From EV push to oil production: climate politics meets harsh reality
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Former White House chief of staff (and potential 2028 presidential candidate) Rahm Emanuel is associated with the phrase: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” His goal was to turn voters’ short-term concerns into long-term political gain.
But with a gallon of gas costing more than four dollars on average in early April, the environmental movement’s normal deafening chorus has faded to a dull murmur even ahead of Earth Day, the holiest of holidays. With the world in the grip of an energy crisis, the relative silence of climate groups is an admission that their beliefs are not the solution.
Consider California Governor Gavin Newsom. Last July, he declared that his state’s “economic growth came not despite clean energy, but because of it.” Now, in a press release, he adds his administration’s role in “responsibly increasing oil production.”
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Here are three examples of changing climate policies and their implications for the future.
EV Demand Remains Low
Under the Biden Administration, pressure to push consumers into electric vehicles has been everywhere. A tax credit of $7,500 was distributed at the federal level. California has implemented mandatory rules requiring 100% of new cars and light trucks sold to qualify as “zero emissions” by 2035.
In June 2022, as gas prices were soaring, then-Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) announced that because she was driving an electric vehicle, the cost of gas “didn’t matter how high it was.”
How have times (and numbers) changed? In 2024, the Big Three automakers in Stabenow’s state lost a combined $52 billion from electric vehicles; this is higher than the sum of their total net profits.
Remember when then-President Joe Biden went to Michigan to take photos with Ford’s new F-150 Lightning all-electric truck? Faced with declining demand, Ford halted production of the Lightning last year, saying “the American consumer is speaking out.”
Indeed they are. recently Wall Street Magazine The story described “mostly empty and money-losing” EV manufacturing plants in the Rust Belt as part of “America’s complicated disengagement from electric vehicles.” Although consumer interest in electric vehicles has increased as some analysts expected, the reaction of politicians shows the truth.
Communist Cuba Saved by Russian Oil
The conflict in Iran has overshadowed the sad plight of the Cuban people. Amid more than six decades of misery under a communist regime, the lights have literally gone out since the ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in January. Cut off from cheap oil from its socialist-sympathetic neighbor, Cuba was plunged into a humanitarian crisis. New York Times documented cases of patients suffering or dying in hospitals without electricity and ambulances parking because drivers could not find gas.
Cuba relies on oil and natural gas for more than 90 percent of its electricity, while renewable energy sources provide only two percent. The situation became so dire that President Trump, often criticized by his critics for his supposed lack of empathy, allowed a Russian oil tanker to reach Havana, stating that “they had to survive.”
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Just as there are no atheists in the trenches, there are few environmentalists in the absence of basic human needs.
American Energy Dominance Softens the Blow
While current high gas prices are painful, countries more dependent on energy than the United States are feeling the pinch. In March, the Philippines switched to a four-day workweek. Slovenia became the first European Union country to ration fuel. Thousands of petrol stations across Australia have run out of fuel, with 90% of its fuel coming from the Middle East.
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The situation is different in the country where US crude oil imports from the Persian Gulf have fallen to their lowest level in 40 years due to increased domestic production.
Meanwhile, natural gas prices, which provide nearly half (43%) of our nation’s electricity, have remained relatively stable in the United States but have increased by nearly 70% in Europe and Asia.
President Trump deserves great credit for refocusing on American Energy Dominance.
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This Earth Day, the climate movement will once again raise small cries, but the turmoil is very different from years past. There are far fewer exaggerated claims that, as U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared in 2019, “the world will end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.”
International relations clearly demonstrate the inseparable link between energy and national security; This is a lesson that most reasonable Americans inherently understand. Even at this critical moment, the climate movement knows that its brand of politics is defeated by common sense.
