Commentary
In recent editions, I have written about the priority issues that helped President Trump win reelection, his positions on immigration, inflation and the price of goods, and “drill baby drill,” the return to energy independence.
He signed hundreds of orders covering those topics and many others he promised to address on Day One, and for the most part, Americans are happy.
“To please everybody is impossible. Were I to undertake it, I should probably please nobody.” – George Washington
You will recall the applause he received whenever he said, “drill baby drill,” and he signed a national energy emergency declaration to a cheering crowd during the inauguration day celebration at Washington’s Capital One Arena.
However, I continue to be concerned with the vast uninformed public, who view drilling merely as a means to reduce the cost of gasoline at the pump, with no knowledge of how fossil fuel generated energy plays an integral role in the prices of the basics in our daily life. Restoring our independence on oil and gas means so much more.
Four years ago, when Biden took us down the path of the Green New Deal, designed to wean us off fossil fuels, I wrote about the thousands of products that rely on petroleum.
About half of a 42-gallon barrel creates petroleum products other than gasoline, jet fuel and heating oil; products in everyday household use – computers, toothbrushes, sunglasses, clothing, carpet, paints and detergents to name some.
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.
Fossil fuels are also used to process, package, distribute and prepare food, for producing and running farm machinery, and the production of fertilizers farmers require.
I wonder, do Americans fully understand how prices for groceries and other goods increased with the costs borne by the supply chain. More than 70 percent of the nation’s freight is moved by truck, and 80 percent of our commodities rely exclusively on trucking to receive goods.
With that in mind, consider that Biden had a plan to require half of the heavy-duty trucks sold be electric by 2032 be electric, a move that would increase the cost of moving goods. Reportedly, an electric truck can travel about one-fourth the distance of a truck with a full tank of diesel fuel. And the heavier electric trucks produce more wear and tear on our highways.
Despite the wasteful spending by Biden administration on the Green New Deal and climate change, William A. Galson, writing in the Wall Street Journal, “What the People Want and Don’t,” says the people don’t want Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, and they still believe climate change is caused by human activities. Tough. He is and he’ll be doing much more in his common sense agenda.
Of course, the leftist New York Times continues to scare Americans about global warming, last week with the report of emissions from burning coal, oil land gas pushing the average global temperature past 1.5 degrees. Oh, my.
MAGA Americans and others who decided to go with Trump on November 5, decided he was more likely to solve their core economic problems, especially the prices for the basics of daily life. And that’s where Trump’s return to energy independence comes in.
May God continue to bless the United States of America
