It’s every teenage climate hysteric’s wet dream: Gasoline prices are going through the roof. That means less fuel sold, fewer miles driven and fewer greenhouse gases emitted.
This is a feature, not a flaw, of climate change advocacy. This is the desired result of increasing the cost of running your SUV.
The climate hysterics want you to feel pain. They want you to empty your wallet. They want you to get angry — preferably at the oil companies, and that’s exactly what Congressional Democrats have been flaunting for the past few weeks. They’ve held hearings about why gasoline is so expensive. They have dragged oil company executives into their committee hearings, berating them for price gouging and profiteering.
But it’s all a farce. Democrats are jubilant that everything they hoped for about high fuel costs is coming true. In less than a year and a half, gas prices have nearly doubled, with promises of much more to come.
Just in time to save the planet.
Washington Examiner:
Democrats have long openly worked to raise fossil fuel prices in the service of cutting carbon emissions. They’ve done this by proposing carbon taxes, cap-and-trade programs, higher lease fees, and other measures to drive up costs so people burn less of it. For this reason, in response to a related question about electricity, Barack Obama said his energy plan would “necessarily skyrocket” prices. That’s why, less than six months ago, Democratic MP Ro Khanna hailed BP’s CEO for his pledge to cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030. A reduction in oil production and rising gasoline prices are part of the Democrats’ agenda and the Paris climate agenda.
There’s even more to it than that. Over the past decade, Democrats’ blatant hostility to fossil fuels has even prompted companies in the industry to sideline manufacturing for sheer publicity purposes while prioritizing meaningless, politically correct carbon emissions targets. How can Democrats suddenly feign outrage at their incredible success in influencing the industry?
Is it any mystery why Democrats aren’t sack dancing and celebrating saving planet earth?
There is, of course, the small matter of their political survival. It would be unseemly, like at an Irish funeral, to celebrate other people’s pain. And it would cost many Democrats who secretly cheer high gas prices their political careers.
Instead, Democrats say they’re looking for a way to “ease consumer pain.”
The liberal Center for American Progress suggests:
The most effective approach is to provide financial relief to consumers who are experiencing real income and purchasing power erosion from high energy costs amid an overall rising cost of living and stagnant wage growth. There are many ways to create this relief. One is an income tax credit program for middle- and low-income consumers that would increase their disposable income by $500 to $1,000 per year.
In lieu of (or in addition to) these tax credits, Congress could grant up to $450 in “fuel price relief,” with low-income consumers receiving the biggest benefits. This mechanism, proposed by my GAP colleagues last week, could be funded by removing tax breaks for the oil industry or a tax on windfall profits for the industry.
Sending more stimulus and “reliefbate” checks to people using money that doesn’t exist and won’t exist for 100 years is not an option for any sane, responsible lawmaker — which steers the plan in the right direction for most Democrats moves.
Related: Elite leftists play with energy
“You can’t fool all the people all the time,” said Abe Lincoln. But Democrats hope to change that calculus by accusing oil companies of being too successful and getting too rich to distract the public.
When people fall for it, it’s their own fault if their car becomes too expensive to drive — the deliberate result of a policy initiated by Democrats to save “the planet” from an unproven hypothetical threat.