Commentary

“Plastics.” 

That quote from the 1967 film, “The Graduate,” isn’t from the most memorable scenes.  In fact, few people will remember it all.  It took place just minutes into the movie.

It took place when the newly graduated Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) was approached by a neighbor, Mr. McGuire (Walter Brooke) with advice on his future.

“I just want to say one word to you.  Just one word,” he said, to which Hoffman responds, “Yes, sir.”

“Are you listening,” Brooke continues.  “Yes, I am,” Hoffman politely answers.

“Plastics,” says Brooke.

A career in plastics, viewed as a cheap material, was far from the preppy graduate’s plans for his future.

I chose this introduction for my commentary to remind you of how plastics have become one of the most important materials in our lives today, but to predict Biden’s goal of ending the use of fossil fuels by 2050 utterly impossible.

Today, about a third of about 30,000 parts in a vehicle are made of plastic, using some 40 different types of plastics and polymers used in the manufacture, of which 70 percent of the plastic comes from four polymers – polypropylene, polyurethane, polyamides and PVC – made possible by fossil fuels.

In addition, petroleum is used in processing rubber and fiber products and fossil fuels will be needed to produce the steel, aluminum and other materials.

Plastics are being used to replace metal and the glass in headlights and taillights.  Windows may be next.  Reportedly, Lexus foresees a 95 percent recyclable car.

While plastics are being used more extensively in everything from the GPS system, the automatic door opener and the rearview camera, a great deal of research is going into materials that can handle the high temperatures associated with the voltage used in electric vehicles.

Like my engineering-degreed grandson would inform me, with the goal of increasing power density, you increase voltage, driving up temperature.

High voltage shielding poses another challenge as voltages increase.

Despite President Biden’s emission-free dream, experts see electric cars making up just 10 to 20 percent of the market in the next 10 years, and his environmental wizards aren’t thinking about the petroleum required to produce some 6,000 products for cars and household use.

About half of a 42-gallon barrel creates petroleum products other than gasoline, jet fuel and heating oil; products in every day household use – computers, toothbrushes, sun glasses, clothing, carpet, paints and detergents to name some. 

And, the asphalt and cement he will need for infrastructure come from petroleum, too.

With this basic knowledge, you need to be aware of the recommendations made by the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, formed after Biden signed his executive order titled, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.”

The major content of the document under its “Justice40 Initiative” recommends how certain federal investments might be made toward a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits flowing to disadvantaged communities, according to Francis Menton, writing in the Manhattan Contrarian.

Everything remotely related to fossil fuel energy generation is out of the question, even maintaining the facilities we already have.  Even carbon capture and storage are not allowed.

I just know that “Ol’Joe” has no idea of what’s included in the council’s 91-page recommendations document. 

There’s more. You just knew racism would be addressed.  “We pursue policies and strategic investments to reverse racial inequities and strife to repair the environmental injustice of more than 500 years of institutional policies and practices,” the document states.  That precedes the rewriting of our history in the 1619 Project.

There’s “a compete absence of adult supervision in the Biden administration,” writes Menton, noting that the host of academics and environmental wackos on the advisory council have taken over and are running the show.

“At this point,” he says, “the best we can hope for is that they will actually implement some of this nonsense, and it will then fail spectacularly.”

We saw that happen with Obama’s picking winners, like his half billion-dollar loan to Solyndra.

The year 2024 cannot get here soon enough, but 2022 could mark the end of all this nonsense.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.