Sheer insanity! That's right. Sheer insanity! That is what Joe Biden has done by killing oil and gas drilling in Alaska. They're cancelling all remaining oil and gas leases issued in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, otherwise known as ANWR.
These were leases granted under the Trump administration. These lease sales were mandated by Congress in 2017. According to the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, the arbitrary cancellation of these leases, mandated by Congress, breaks long-standing legal contracts between the federal government and the oil and gas industry.
In other words, Biden's breaking the law and not unlike student loan cancellations and not unlike the EPA riding roughshod over the Supreme Court. Just as bad, or worse, the Interior Department would also bar any new oil or gas leasing on 10.6 million acres – or more than 40% – of the National Petroleum Reserve. Not that Biden cares, but the GOP House passed a bill in March that would boost oil and gas production and accelerate new projects by streamlining environmental reviews.
In other words, unlock the fossil fuel spigots. In other words, drill for what Mr. Trump calls "liquid gold." Now, think of this. The Saudis and the Russians just cut production again and are now driving up world oil prices toward $100 a barrel. They just announced this virtually the same day as the Bidens announced the ban on oil drilling in Alaska.
SAUDI ARABIA EXTENDS OIL PRODUCTION CUTS TO END OF 2023, SENDING PRICES SOARING
What does this tell you? And – not a peep of protest against so-called OPEC+. Not a peep of protest! Biden has abandoned any semblance of energy dominance. This is not only a huge negative for economic security, because of high prices – by the way, gas prices are edging back toward $4 a gallon, diesel prices have exploded, trucking, the lifeblood of the economy, is in dire shape – but Biden has surrendered national security policy to the Saudis, Russia, Venezuela and Iran. All our very good friends, right? Wrong!
Energy policy is national security policy. Not climate policy, because these countries -- Russia, China, India, the Saudis -- they care not one whit about Joe Biden's make-believe climate catastrophe scenario. The U.S. has enormous, long-lived, God-given natural resources and Biden won't use them.
Yet, energy is the backbone of the economy. It is liquid gold. It propels the economy. You can't grow and prosper without power and Biden's windmills will never supply the necessary power, not even remotely.
Meanwhile, Biden's climate apocalypse scenario is utter nonsense. There's a story out there that is barely covered: more than 1,600 scientists, including two Nobel laureates, declare climate "emergency" a myth. You find this story in The Federalist, JustTheNews, The Epoch Times and a related story in this week's New York Post.
It goes like this. A coalition of 1,609 scientists from around the world have signed a declaration stating "there is no climate emergency" and that they "strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy" being pushed across the globe.
This group including two Nobelists. They do not deny carbon climate-related problems and issues. What they do, however, is deny the hysteria, the idea that there is some sort of existential climate risk immediately in front of us.
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Nobelist Dr. John F. Clauser, who is a physicist, is quoted as saying: "Misguided climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience." In other words, Joe Biden's climate emergency is a "hoax, " but Biden is spending trillions of dollars while inflicting enormous damage on our economy at home and our security abroad.
Even adding insult to injury, Biden is the first president not to visit any 9/11 memorials and is instead going to Alaska to essentially spit in the face of one of the world's cleanest, deepest and most powerful oil and gas industries. Like I say: this is sheer, utter insanity. Save America. Retire Joe Biden.
This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the September 7, 2023, edition of "Kudlow."