Enemy of affordability: The radical climate agenda

For decades, some lawmakers and other proponents of radical climate policies have given little consideration to the adverse effects on consumers and the poor. Often, driving up prices isn’t a bug but a feature of these policies.

Reducing the supply of fossil fuels, limiting the use of gas-powered cars, and restricting natural gas hookups in buildings are just a few examples of policies that drive up prices for Americans.

These same policymakers now have the audacity to express concern over affordability while continuing to criticize those who rejected their climate policies in the first place over affordability concerns, among other issues.

If the climate extremists were genuinely concerned about affordability, then they would stop pushing their harmful policies. But, of course, they won’t because their climate goals take precedence over the harm being caused.

They want to shift the country and the world away from using fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) even though about 80 percent of the world’s energy use comes from fossil fuels.

One way to achieve this objective is by restricting supply, thereby driving up prices. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline that would have brought 800,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil into the US.

The Biden Department of the Interior finalized a rule blocking new oil and gas leases in 10.6 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which represents more than 40 percent of this massive area in Alaska. It also finalized an offshore oil and gas drilling program that the Biden administration boasted allowed the fewest lease sales in history. 

On his way out of office, President Biden withdrew 625 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf from future oil and gas leasing, which Interior proclaimed was the largest withdrawal in history.

Climate extremists have also sought to dictate how Americans use energy. The most prominent effort is to kill off gas-powered cars.

The Biden EPA finalized a rule that the agency acknowledged would result in less than 30 percent of new car sales by 2032 being internal combustion engine vehicles. Americans would be expected to buy less reliable and more expensive electric vehicles, assuming they can afford a vehicle at all.

Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg reportedly stated during a hearing, “The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicles.”

This mindset reflects an extremist climate movement that is out of touch and cares little for the pain of higher prices.

On a per-unit energy basis, natural gas costs less than one-third as much as electricity. Yet that matters little to climate extremists who seek to phase out its use from our stoves to our furnaces.

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act was filled with spending to incentivize builders as well as state and local governments to restrict natural gas hookups.

The Biden administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) finalized a requirement that new homes qualifying for federally backed mortgages must comply with the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code. Numerous environmental groups claimed this building code would ensure that “low-income homeowners and residents are prioritized in a climate-aligned future.”

Even HUD conceded that its requirements would reduce the number of new homes by 1.5 percent and raise construction costs by an estimated $2,800 to $6,800. Fortunately, a federal district court recently shot down this costly climate-related requirement.

So, for climate extremists, a climate-aligned future is more important than housing affordability.

The Trump administration and numerous lawsuits are helping to undo many of these Biden-era policies. But there is still a seemingly endless barrage of harmful climate policies at all levels of government, with more yet to come.

The radical climate agenda is fundamentally at odds with affordability. Policymakers should recognize this and prioritize the current wellbeing of Americans.

In doing so, they will both improve today’s standard of living while helping to ensure human prosperity in the future.