The state wasting time again

Haven't they figured out that we can't do diddly-squat about the climate?

It’s the same thing every year in Delaware and many other states with liberal, left-of-center legislative bodies: you can count on at least one bill with a catchy (but deceptive) name like the Climate Change Solutions Act of 2023. Indeed, Delaware has theirs and it has a total of 31 sponsors and co-sponsors for a bill that “establishes a statutory target of greenhouse gas emissions reductions over the medium and long term to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on the State.” All that to have the Chinese blow smoke at us by opening another half-dozen coal-burning power plants.

Should we be good stewards of our environment? You betcha. But making artificial and arbitrary one-size-fits-all deadlines to address a so-called problem that’s beyond our scope to address? That’s the real issue here.

If we were to get a good governor and give him or her a workable majority in each house next year, there’s a really good environmental agenda for them to pursue and all it involves is eliminating three things:

1. Doing away with the concept of copying California. The entire hullabaloo about eliminating ICE cars in favor of EVs has only come about because someone in our government was foolish enough to have the bright idea of copycatting California’s environmental laws, which are intended for a state which is semi-arid, mountainous, and has multiple times the population Delaware does. I’ll grant we are the lowest-lying state in the nation, but when the projected sea level rise is two meters, I live at elevation 38’ according to the topographical maps, and that sea level rise ain’t gonna occur until I’ve long since met my Maker, you’ll pardon me for not believing it’s a real concern. Nor should you - after all, if it were a real issue do you think the fatcats like Barack Obama would be buying oceanfront property? Even with all we’ve polluted since 1900, NASA says sea level rise has been roughly 8 1/2 inches, so I’m not too worried about a two-meter rise anytime soon. Just the facts, ma’am.

2. Withdrawing from RGGI. This has been a scam perpetrated on the utility ratepayers of Delaware and several other states for a decade. In essence, RGGI is a fairly brilliant scheme to take money away from those who pay utility bills and give it to government so they can reward various favored special interests or just fatten their general fund coffers. Each time a heretofore participating state gets a Republican governor with some stones, they withdraw from RGGI only to have the next Democrat put them back in. (I say Republican governor with stones because neither Larry Hogan in Maryland nor Charlie Baker in Massachusetts made a move to do so, but Chris Christie did.) I think there needs to be legislation requiring a 3/4 majority of both houses of the legislature to go back in after we drop out, and maybe we can help kill this RGGI pocket picking for good.

3. Repealing any and all renewable energy mandates and carveouts. Here’s a hard truth for you: we only have a market for renewables because government tells us we have to have x percentage of our electricity come from solar power and y percentage from other renewables, like wind power. In addition, on a federal level, they created generous tax breaks and handed out money to favored interests like we had a giant Pez dispenser. If it weren’t for those things, we wouldn’t have to fight over massive plots of otherwise arable land being wasted under solar panels that eventually leach heavy metals onto them or unsightly, wildlife-killing wind turbines crowding our shores because there would be no market for these unreliable renewables. Instead, we would receive our electrical power from what’s been proven to be relatively efficient and reliable: a combination of natural gas plants and carbon-free nuclear energy, both of which are in plentiful supply in and around our nation. Working toward that goal is a job for any legislative and executive body to put on their to-do list.

In my years of watching this devolution of providing energy that’s reliable and inexpensive, I’ve come to one overriding conclusion: government is ALWAYS restrictive when it comes to climate, allowing fewer and fewer choices. There may be some who would prefer electric cars - and some have gone so far as to install charging systems at their home or business - but most of us like the idea of zipping in and out of the local gas station when the need arises.

America is awash in oil and natural gas and has millions of tons of coal under the Applachians and Rocky Mountains. Those who mined the latter, however, have pretty much been put out of business thanks to natural gas, but now we’re foolishly trying to keep all of that in the ground, too. So what if the price of the electricity we need has to necessarily skyrocket because of policy. And Heaven help you if you want the choice of a gas stove because the government is trying to eliminate that business, too.

If common sense is to ever prevail again, the proof to me will be the elimination of all these foolish restrictions on our freedom. Yes, there are many more restrictions than just those in the energy realm but we have to start somewhere and I think most people would agree that our energy policy needs a quick revision.