to get cheap power. But they aren’t going to get much of it from the U.S. Rather, they’ll get it from China, which has tripled its coal output and doesn’t care at all about whether its increased production will negatively affect the environment. China has among the laxest environmental laws in the world. So none of this is stopping climate change.

China has been one of the biggest winners from the Biden war on energy. The second winner is Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who is waltzing to the bank. Russia has made $100 billion selling oil and gas to the U.S. and others at inflated prices.

Meanwhile, Biden’s war on coal production at home has led to a more than doubling of the world price of coal, and in some cases, the price increases in Europe have risen tenfold because of mining restrictions.

I don’t oppose coal production, and I believe the environmentalist movement’s crusade against coal as part of our energy mix makes no economic sense. We are simply displacing West Virginia and Pennsylvania coal miners with Chinese mining. We need coal in our energy mix, as even the Germans now admit.

Then there is the collateral damage of $100 billion of lost annual output in the U.S. because of the anti-energy climate change agenda. Again, none of this makes any sense. Why are we sacrificing our own economic opportunities and handing them to China on a silver platter?

Biden, however, could not be bothered to care. At the NATO conference this past weekend, he chattered about the virtues of windmills and solar panels, as if the U.S. is not experiencing an energy crisis of his own making.

What all this means is that if we want to save our economy from raging inflation and at the same time save the planet, we should be producing all of the U.S. energy we can.

Bob Hoge:

The man who masterminded both successful presidential campaigns for former President Obama, strategist David Axelrod, has harsh words for the current Commander-in-Chief saying, “There is this sense that things are kind of out of control and he’s not in command.” Appearing on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” Thursday, he added, “so, you know, this is a very, very fraught environment for him right now.”

The first question that pops into my mind is, does this have Obama’s blessing? It’s hard to imagine that Axelrod, now a CNN commentator, would criticize the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer without running it first by his former boss. My second question is, how long does this guy want to work at CNN? Because if he keeps spouting off like this, he’s bound to upset some folks at the left-leaning network who have been covering for Biden since day one of his presidency. Paging Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy…

.@davidaxelrod sees bad news for Biden: Things look ‘out of control and he’s not in command’https://t.co/h8INFDawdx

Axelrod didn’t stop there though, continuing to rip the president:

Inflation, no one president can control inflation, but it is a gale force wind right now. It’s affecting politics.

You heard him on gas prices today. He talks about the gas tax holiday, but he is not going to get the gas tax holiday and there are a lot of Americans who are skeptical about whether that would help.

It’s true that no one president can control inflation, but one can certainly exacerbate the problem with profligate spending. Biden’s out-of-control layouts include mega-bills like the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan providing for COVID relief. Throw in tens of billions more sent to Ukraine. Think all this might have something to do with inflation?

Don’t forget that Biden wanted to spend more—up to $5 trillion more on the Build Back Better bill, but was only stopped because he couldn’t get the votes. Imagine how much worse inflation would be had that behemoth made it through Congress.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in November of 2021 that Biden’s monstrous agenda was even bigger than the New Deal and that “Never in American history has so much been spent at one time.”

The resulting inflation has come at a cost:

“A just-released national survey has found that 83% of U.S. households are cutting their personal spending and travel due to soaring inflation. These cutbacks are being driven almost entirely by energy costs, which have spiked nearly 35% in the past year.” https://t.co/ecXE9w8p0V

— Ned Ryun (@nedryun) July 1, 2022

 

Tapper asked Axelrod about an AP-NORC poll which shows that 85 percent of respondents think the country is headed in the wrong direction. “That frankly points to disaster for Democrats in November,” Tapper argued. Axelrod agreed:

If you were looking at the chart, you’d say the vitals are not good. The President’s approval rating’s at 38%. His economic ratings are low. Consumer confidence is down. The number that you mentioned.

The two also discussed the filibuster, with both acknowledging that although Biden has recently suggested pausing it for an abortion vote, he can’t actually make that happen. Tapper flatly declared, “Well he’s not going to be able to get it done,” because he simply doesn’t have the votes. Axelrod once again concurred.

Being a loyal Dem and also a CNN contributor, Axelrod at least had to make a (weak) attempt at optimism, claiming that the recent overturn of Roe v Wade might galvanize the progressive base. “You know, If I were a Republican strategist, I’d be a little bit worried about that right now,” he said.

No David, Republican strategists are not worried about that right now. They can read polls too.

Axelrod has been critical in the past of the Biden Administration, but he seems to have really taken off the gloves in this interview. Does he have the Big O’s blessing, as I asked earlier? Is this a sign that a wave of Dems will soon jump the Biden ship and try to force him out of the race in 2024?

Or are they clearing the decks for Michelle Obama?