When President Biden took office, he declared war on energy. Every action his administration has taken has reduced the supply of fossil fuel energy.
One thing that Biden did when gasoline prices increased by double-digit percentage points was empty the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Just to refresh your memory, gasoline across the country was around $2/gallon when Trump was President. His administration was pro-energy. The other day in California, I was paying over $6 and most people are paying well over $4.
Emptying the SPR increased the supply and kept prices from rising a little higher. Of course, we have a bottleneck in the supply chain at the refinery and tank storage level and no one can get permits to build more. At the same time, as the Fed has raised interest rates the US dollar has gotten stronger. When that happens, oil futures prices dip a little. With the economy slowing, oil prices dipped a little lower.
But, don’t feel safe and content. Oil prices can rip higher as fast or faster than they dropped. It’s the one market where rallies happen faster than breaks.
Democrats in Congress wholeheartedly backed the President’s plan. With full throats, they told all of us that we should be buying electric cars and at the same time, we all knew the electrical grid didn’t have enough capacity to support them. They also voted to give put cash in the pockets of some of their donors by increasing subsidies on green energy. Green energy doesn’t work for an on-demand information economy. We have had several events in the past ten years that have proven it.
When it comes to countries we compete with on the world stage, the US can overwhelm them with a good energy policy. Russia’s most valuable asset is energy. Cheap fossil fuel cripples them. Terrorists in the Middle East thrive when energy prices are high. China is vulnerable when it comes to energy.
Don’t tell me that green energy changes the game on all this. It’s not realistic. You can draw it up on a blackboard and make it work but the real world isn’t a blackboard.
Our energy policy in the United States is in tatters. It’s disgraceful. Both vehement climate deniers and the most ardent socialists that believe in their heart of hearts that we need to save the planet ought to be really ticked at the Democrats today. The only way out of this mess is to keep drilling to ease into the transition and build nuclear plants as fast as we can.
Oh, and by the way, you cannot build any type of sustainable low-inflation economy without cheap energy.
The hurricane in Florida has left Biden naked. When the storm surge took all the water out of the bays in Southwest Florida, it exposed Biden’s politically motivated strategy too.
The hurricane is impacting more than the Southwest coast of Florida. It is impacting the entire eastern seaboard up to North Carolina. That’s a lot of people that will need access to gasoline. Emptying the SRP for politics was a terrible idea. Of course, the entire Biden energy agenda and his execution of it have been terrible too.
I feel a rant coming on. Bilging up out of me like uncontrollable acid reflux.
Here goes.
The Democrat party disgusts me. From the purple hair noserings who scream on Tik Tok during the day to donning their black matte spray painted Antifa helmets at night, to their "democratic socialists" who have never held a job, let alone run or own a small business, to their teacher's union flaks who care more about trans activism than education, from their suburban wine guzzling truly privileged Karens with their "Believe" signs to their billionaire JB Pritzkers signing authoritative executive orders while gaslighting us that conservatives are the "Authoritarian Precious Democracy Destroyers", to their race-baiters and hustlers and hoaxers, to anti-American lecturers at the New York Times and in the faculty lounge, to the leftist CEO who is simply too cowardly to take a stand on anything that might upset his wife, the suburban Karen living in their $3 million home in Winnetka or condo on Walton Street in Chicago. To their wealthy heiress daughters named Brittany who scream at the police about "brutality" while spitting in working people's faces at their latest march or rally. All for the "working people," of course. To their sons, who smoke crack, buy hookers and openly graft on their parent's prestige or government position while giving the finger to the same laws that would lock the rest of us up for years.
F these people. They are unserious idiots with too much money and no common sense. Like the Welcoming Denizens of Martha's Vineyard who can't host 50, but are content with far poorer El Paso hosting 50,000.
Then there is the chronically mentally ill Democrat, who I won't mention because, who wants to pick on people who aren't "all together?" Did you know that 56% of young white liberals have been diagnosed with a mental condition? (source: Pew, 2020) Meanwhile, 16% of conservative men (of all ages) have been diagnosed with a mental condition. (same source) I dunno, you tell me who you want running the country?
So, no, it doesn't surprise me one bit that this is the same party that thinks you can simply wave a wand and propel a $17 trillion economy on wind and sun energy. If you've never run anything or paid the electric bill for a business, or been inside a manufacturing plant, you would have no idea what you're up against. It's easier to self-induce rage and scream at the sky about those evil Rethuglicans and Trumpers who are literally worse than Hitler. (Literally!)
We get the government we deserve.
Thanks for giving me the chance to get it out. Now I can go about my day.
Any country that pursues a rational energy policy and is able to provide low-cost electricity and/or natural gas is going to have a tremendous competitive advantage. France was pretty well-positioned, with its heavy commitment to nuclear--the reactor maintenance problems will be fixed--but Macron seems to be of the 'manage the decline' persuasion when it comes to his country's economy.