Energy and Climate | Burns for Congress

Energy And Climate

The voters who care most for the environment, tend to be those who are the most affluent, and hence the least likely to be impacted by minor shifts in pricing. The proposed TCI, for instance, would amount to a significant gas tax. Given that many of the affluent who support it no longer drive to work, and rely on others to deliver all manner of other goods and services to their homes, this cost of this program—whose actual environmental impact is unknown—will be borne by those least able to bear it. As we have seen developed countries running to embrace renewable energies, there are many cautionary tales. Take Canada for instance. Canada now generates 2/3s of its energy from renewables. Yet their CO2 emissions per capita remain higher than ours. Or Germany, which by de-nuclearizing is in fact (and expectedly) increasing its Carbon emissions. Then there are of course the issues associated with availability. While solar power may be a perfect solution for sunny Spain, it is a much less realistic one for New England. The Green New Deal looks to be like just this kind of cautionary tale—a wild expenditure whose costs will be borne by the poorest, and unlikely to have any real impact on the environment. I think when looking at climate and energy policy, we need to put a few constraints in place.

All energy policy needs to be predicated on ensuring reliable, inexpensive, and abundant energy. Call it Humanity First.
Stop banning and mandating things. All bans and mandates do are make things more expensive.
Energy policy needs to consider the geography and resources of each locale. What works in one place won’t work in another. E.g. Iceland has incredibly low CO2 emissions, because they can rely on geothermal. We don’t have that option.
Stop demonizing nuclear power. If there is one way to significantly reduce carbon emissions and ensure availability, it would be increasing our nuclear capacity. Both the “green” lobby and the fossil fuel lobby know this. Small wonder you never hear anything good about nuclear.