We Called It: Kamala Has (Net) Zero Credibility On Fracking

Bob Maistros; Issues & Insights

It’s no surprise that the Institute of Energy Research has compiled 250 ways Harris-Biden and its allies, beginning on Jan. 20, 2021, have pursued an outright war on the oil and gas industries that has included numerous restrictions and outright bans on new production. 

"Dear Readers, we called it.

"ZERO. It was one of six numbers listed by your correspondent last week that made up the case against Kamala Harris. It stood for Net Zero, a Harris-Biden administration commitment of which her Veepness took personal ownership, to wit:

“ 'You know, when President Biden and I took office, we set an ambitious goal.  Yes, people said, ‘That can’t be done.’ We said, ‘Well, you know what? We believe in dreaming with ambition and then seeing it through.’ And so, we set an ambitious goal … to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.”

"And now, with the full foot-in-mouth placement by Kamala’s Camila, a tone-deaf aide (and despite her frantic, fruitless effort to backtrack), ZERO stands for the coup-candidate’s remaining credibility on her claim that she won’t ban fracking.

"To understand why begins with a swing back to the nature of Harris’ climate commitment.

"Achieving her “ambitious goal” has involved the Harris-Biden administration’s pursuit since week one of a “whole-of-government approach to combatting the climate crisis” aimed primarily at obliterating oil and gas, including: 

• Commitment to “a carbon pollution-free energy sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions from the transportation sector by 2050”
• A similar “whole-of-government” approach to mitigating “climate-related financial risk” – aimed at drying up investment in the sector
• “(R)edirecting resources toward economy-wide decarbonization” as part of achieving “net-zero global emissions by mid-century” – essentially, an end not only to fracking but to all production, transportation and use of oil and gas worldwide (except for the Chinese).

"In addition, the Veep has boasted of her tie-breaking vote on the $1-trillion-plus Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). That spending orgy larded an estimated $18.5 billion in taxes on oil and gas to be diverted into renewable energy boondoggles to achieve “metrics” that, per the Veep, “include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.” (Is there any other kind of deadline?) 

"What “metrics” and “deadlines” might those be? Per an Energy Department fact sheet, the IRA is about “putting the United States on a pathway to achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s climate goals, including a net-zero economy by 2050.” (Emphasis added.)

"Let’s take a gander at that there “pathway,” contained in a document appropriately entitled “Long-Term Strategy of the United States: Pathways to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050” — America’s so-called “Nationally Determined Contribution” mandated under the Paris climate accords. " . . .

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