President Biden's mental and physical deterioration is matched only by the deterioration of his administration's energy policy. The latest callous act of disregard for America's economy comes in two actions taken virtually back to back.
In the first, the Biden administration is slamming the brakes — again — on domestic energy development.
The White House has intervened in the permitting process for 17 large natural gas projects, ordering additional climate impact analyses after activists called on the administration to nix the projects, The New York Times reported.
In a move environmentalists have demanded in recent months, the White House is ordering the Department of Energy (DOE) to consider the impact proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal projects would have on climate change, three individuals with knowledge of internal deliberations told the Times. The DOE has never before rejected a gas export application on climate grounds.
"It appears that individuals within the White House are trying to force policymaking through leaks to the media. This continues to create uncertainty about whether our allies can rely on US LNG for their energy security," Shaylyn Hynes, a spokesperson for energy developer Venture Global, said in a statement. "If this leaked report from anonymous White House sources is true, it appears the Administration may be putting a moratorium on the entire U.S. LNG industry."
Note these words carefully: "The DOE has never before rejected a gas export application on climate grounds." This may slip past plenty of folks who are casually reading this policy statement, but it's key. The Department of Energy (DOE), a federal agency that has no constitutional authorization to even exist, has now set a new precedent: They can now approve or reject an export application or, presumably, a development project on climate grounds.
What does that mean? Well, when one considers the nebulous pseudo-scientific nature of the "climate crisis," when almost everything bad that happens is blamed on "climate change," that gives the DOE carte blanche to deny anything it likes, simply by demanding an expensive "climate impact statement" that will almost certainly be reviewed by a DOE bureaucrat who is in on the green agenda.
In the second act of egregious stupidity, the president has vetoed a bipartisan energy bill and, in so doing, is essentially throwing the American manufacturing of electric vehicles under the electric bus. This opens the door for Chinese manufacturers.
The resolution, which was authored by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and introduced in July, would have specifically overturned the Department of Transportation's (DOT) Waiver of Buy America Requirements for Electric Vehicle Chargers. Rubio, the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and other Republican lawmakers argued DOT's waiver benefits Chinese manufacturers who dominate the EV charger supply chain.
"If enacted, this resolution would harm my Administration’s efforts to encourage investment in critical industries and bring high-quality jobs back to the United States," Biden said in a statement Wednesday. "It would not only thwart the collective goal of the Congress and the Administration to establish a domestic EV charger manufacturing industry, but it would also delay the significant progress being made by my Administration and the States in establishing the EV charging network."
Feature or bug? Maybe Hunter could tell us.
Again, note the unsaid part. The administration's statement says this veto will help "...bring high-quality jobs back to the United States," but they don't bother to explain how making it easier for Chinese companies to export charging stations to the United States aids in that goal. In the name of keeping supply chains open — to questionable Chinese technology — the Biden administration is willing to ease the way for Chinese imports in a technological area that is being rejected by American consumers.
See Related: Dose of Reality: Toyota Chairman Says EVs Will Only Take Up 30% of Car Market, Pols Should Stand Aside
'We Got a Bunch of Dead Robots Out Here'—Tesla Charging Stations Freeze in Chicago
Bear in mind that China's track record on EV tech is not, shall we say, encouraging.
The Biden administration's energy policy is like the Roman god Janus (for whom the month of January is named), a being with two faces. But where Janus was a god of entrances and exits, of endings and beginnings, of transitions, of war and peace — anything with two aspects — the Biden administration seems to have both faces facing the same way: toward the destruction of the American economy, one face looking to slam the doors on domestic energy development while the other face looks with favor on China.
November can't come soon enough.
