The “Blue Wave” shrank to a ripple, the U.S. Senate still in Republican hands, the House of Representatives flipped but by fewer seats than for most midterm elections in decades, Trump era deregulation and fossil fuel production efforts continue, and several governorships and state houses went from red to blue, while state renewable energy and carbon tax ballot initiatives went down in flames.
On the global stage, despite Herculean efforts by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and activist groups to redefine “climate change” and conjure up scary hobgoblins, the Paris accords and international obsession over global warming and “green” energy are plummeting in a tailspin.
What does it all mean for U.S. energy and climate policy? Here’s a helpful reality check that might assist a divided Congress, governors and state legislators, an often confused or misled electorate, and people all over the world … in making better, more informed decisions on climate and energy pathways forward.
Despite well over $150 million spent by billionaires Tom Steyer, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros and multiple environmentalist groups, hard-green voter propositions were resoundingly defeated:
A Colorado initiative would have made nearly the entire state off limits to drilling and fracking. A Washington measure would have imposed a heavy tax on carbon-based fuels and carbon dioxide emissions. An Arizona amendment would have required that half of all electricity be generated by 2050 via “renewable energy” (but not new nuclear or hydroelectric), “regardless of the cost” to consumers. Anti-oil-and-mining initiatives in Alaska and Montana also got massacred. Nevadans approved a “50% renewable energy by 2030” bill, but it must be reapproved in 2020 before it can take effect.
Voters also threw half of the Republican members of the House “Climate Solutions Caucus” out of office.
...Climate and renewable energy concerns lag way behind economic, employment, healthcare, immigration, national security and a host of other anxieties. Fossil fuels are still 80% of our energy. Real-world evidence for “manmade climate chaos” is sorely lacking. And despite repeated assurances to the contrary, few countries are doing anything to reduce their oil, gas or coal use, or greenhouse gas emissions.
They certainly know a functioning economy, factory, hospital, office, internet or family must have affordable energy when it is needed – not energy when it’s available, at prices that kill budgets and jobs.
According to a report profiled by European media platform Euractiv, of the 197 nations that so excitedly signed onto the Paris climate treaty, “only 16 have defined national climate action plans ambitious enough to meet their pledges.” But even that is a stretch. Canada is still a fossil fuel superpower, and Ontario’s new premier has pledged to scrap its Green Energy Act and wind and solar projects – while Japan is building a dozen new coal-fired power plants to replace its shuttered nuclear facilities.
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