EARTH DAY: Three big signs the climate movement is running out of gas
Former White House chief of staff (and potential 2028 presidential hopeful) Rahm Emanuel is associated with the phrase: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." His point was parlaying voters’ short-term anxiety into long-term political gain.
Yet with a gallon of gasoline averaging more than four dollars in early April, the normal deafening chorus from the environmental movement has fallen to a dull murmur – even in the lead-up to Earth Day, their holiest of high holidays. With the world gripped by an energy crisis, the relative quiet from climate groups is an acknowledgement that their beliefs are no solution.
Consider California Governor Gavin Newsom. Last July, he declared that his state’s, "economic growth comes not in spite of clean energy but because of it." Now, he is including his administration’s role to "responsibly increase oil production" in a press release.
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Here are three examples of shifting climate politics, and their implications for the future.
EV Demand Remains Low
During the Biden Administration, the push to force consumers into electric vehicles was everywhere. At the federal level, $7,500 tax credits were handed out. California implemented mandates requiring 100% of new cars and light trucks sold qualify as "zero-emission" by 2035.
In June 2022, as gas prices soared, then-Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) announced "it didn’t matter how high" gas cost because she drove an EV.
How times (and the numbers) have changed. In 2024, the Big Three automakers in Stabenow’s home state lost a combined $52 billion dollars on EVs – higher than their entire combined net profits.
Remember when then-President Joe Biden traveled to Michigan for a photo op with Ford’s new F-150 Lightning all electric truck? Facing flagging demand, Ford ceased production of the Lightning last year, noting, "the American consumer is speaking clearly."
Indeed, they are. A recent Wall Street Journal story described "mostly empty and losing money" EV production plants throughout the Rust Belt as part of "America’s messy breakup with electric vehicles." Even if consumer interest in EVs ticks upward as some analysts expect, the reaction from the politicians is the true tell.
Communist Cuba Bailed Out By Russian Oil
The conflict in Iran has overshadowed the sad plight of the people of Cuba. Amid more than six decades of misery under a communist regime, the lights have literally gone out since January’s removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Cut off from the cheap oil from their socialist sympathizing neighbor, Cuba has plunged into a humanitarian crisis. The New York Times documented patients suffering or dying in hospitals without power, and ambulances parked because drivers can’t find gas.
Cuba relies on oil and gas for more than 90 percent of its electricity, compared to just two percent from renewables. The situation got so dire that President Trump – often maligned by his critics for so-called lack of empathy – allowed a Russian oil tanker to reach Havana, noting, "they have to survive."
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Just as there are no atheists in fox holes, there are precious few environmentalists when basic humanitarian necessities are lacking.
American Energy Dominance Has Softened The Blow
While current elevated gas prices are painful, countries more energy dependent than the United States feel the squeeze. In March, the Philippines shifted to four-day workweeks. Slovenia became the first European Union country to ration fuel. Thousands of gas stations across Australia, which important 90% of its fuel from the Middle East, ran out of fuel.
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It’s a different story here at home, where U.S. crude oil imports from the Persian Gulf have fallen to the lowest level in 40 years amid increasing domestic production.
Meanwhile, prices in the U.S. for natural gas, responsible for nearly half (43%) of our nation’s electricity, have remained relatively flat, while spiking roughly 70% in Europe and Asia.
President Trump deserves great credit for his renewed focus to American Energy Dominance.
This Earth Day, the climate movement will once again make their chicken little cries, but the uproar is a far cry from recent years past. There are far fewer hyperbolic claims that "the world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change," as U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared in 2019.
International affairs lay bare the inextricable link between energy and national security, a lesson most reasonable Americans inherently understand. The climate movement knows that even in this critical moment, their brand of politics has been defeated by common sense.
