Biden’s Keystone Climate Screw Up a Boon for Russia
Biden shut down the keystone pipeline to save the environment because we need to stop using oil. Most people agree with the last part, we need to stop using oil, but didn’t anyone tell Biden that the oil is being transported by trucks and ships and trains to dirty refineries, and the Canadians are not going stop just because we don’t build a pipe that would transport it without polluting to cleaner refineries. According to Alberta Premier Kenny “This is a gut punch for the Canadian and Alberta economies. Sadly, it is an insult directed at the United States’ most important ally and trading partner on day one of a new administration.”
The Russians have been trying to stop the pipeline for years to protect their oil prices. Use of oil depends on demand, not on the supply. Clean refined oil from the pipeline will be replaced by dirty oil somewhere else. This is basic economic science. We need to stop the demand, not the supply! Didn’t anyone learn anything from the war on drugs? It is always the demand that counts.
The Canadians are not going to stop shipping the oil because we don’t build a pipeline. We need to enact executive orders to stop using oil. this is the worst kind of pathological science. We have years of basic economics telling us we need to shut the demand off to make a difference. Shutting down the pipeline makes it worse. It kills jobs in the northern states, and raises prices so more countries start producing more oil. no one is willing to even question it because they will be ostracized. Even though only 36% of Americans approve of this decision according to a Rasmussan pole, opposing viewpoints and dissenting views are no longer allowed so now we make bad decisions that hurt the environment and opposed by most Americans.
There was a small and short-lived flurry of optimism a few months ago that perhaps Jeb Bush’s 2016 candidacy would represent a major shift in the Republican posture towards climate change. With the help of deep-pocketed fossil fuel interests, the GOP and the conservative movement have spent the past couple of decades dismissing and sneering at climate change science, casting it as a global left-wing conspiracy. But Jeb came out with some moderate-sounding rhetoric that a few eager and hopeful observers interpreted as a sign that he might actually be serious about climate change, or at least that he was less pig-headed about the science behind it than, say, Ted Cruz.
This summer, Pope Francis plans to release an encyclical letter in which he will address environmental issues, and very likely climate change.
Strong scientific consensus will not generate public support for environmental policy, unless skeptical voices become almost silent. Surveys have shown that perceptions of scientific dissent undermine public support for environmental policy
“The top of the list of energy challenges is climate change” said Kerry to the Atlantic Council today. Kerry showed he was definitely In Touch with the Science on the major environmental issue facing us today.