While Americans are paying trillions of dollars for President Joe Biden’s climate change agenda, that agenda is weakening America’s national security, and China is expected to benefit greatly from this folly.
As congressmen left Washington for the August recess, Biden’s National Highway Transportation Safety Administration quietly released new proposed fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks. If the new rule were implemented as written, new cars and light trucks would have to meet a 66-mile-per-gallon and 54-mile-per-gallon standard by 2032, respectively.
This rule, along with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed de facto EV mandate that nearly 70% of all new car sales must be EVs by 2032, is being implemented to advance the Biden regime’s climate agenda.
Of particular interest is the justification of the rule. The NHTSA repeatedly claims that by enacting these near-impossible fuel economy standards, America will become more energy secure, thereby increasing national security. The central planners argue that if new cars were forced to use less gas, America would be less dependent on imports.
However, America is one of the world’s largest oil and natural gas producers. If energy security really mattered to Biden, he would promote policies that increase gas and oil production rather than reducing production of two of the country’s most valuable commodities.
Biden’s agenda includes regulatory obstacles to new oil drilling and a forced transition to alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power. These measures have reduced incentives for domestic energy production and increased US dependence on foreign imports, reducing the country’s energy security.
These policies are fueled by the government’s eager – and utterly unrealistic – drive to halt climate change.
Energy security is critical to national security, as demonstrated recently when Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Western Europe during the war with Ukraine. As America weakens with onerous regulations that stifle domestic energy production while imposing strict emission and fuel economy standards, it is at the mercy of other countries.
Eliminating gas-powered cars while subsidizing electric vehicles is a boon for China, as the country controls 80% of global electric vehicle battery production and has great leverage over countries that have the rare-earth minerals to make those batteries, such as the Democratic one Republic of the Congo. In the event of a forced transition to electric vehicles, as Biden has planned for 2032, America would become even more dependent on China and enrich the Chinese Communist Party.
Additionally, by restricting oil and gas leases on public land, such as the Colorado Bureau of Land Management is seeking, Biden is reducing the amount of domestic energy production and the amount of electricity Americans can use to power their homes. Business and life (because a certain proportion of power plants generate electricity with natural gas).
Basically, the government is burning the energy security candle at both ends.
To make matters worse, these measures, which raise prices for Americans, limit consumer choice, and benefit foreign opponents, will do nothing to reduce global pollution. According to Kevin Dayaratna, chief statistician at the Heritage Foundation, global temperatures would fall by just 0.2 degrees Celsius by the year 2100 even if America stopped using all conventional fuel. At the same time, China has abandoned the Paris climate agreement and is expected to increase CO2 emissions from its coal-fired power plants.
The NHTSA’s position that its new fuel economy standards will increase energy security by reducing gas mileage is categorically incorrect. The phasing out of gas-powered cars will make America even more dependent on China for critical electric vehicle components. When America reduces domestic energy production by closing oil and gas deals, we limit our own supplies and become dependent on imports from enemy nations.
Worst of all, none of this has to happen: America, a nation with every potential to become the world’s energy leader now and in the future, is paralyzing itself with a federal government pursuing climate delusions with nothing to show for it. It is time to reverse course and halt America’s path to economic and national security suicide.
This article originally appeared in The Daily Signal
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